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THE    FALL    OF 
FEUDALISM     IN     IRELAND 


OR 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  LAND 
LEAGUE    REVOLUTION 


By     MICHAEL     DAVITT 


"  Is  there  one  in  a  thousand  who  foresees  the  great  struggle 
against  feudalism  which  impends  over  us  or  our  children  ? 
Nay,  is  there  one  in  ten  thousand  of  us  that  dreams  of  the 
fact  that  we  arc  the  only  nation  where  feudalism,  with  its 
twin  monopolies,  landed  and  ecclesiastical,  is  still  in  power  ? 
...  It  is  in  Ireland  that  the  operation  of  the  landed  and 
ecclesiastical  monopolies  is  felt  with  the  bitterest  severity. 
...  It  is  in  Ireland  that  the  crash  of  feudalism  will  he  first 
heard.  ■ — Richard  Cobden,  March  lo,  1865  ;  quoted  in  the 
Life  0}  the  Right  Hon.  W .  E.  Forster.  by  T.  Wemyss  Reid,  vol. 
i..  pp  367,  368,  first  edition.    Chapman  &  Hall. 


Boston  Col'ega 
Lib 


HARPER  &   BROTHERS   PUBLISHERS 

LONDON   AND   NEW   YORK 

I  904 


h9. 


BO! 


C^ 


BRARY 
.?|P7 


KU.' 


82 


Copyright,  1904,  by  Harpbr  &  Brothers. 

y///  rights  restrveii. 

Published  May,  1904. 


?" 


TO 

THE  CELTIC  PEASANTRY  OF   IRELAND 

AND   THEIR   KINSFOLK   BEYOND   THE   SEAS 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface xi 

Introductory  xv 


part  ir 

OLIVER     CROMWELL     TO     DANIEL     O'CONNELL 
CHAPTER  I 

A    CHAPTER    OP    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 3 

CHAPTER  II 

I.     TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS II.     "tHE    WHITEBOYS" III.     "  STEEL- 
BOYS  " IV.    "  ORANGEMEN" V.    "  RIGHT    BOYS" lO 

CHAPTER  III 

"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 26 

CHAPTER  IV 

I.    DANIEL    o'cONNELL II.     "THE     RIBBONMEN  " 34 

part  IFir 

O'CONNELL     TO     PARNELL 
CHAPTER  V 

I.    THE    GREAT    FAMINE    AND    THE    YOUNG    IRELANDERS II.    JAMES 

FINTAN    LALOR 47 

CHAPTER  VI 

THE  tenants'  league:  CHARLES  GAVAN  DUFFY 66 

V 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  VII 

PAGE 

ROMANCE    AND    REVOLUTION;    JAMES    STEPHENS 73 

CHAPTER  VIII 

HOME    RULE    AND    LAND    REFORM:    ISAAC    BUTT 79 

CHAPTER  IX 

I.   HOME  DESTRUCTION II.   MORE   ENGLISH   TESTIMONY III.   WHAT 

IRELAND   ASKED    FROM   THE    BRITISH    PARLIAMENT -IV.    WHAT   SHE 
RECEIVED    FROM     IT lOO 

CHAPTER  X 

CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL IO4 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE    NEW    DEPARTURE  I16 

part  1I1I1I 

THE    LAND    LEAGUE    TO    THE    SPECIAL    COMMISSION 
CHAPTER  XII 

THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING , 14I 

CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 156 

CHAPTER  XIV 

THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    IRELAND 168 

CHAPTER  XV 

THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 181 

CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    AMERICAN     MISSION 193 

CHAPTER  XVII 

GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 211 

CHAPTER  XVIII 

VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 226 

vi 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  XIX 

PAGE 
THE    AMERICAN    LAND    LEAGUE 247 

CHAPTER  XX 

I.    FRIENDS    AND    FOES II.    "  BUCKSHOT"    FORSTER 256 

CHAPTER  XXI 

"hold     THE     harvest!" STORY     OF     CAPTAIN     BOYCOTT        .        .        .        266 

CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    STATE    TRIALS 286 

CHAPTER  XXIII 

THE    ladies'     land    LEAGUE 296 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

LAND-LEAGUE    PLANS 304 

CHAPTER  XXV 

THE     LEAGUE    AT    BAY 31I 

CHAPTER  XXVI 

THE  LAND  ACT  OF  1881 ,   321 

CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 330 

CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 346 

CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE    PHCENIX    PARK    MURDERS .....        355 

CHAPTER  XXX 

THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 365 

CHAPTER  XXXI 

I.    THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA — II.    THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE    OF 
AMERICA 383 

vii 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  XXXII 

PAGE 

ROME    AND    IRELAND 397 

CHAPTER  XXXIII 

SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES       409 

CHAPTER  XXXIV 

THE  "trial"  OF  HENRY  GEORGE  AT  ATHENRY,  OR  HOW  THE 
AUTHOR  OF  PROGRESS  AND  POVERTY  WENT  IN  SEARCH  OF  A 
COLLAR-BUTTON    AND   WAS    ARRESTED    ON    SUSPICION 421 

CHAPTER  XXXV 

DYNAMITE  PLOTS 1.  "  RED  JIM"  McDERMOTT — -II.  PARIS  "DYNA- 
MITERS"— -III.    A    LADY    "dynamiter" IV.    SOME    DUBLIN-CASTLE 

METHODS 427 

CHAPTER  XXXVI 

A    PROGRAMME    SPOILED    BY    THE    "  IN VINCIBLES " 444 

CHAPTER  XXXVII 

I.  THE  "invincible"  CONSPIRACY II.   FORSTER  AND  PARNELL       .       452 

CHAPTER  XXXVIII 

DANGERS    OF    "UNCROWNED    KINGS" 466 

CHAPTER   XXXIX 

PARNELL's    TRIUMPH 473 

CHAPTER  XL 

HOME    RULE,  AND    HOW    DEFEATED 485 

CHAPTER  XLI 

LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 5°4 

CHAPTER  XLII 

"the    PLAN    OF    campaign" S14 

CHAPTER  XLIII 

THE  r/A/£S-UNIONIST   PLOT "  PARNELLISM    AND   CRIME"       .       .       .       531 

viii 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  XLIV 

PAGE 

"the   great  inquisition" 542 

CHAPTER  XLV 

PLOTS    AND    COUNTER    PLOTS 549 

CHAPTER  XL VI 

THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 561 

CHAPTER  XLVII 

PIGOTT's    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE       .       .       .        ,       , 576 

CHAPTER  XLVIII 

PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 596 

CHAPTER  XLIX 

SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 1.     "  LE    CARON  " II.     "MAJOR     YELLOW  " 

III.   THE   SPY   HAYES IV.    DELANEY V.    "SINCLAIR"       ....        609 

CHAPTER  L 

HOPES    AND    FEARS 624 

CHAPTER  LI 

A    CHAPTER    OF    INTERROGATION 632 

CHAPTER  LII 

SAMSON    AGONISTES 635 

part  W 

FROM     THE     DEATH     OF     PARNELL     TO     I903 
CHAPTER  LIII 

DE.\TH    OF    PARNELL APPRECIATION -651 

CHAPTER  LIV 

THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 660 

CHAPTER  LV 

THE    IRISH-RACE    CONVENTION 675 

ix 


CONTENTS 
CHAPTER  LVI 

PAGE 
I.    MORE    REFORMS    WON II.    FISCAL    INJUSTICE 682 

CHAPTER  LVII 

NATIONALIST   REUNION:   THE   UNITED   IRISH   LEAGUE 692 

CHAPTER  LVIII 

THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF     IQ03 702 

CHAPTER  LIX 

SOLDIERS    IN    THE    FIGHT 713 

CHAPTER  LX 
a  future  racial  programme 717 

Index 727 


PREFACE 


In  the  following  pages  I  tell  the  story  of  an  Irish  move- 
ment which  sprang  without  leaders  from  the  peasantry  of  the 
country — a  movement  which,  despite  the  mistakes  and  quar- 
rels of  some  subsequent  political  guides,  has  achieved  for  Ire- 
land the  following  among  other  results : 

The  Land  Act  of  1881,  completely  revolutionizing  the 
system  of  land  tenure  upheld  in  Ireland  for  over  two 
centuries  by  English  rule. 

An  Arrears  Act,  under  which  the  British  Legislature 
sanctioned  a  breach  of  contract  in  rent  oppressive  to 
agricultural  tenants  in  its  conditions. 

Laborers'  Dwellings  Acts,  embodying  a  rational  principle 
of  state  socialism. 

The  conversion  of  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  English  Liberal 
party  from  the  rule  of  Ireland  by  Dublin  Castle  and  co- 
ercion to  the  framing  of  a  constitution  which  would  con- 
fer a  Home  Rule  government  upon  the  Irish  people. 

The  conversion  of  the  English  Tory  party  to  the  Land 
League  plan  of  land  reform  of  1880 — that  the  only  true 
solution  of  the  Irish  agrarian  question  was  to  be  found 
in  the  purchase  of  the  landlords'  interest  in  the  land 
by  the  tenant,  through  the  means  of  a  state  credit  loaned 
at  low  interest. 

The  passing  of  the  Ashbourne  Purchase  Act  of  1885  (sup- 
plemented in  1888),  and  the  loan  of  ;^io,ooo,ooo  of  such 
credit  as  a  means  to  this  end. 

The  temporary  adhesion  of  noted  Tory  leaders  to  the 
Home  Rule  idea,  in  1885-86. 

The  introduction  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  his  party  of  a 
Home  Rule  bill  into  Parliament  in  1886. 

The  enactment  in  1887  by  Lord  vSalisbury's  ministry  of  a 
land  bill  which  nullified  leases,  statutory  and  otherwise, 
revised  more  land  court  rents,  and  carried  other  Land 
League  principles  into  law. 


PREFACE 

The  enactment  of  the  Land  Act  of  1891,  by  the  Unionist 
government,  which  provided  ;^33,ooo,ooo  more,  in  ad- 
ditional state  credit,  for  the  further  buying  out  of  Irish 
landlords. 

The  creation  of  the  Congested  Districts  Board  of  Ireland, 
with  large  powers  for  the  application  of  the  principles 
of  state  socialism,  as  a  remedy  for  industrial  conditions 
begotten  of  the  worst  evils  of  landlordism,  in  the  West 
of  Ireland. 

The  passage  of  a  bill  through  the  House  of  Commons,  in 
1893,  proposing  to  confer  a  Home  Rule  legislature  upon 
Ireland,  by  a  vote  of  347  members  against  an  opposing 
vote  of  304.  The  bill  was  defeated  in  the  House  of 
Lords. 

The  enactment  of  a  law  in  1896,  under  a  Unionist  gov- 
ernment, which  aided  still  more  the  elimination  of 
the  English  rent  system  from  the  tenure  of  land  in 
Ireland. 

The  enactment  of  a  measure  in  189S,  also  under  an  anti- 
Home  Rule  ministry,  conferring  a  limited  "Home  Rule" 
upon  each  county  in  Ireland,  in  the  form  of  Elective 
Councils,  for  the  management  of  rural  affairs;  a  measure 
deemed  to  be  a  "half-way  house"  towards  a  Central 
National  Assembly  for  the  whole  country ;  and 

The  passing  into  law,  in  1903,  also  under  a  Unionist  govern- 
ment, of  a  bill  by  means  of  which  ;^i  12,000,000  more  of 
further  state  credit  is  to  be  employed  in  buying  out  what 
previous  purchase  acts  have  left  of  the  English  landlord 
system  in  Ireland. 

The  book  will  narrate  the  ways  and  means  by  which  a 
revolution,  more  or  less  on  the  lines  of  a  passive  resistance, 
accomplished  these  reforms. 

How  men  of  the  Irish  race,  scattered  by  eviction  and  the 
evils  of  unsympathetic  rule  in  Ireland  to  all  parts  of  the  earth, 
were  "enlisted"  in  the  final  struggle  for  the  soil  and  rule  of 
the  Celtic  fatherland,  under  Mr.  Parnell's  superb  leadership, 
in  a  combative  organization  which  at  one  period  of  its  exist- 
ence numbered  more  than  half  a  million  of  members. 

How  the  sinews  of  war,  to  the  extent  of  over  ;(^i,ooo,ooo, 
were  provided  by  the  Irish  people,  at  home  and  abroad, 
during  the  campaign  of  the  past  twenty -five  years,  with 
which — 

To  fight  the  evils  of  landlordism  in  Ireland;  the  Irish 
claims,  and  opposing  English  parties,  in  the  British  Parlia- 
ment; 

xii 


PREFACE 

To  organize  auxiliary  movements  in  other  lands; 

To  sustain  the  wounded,  or  evicted,  in  the  combat  at  home; 

To  reward  deserving  service;  and 

To  uphold  the  cause  of  Irish  national  self-government. 

How  upward  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  men,  and 
from  twenty  to  thirty  ladies,  were  imprisoned  in  this  cam- 
paign, including  every  leader  and  prominent  member  from 
Mr.  Parnell  downward,  and  several  clergymen  who  joined  the 
popular  forces  in  the  contest  thus  waged  against  the  system 
and  laws  represented  by  the  form  of  English  government  in 
Ireland  known  as  "Dublin  Castle." 

The  chapter  recalling  the  dramatic  trial  of  the  Land 
League  and  its  leaders  in  the  Special  Commission  of  1888 
will  narrate  how  that  unscrupulous  plot  to  destroy  Mr. 
Parnell  and  the  powerful  movement  behind  him  was  frus- 
trated, and  will  add  something  not  previously  told  to  the 
history  of  a  judicial  inquisition  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of 
political  warfare. 

The  story  of  the  Irish  movement  since  Mr.  Parnell's  advent 
to  its  leadership  could  not  be  told  with  completeness,  nor  to 
the  right  understanding  of  it  by  non-Irish  readers,  without 
a  connecting  narrative  between  the  struggle  of  the  present 
and  the  conflicts  of  past  generations  of  the  Celtic  people  for 
the  repossession  of  the  soil  of  the  country.  This  struggle  has, 
as  a  matter  of  historic  fact,  been  an  almost  unbroken  one, 
extending  over  seven  generations  or  more  of  intermittent 
agrarian  warfare.  Herein  there  is  seen  a  persistency  of 
purpose  and  a  continuity  of  racial  aim  not  associated  by 
English  or  other  foreign  critics  of  Celtic  character  with 
the  alleged  mercurial  spirit  and  disposition  of  the  Irish 
people. 

Taking  into  account  the  ferocious  methods  of  England's 
policy  and  laws  of  repression,  by  which  she  has  sought,  in 
each  generation  of  her  rule,  to  crush  every  Irish  movement — 
from  the  massacres  and  burnings  of  Cromwell's  Settlement 
down  to  the  landlord  clearances  of  the  Fifties — the  disparity 
between  the  forces  employed  —  the  military  might  of  the 
ruler,  the  unarmed  condition  of  the  ruled  —  this  ceaseless 
Irish  warfare  of  practically  passive  resistance  against  the 
strength  of  the  British  Empire  in  Ireland  will  compare,  in  an 
endurance  of  penalties,  in  triumphs  over  defeats,  and  in  a 
tenacity  of  dauntless  protest  against  the  decrees  of  conquest, 
with  any  struggle  ever  waged  by  a  civilized  race  for  the  re- 
covery of  its  land  and  freedom. 

The  personal  mention  is,  I  regret,  introduced  in  a  few  of 
the  chapters  of  my  story  more  frequently  and  more  prom- 


PREFACE 

inently  than  is  agreeable  to  the  feelings  of  the  writer.  Si- 
lence or  omission  in  this  respect  would,  however,  only  con- 
vey the  suggestion  of  a  mock  modesty.  It  would  invite  the 
less  charitable  imputation  of  an  unreal  and  affected  self- 
effacement.  M.  D. 

Dalkey,  Ireland,  January  i,  1904. 


INTRODUCTORY 

The  genius  of  misgovernment  has  never  been  more  wilfully 
blind  in  its  methods  or  more  persistent  in  the  folly  of  political 
unwisdom  than  in  the  ways  and  means  of  England's  rule  in 
Ireland.  It  has  invariably  proceeded  along  the  lines  of  most 
resistance.  Laws  and  force  have  come  to  us  across  the  sea 
in  their  most  provocative  form  and  application,  while  con- 
cessions were  never  wisely  or  tactfully  made  to  a  cry  for 
justice,  but  always  to  the  pressure  of  turmoil,  illegality,  or 
insurrection.  Every  stage  of  the  Anglo-Irish  struggle  attests 
this  fact  in  its  history.  Every  page  of  that  long  story  pro- 
claims the  stupid  impolicy  of  a  statesmanship  and  of  a 
ruling  power  which  preferred  to  hold  a  people  down  by 
coercion,  distrust,  and  a  fomented  warfare  of  class  interests 
and  of  sectarian  passions  than  to  give  them  self-government 
through  the  rational  means  of  national  feeling  and  of  popular 
consent. 

A  following  chapter  of  "  English  Testimony  "  will  more  than 
sustain  this  introductory  indictment  of  the  causes,  original 
and  modern,  which  begot  the  Land  League  revolution  of 
twenty-five  years  ago. 

Historically  put,  England's  rule  of  Ireland,  down  to  1879, 
has  been  a  systematic  opposition  to  the  five  great  underlying 
principles  of  civilized  society,  as  these  lived  and  had  their 
being  and  expression  in  Celtic  character:  love  of  country, 
which  is  an  exceptionally  strong  and  affectionate  sentiment 
in  the  Irish  heart ;  a  racial  attachment  to  the  domestic  hearth- 
stone and  to  family  association  with  land,  unequalled  in  the 
social  temperament  of  any  other  people;  a  fervent  and  pas- 
sionate loyalty  to  religious  faith,  unsurpassed  by  that  of  any 
Christian  nation ;  and  a  national  pride  in  learning  which  once 
made  Ireland  "a  country  of  schools  and  scholars,"  with  a 
wide  European  reputation. 

These  social  and  spiritual  qualities,  recognized  as  virtues 
in  other  lands,  have  been  held  as  crimes  in  Ireland  during 
many  centuries  by  English  rulers.  Patriotism  was  made  to 
earn  the  penalty  of  the  scaffold  and  the  prison.     A  struggle 


INTRODUCTORY 

to  hold  the  soil  for  labor  and  livelihood  has  drenched  it  with 
the  blood  of  a  land-loving  peasantry.  Homes  that  ought 
everywhere  to  be  (what  they  have  conspicuously  been  in 
Ireland)  the  nurseries  of  moral  virtues  were  placed  at  the 
mercy  of  a  sordid  greed,  under  the  laws  of  eviction;  over 
two  hundred  thousand  of  them  having,  during  the  lifetime 
of  Queen  Victoria,  been  destroyed  or  made  tenantless  for  the 
recovery  of  civil  debts  or  to  clear  the  inmates  off  the  land  to 
make  room  for  cattle. 

The  Catholic  religion,  remorselessly  trampled  upon  in  the 
ferocious  decrees  of  the  penal  laws,  is  even  yet  penalized 
in  many  respects  under  a  system  of  government  created  for 
a  Protestant  minority,  and  still  upheld  for  the  combined 
ascendency  of  class  and  creed;  while  the  backwardness  of 
popular  education  in  Ireland  to-day  is  directly  due  to  causes 
which  at  one  time,  in  the  language  of  one  of  our  poets,  forced 
the  people  of  Ireland,  "feloniously  to  learn." 

These  pages,  however,  are  intended  to  deal  with  one  phase 
of  this  many-sided,  unnatural  contest,  and  not  with  the  his- 
tory of  all  the  evils  that  were  begotten  of  a  conquest  never 
fully  consummated,  because  it  sought  its  ends  by  despoiling 
the  people  of  every  right,  and  not  by  the  wisdom  of  confidence, 
and  of  enlightened  consideration  for  the  racial  qualities  of  the 
weaker  side. 

The  struggle  for  the  soil  of  Ireland  involved  a  combat  for 
every  other  right  of  the  Irish  nation.  The  lordship  of  the 
land  carried  with  it  the  ownership  of  government.  The 
usurpers  of  the  national  claim  to  the  possession  of  the  source 
of  employment,  of  food,  and  of  social  distinction,  extended 
their  power  over  every  other  privilege  and  right,  and  ruled 
the  people  only  and  solely  for  the  security  of  that  which  the 
power  of  confiscation  made  the  property  of  those  whom 
England  made  the  rulers  of  the  country. 

Land  has  always  been  more  essential  to  life  and  to  in- 
dustrial occupation  in  Ireland  than  in,  perhaps,  any  other 
European  country,  owing  to  exceptional  economic  causes. 
This  was  peculiarly  so  in  the  generations  preceding  mod- 
em times,  when  the  extension  of  the  franchise  and  other 
causes  have  encouraged  a  more  effective  resistance  to  unjust 
laws  than  when  the  Irish  people,  held  down  by  an  Irish 
landlord  "  Parliament,"  tamely  submitted  to  the  deliberate  de- 
struction of  textile  and  other  industries  by  special  English  en- 
actments. The  blotting-out  of  the  Irish  woollen  manufacture  in 
the  eighteenth  century  rendered  land  more  and  more  necessary 
to  the  industrial  and  economic  life  of  the  country.  Thus, 
the  creation  by  England  of  a  land  system  which  placed  the 


INTRODUCTORY 

main  source  of  employment  for  the  labor  energies  of  the 
people  in  the  hands  of  a  blindly  selfish  and  anti-Irish  interest 
made  the  struggle  for  existence  fiercer  than  ever,  and  rendered 
the  omnipotent  owner  of  the  soil  the  absolute  master  of  the 
means  of  livelihood  for  the  peasant  toilers  of  the  country. 

In  this  way  the  land  war  of  Ireland  began,  and  has  been 
continued.  On  the  side  of  the  Irish  peasantry,  it  has  been  a 
contest  against  a  class  and  a  system  relatively  stronger  than 
any  dominant  ruHng  social  power  in  Europe.  They  were  not 
only  Irish  landlords;  they  were  the  political  garrison  of  Eng- 
land in  Ireland,  equipped  with  every  weapon  and  resource  at 
the  disposal  of  a  great  empire  for  their  protection.  They 
could  influence  the  imperial  Parliament  for  all  the  coercion 
their  injustice  needed  as  a  compelling  power  to  the  attainment 
of  their  desires.  They  were  a  class  who  had,  by  aid  of  this 
empire,  seized  all  the  spoils  of  conquest — land,  government, 
law,  authority,  patronage,  and  wealth — and  were  backed  in 
their  secure  possession  by  all  the  latent  prejudices  of  anti- 
Celtic  feeling  in  the  English  mind. 

The  contest  for  the  recovery  of  the  soil  of  Ireland  was 
waged,  therefore,  against  all  the  internal  agencies  and  ex- 
ternal forces  of  this  buttressed,  feudal  garrison.  It  was  al- 
ways England's  soldiers,  England's  laws,  or  England's  judges 
that  confronted  the  tenants,  cottiers,  or  laborers  of  the  land 
whenever,  singly  or  in  combination,  they  had  to  assert  the 
ordinary  claims  of  humanity,  in  illegal  or  other  ways,  against 
this  despotic  social  and  political  ruling  power. 

Neither  law  nor  land,  homes  or  government,  belonged  to 
the  people.  They  were  treated  as  intruders  and  outlaws  in 
their  fatherland.  The  landlords  owned  and  ruled  all,  and  the 
strongest  coercive  force  which  compelled  the  peasantry  to 
endure  these  evils  was  the  power  given  to  the  monopolists 
of  the  soil  by  England's  laws  to  seize  upon  or  to  destroy  the 
home  of  the  family  for  the  recovery  of  rent,  or  in  punishment 
for  the  exercise  of  some  of  the  commonest  rights  of  civilized 
citizenship  against  the  prejudice  or  interest  of  the  resident 
or  absentee  owner. 

It  was  this  vandal  warfare  upon  Celtic  homes  by  the  Irish 
landlords  which  made  so  provocative  an  appeal  to  opposing 
violence  in  every  agrarian  movement  from  that  of  the 
"Tories"  to  the  Land  League  agitation.  An  eviction,  such 
as  occurs  in  Ireland,  even  to-day,  is  a  challenge  to  every 
human  feeling  and  sentiment  of  a  man,  a  citizen,  and  a  Celt. 
It  is  the  callous  expression  of  the  power  of  profit  and  of 
property  over  the  right  of  a  family  to  live  on  land  without 
the  permission  of  an  individual  who  controls  this  natural 

xvii 


INTRODUCTORY 

right  in  others  for  the  interest  of  his  money.  It  is  social 
tyranny  in  its  worst  form,  and  is  associated  with  constant 
confiscation;  for  evictions  have  invariably  been  carried  out 
in  Ireland  for  a  combination  of  kindred  purposes — either  to 
make  way  for  cattle-raising,  as  a  more  profitable  use  of  the 
land,  or  to  turn  out  a  tenant  who  may  have  reclaimed  a  farm 
or  improved  one  for  arrears  of  rent  having  no  relation  in 
amount  to  the  actual  value  given  to  the  holding  by  the  tenant's 
labors  and  occupation.  A  law  thus  violating  the  domestics 
right  of  the  family,  including  the  right  to  live,  in  a  country 
where  labor  on  land  was  virtually  the  sole  means  of  existence, 
could  only  excite  discontent  and  hatred,  industrial,  social, 
and  national,  and  encourage  every  form  of  protest  and  of  re- 
sistance that  might  promise  a  hope  of  its  ultimate  overthrow. 
Wherefore  it  is  that  "Tory  outlaws,"  "  Whiteboys,"  "  Oak- 
boys,"  "Right  Boys,"  "Thrashers,"  "Steelboys,"  "Black- 
feet,"  "Terry  Alts,"  "Anti  -  Tithe  -  men,"  "Ribbonmen," 
and  other  agrarian  combinations,  illegal  and  constitutional, 
have  carried  on  a  warfare  of  social  insurrection  against  such 
an  oppressive  land  system  from  the  time  of  Cromwell's  con- 
fiscation to  that  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Land  Act  of  1881. 


PAR.T   I 

OLIVER  CROMWELL  TO  DANIEL  O'CONNELL 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM 
IN  IRELAND 

CHAPTER    I 
A    CHAPTER    OF    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 


Edmund  Spenser  (1559) 

"  I  DOE  much  pity  that  sweet  land  to  be  subject  to  so  many 
evills  as  I  see  more  and  more  to  be  layed  upon  her,  and  doe 
half  beginne  to  think  that  it  is  her  fatall  misfortune,  above 
all  other  countreyes  that  I  know,  to  be  thus  miserably  tossed 
and  turmoyled  with  these  variable  stormes  of  affliction. 
Perhaps  Almighty  God  reserveth  Ireland  in  this  unquiete 
state  stille,  for  some  secret  scourge  which  shall  by  her  come 
unto  England;  it  is  hard  to  be  knowne,  but  yet  more  to  be 
feared." 

Oliver  Cromwell 

"  '  These  poor  people,'  said  Cromwell, '  have  been  accustomed 
to  as  much  injustice  and  oppression  from  their  landlords, 
the  great  men,  and  those  who  should  have  done  them  right, 
as  any  people  in  that  which  we  call  Christendom.'  It  was 
just  two  hundred  and  twenty  years  before  another  ruler  of 
England  saw  as  deep,  and  applied  his  mind  to  the  free  doing 
of  justice." — Morley's  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  ii.,  p.  287. 

Dean  Swift  (1667-1745) 

"Rents  squeezed  out  of  the  blood,  and  vitals,  and  clothes, 
and  dwellings  of  the  tenants,  who  live  worse  than  English 
beggars." — Short  View,  vol.  ix.,  p.  206. 

3 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Archbishop  Boulter  (1671-1742) 

"Here  the  tenant,  I  fear,  has  hardly  ever  more  than  one-- 
third  for  his  share;  too  often  but  a  fourth  or  a  fifth  part." 
— Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  292. 

Lord  Townshend  (Lord  Lieutenant),   1767-1772 

"I  hope  to  be  excused  for  representing  to  his  Majesty 
(George  III.)  the  miserable  situation  of  the  lower  ranks  of 
his  subjects  in  this  Kingdom.  What  from  the  rapaciousness 
of  their  unfeeling  landlords,  and  the  restrictions  on  their 
trade,  they  are  among  the  most  wretched  people  on  earth." 
— English  Record  Office  State  Papers. 

Arthur  Young  (1779) 

"It  must  be  very  apparent  to  every  traveller  through  that 
country  that  the  labouring  poor  are  treated  with  harshness, 
and  are  in  all  respects  so  little  considered  that  their  want 
of  importance  seems  a  perfect  contrast  to  their  situation  in 
England.  A  long  series  of  oppressions,  aided  by  many 
very  ill-judged  laws,  have  brought  landlords  into  a  habit  of 
exerting  a  very  lofty  superiority,  and  their  vassals  into 
that  of  an  almost  unlimited  submission." 

Sydney  Smith  (1807) 

"  Before  you  refer  the  turbulence  of  the  Irish  to  incurable 
defects  in  their  character,  tell  me  if  you  have  treated  them 
as  friends  and  as  equals.  Have  you  protected  their  com- 
merce? Have  you  respected  their  religion?  Have  you  been 
as  anxious  for  their  freedom  as  your  own?  Nothing  of  all 
this.  What  then?  Why,  you  have  confiscated  the  territorial 
surface  of  the  country  twice  over;  you  have  massacred  and 
exported  her  inhabitants;  you  have  deprived  four-fifths  of 
them  of  every  civil  privilege;  you  have  made  her  commerce 
and  manufactures  slavishly  subordinate  to  your  own.  And 
yet  (you  say)  the  hatred  which  the  Irish  bear  you  is  the 
result  of  an  original  turbulence  of  character,  and  of  a  primi- 
tive, obdurate  wildness,  utterly  incapable  of  civilization. 
.  .  .  When  I  hear  any  man  talk  of  an  unalterable  law,  the 
only  effect  it  produces  upon  me  is  to  convince  me  that  he 
is  an  unalterable  fool.  There  are  always  a  set  of  worthy 
and  moderately  gifted  men  who  bawl  out  death  and  ruin 
upon   every  valuable  change  which  the  varying  aspect  of 

4 


A    CHAPTER    OF    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 

human  affairs  absolutely  and  imperiously  requires.  .  .  . 
I  admit  that  to  a  certain  degree  the  Government  will  lose  the 
affections  of  the  Orangemen  .  .  .  but  you  must  perceive  that 
it  is  better  to  have  four  friends  and  one  enemy,  than  four 
enemies  and  one  friend;  and  the  more  violent  the  hatred  of 
the  Orangemen  the  more  certain  the  reconciliation  of  the 
Catholics.  The  disaffection  of  the  Orangemen  will  be  the 
Irish  rainbow;  when  I  see  it  I  shall  know  the  storm  is  over. 
.  .  .  Nightly  visits,  Protestant  inspectors,  licences  to  possess 
a  pistol,  the  guarding  yourselves  from  universal  disaffection 
by  a  police,  a  confidence  in  the  little  cunning  of  Bow  Street, 
when  you  might  rest  your  security  upon  the  eternal  basis  of 
the  best  feelings;  this  is  the  meanness  and  madness  to  which 
nations  are  reduced  when  they  lose  sight  of  the  first  elements 
of  justice,  without  which  a  country  can  be  no  more  secure 
than  it  can  be  healthy  without  air." — Letters  of  Peter  Plymley. 

Duke  of  Wellington  (1830) 

"I  confess  that  the  annual  recurring  starvation  in  Ireland, 
for  a  period,  differing,  according  to  goodness  or  badness 
of  the  season,  from  one  week  to  three  months,  gives  me 
more  uneasiness  than  any  other  evil  existing  in  the  United 
Kingdom.  .  .  .  Now,  when  this  misfortune  occurs,  there  is 
no  relief  or  mitigation  except  a  recourse  to  public  money. 
The  proprietors  of  the  country,  those  who  ought  to  think 
for  the  people,  to  foresee  this  misfortune,  and  to  provide 
beforehand  a  remedy  for  it,  are  amusing  themselves  in  the 
clubs  of  London,  in  Cheltenham  or  Bath,  or  on  the  continent, 
and  the  Government  are  made  responsible  for  the  evil,  and 
they  must  find  the  remedy  for  it  where  they  can — anywhere 
excepting  in  the  pockets  of  the  Irish  gentlemen.  Then,  if 
they  give  public  money  to  provide  a  remedy  for  this  distress, 
it  is  applied  to  all  purposes  excepting  the  one  for  which  it 
is  given,  and  most  particularly  to  that  one,  the  payment 
of  the  arrears  of  an  exorbitant  rent."  —  (7th  July,  1830.) 
Quoted  in  the  Times  of  January  8,  1886. 

Mr.  Lecky  (Historic  Survey) 

"The  worst  of  them  was  the  oppression  of  the  tenantry  by 
their  landlords.  The  culprits  in  this  respect  were  not  the 
head  landlords,  who  usually  let  their  land  at  low  rents  and 
on  long  leases  to  middlemen,  and  whose  faults  were  rather 
those  of  neglect  than  of  oppression.  They  were  commonly 
the  small  gentry,  a  harsh,  rapacious,  and  dissipated  class, 

5 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

living  with  an  extravagance  that  could  only  be  met  by 
the  most  grinding  exactions,  and  full  of  the  pride  of  race, 
and  of  the  pride  of  creed.  Swift  and  Dobbs  bitterly  lament 
this  evil,  and  nearly  every  traveller  echoed  their  complaint. 
Chesterfield,  who  as  Lord  Lieutenant  studied  the  conditions 
of  Irish  life  with  more  than  ordinary  care,  left  it  as  his  opinion 
that  'the  poor  people  in  Ireland  are  used  worse  than  negroes 
by  their  lords  and  masters,  and  their  deputies  of  deputies  of 
deputies.'  " — Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  ii.,  chap,  vii.,  pp.  290,  291. 

Mr.  Froude  (an  English  Historian) 

"The  landlord  may  become  a  direct  oppressor.  He  may 
care  nothing  for  the  people,  and  have  no  object  but  to  squeeze 
the  most  that  he  can  out  of  them  fairly  or  unfairly.  The 
Russian  government  has  been  called  despotism  tempered 
with  assassination.  In  Ireland  landlordism  was  tempered 
by  assassination.  .  .  .  Every  circumstance  combined  in  that 
country  to  exasperate  the  relations  between  landlord  and 
tenant.  The  landlords  were,  for  the  most  part,  aliens  in 
blood  and  in  religion.  They  represented  conquest  and  con- 
fiscation, and  they  had  gone  on  from  generation  to  generation 
with  an  indifference  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  which 
would  not  have  been  tolerated  in  England  or  Scotland." 
— Short  Studies  on  Great  Subjects,  vol.  iii.,  p.  287. 

Devon  Commission  (1845) 

"It  is  admitted  on  all  hands  that  according  to  the  general 
practice  in  Ireland,  the  landlord  builds  neither  dwelling-house 
nor  farm  offices,  nor  puts  fences,  gates,  etc.,  into  good  order 
before  he  lets  his  land  to  a  tenant.  In  most  cases  whatever 
is  done  in  the  way  of  building  or  fencing  is  done  by  the  tenant, 
and  in  the  ordinary  language  of  the  country,  dwelling-house, 
farm  buildings,  and  even  the  making  of  fences  are  described 
by  the  general  word,  improvements,  which  is  thus  employed 
to  denote  the  necessary  adjuncts  to  a  farm  without  which 
in  England  no  tenant  would  be  found  to  rent  it.  Under  the 
same  common  term,  improvements,  are  also  included  agri- 
cultural operations  such  as  draining,  deep  trenching,  and  even 
manuring." 

Sir  Franklin  Lewis  (EngHsh  Landlord) 

"Nothing  is  more  striking  in  Ireland  than  that  a  number 
of  burdens  which  English  landlords  are  willing  to  take  upon 
themselves  the  Irish  landlords  do   not  find   it  necessary  to 

6 


A    CHAPTER    OF    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 

take  upon  themselves.  In  the  maintenance  of  a  farm  in 
England  all  the  expensive  part  of  the  capital  employed  upon 
a^farm  is  provided  by  the  landlord;  the  houses,  the  gates,  the 
fences,  and  the  drains,  are  all  provided  by  the  landlord. 
Everybody  knows  that  in  Ireland  that  is  not  the  practice; 
at  the  same  time  that  the  landlord  obtains  as  rent  in  Ireland 
a  much  larger  proportion  of  the  value  of  the  produce  of  the 
land  than  he  obtains  in  England,  and  in  parts  of  Ireland  it 
appears  to  me  that  the  landlord  sometimes  obtains  for  rent 
more  than  is  produced  by  the  land." — Evidence,  Parliament- 
ary Committee,  1825. 

Lord  John  Russell  (Debate  on  Devon  Commission 
Report,   1846) 

"However  ignorant  many  of  us  may  be  of  the  state  of 
Ireland,  we  have  here  (in  the  Devon  report)  the  best  evidence 
that  can  be  procured — the  evidence  of  persons  best  acquainted 
with  that  country,  of  magistrates  of  many  years'  standing, 
of  farmers,  of  those  who  have  been  employed  by  the  Crown; 
and  all  tell  you  that  the  possession  of  land  is  that  which 
makes  the  difference  between  existing  and  starving  among 
the  peasantry,  and  that,  therefore,  ejections  out  of  their 
holdings  are  the  cause  of  violence  and  crime  in  Ireland. 
In  fact,  it  is  no  other  than  the  cause  which  the  great  master 
of  human  nature  describes  when  he  makes  a  tempter  suggest 
it  as  a  reason  to  violate  the  law:  'Famine  is  in  thy  cheeks, 
need  and  oppression  starveth  in  thine  eyes,  upon  thy  back 
hangs  ragged  misery.  The  world  is  not  thy  friend,  nor 
the  world's  law;  the  world  affords  no  law  to  make  thee  rich. 
Then  be  not  poor,  but  break  it.'" — Hansard,  3d  series,  vol. 
lxxxvii.,p.  507,  1846. 

John  Bright  (1848) 

"Let  us  think  of  the  half -million  who  within  two  years 
past  have  perished  miserably  in  the  workhouses,  on  the 
highways,  and  in  their  hovels  —  more,  far  more,  than  ever 
fell  by  the  sword  in  any  war  this  country  ever  waged;  let  us 
think  of  the  crop  of  nameless  horrors  which  is  even  now 
growing  up  in  Ireland,  and  whose  disastrous  fruit  may  be 
gathered  in  years  and  generations  to  come." 

John  Bright  (1866) 

"They  are  a  people  of  a  cheerful  and  joyous  temperament, 
they  are  singularly  grateful  for  kindness,  and  of  all  people  of 

7 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

our  race  they  are  filled  with  the  strongest  sentiment  of  vener- 
ation. And  yet  with  such  materials,  and  with  such  a  people 
— after  centuries  of  government — after  sixty-five  years  of  gov- 
ernment by  this  House  —  you  have  them  embittered  against 
your  rule,  and  anxious  to  throw  off  the  authority  of  the  Crown 
and  Queen  of  this  realm.  This  is  merely  an  access  of  the  com- 
plaint Ireland  has  been  suffering  under  during  the  lifetime  of 
the  oldest  man  in  this  House — that  of  chronic  insurrection." 
— Bright' s  Speeches,  vol.  i.,  p.  351. 

W.  E.  Gladstone  (Prime-Minister,  1868) 

"That  fact,  which,  if  it  be  a  fact,  is  one  of  immeasurable 
gravity — that  the  mass  of  human  beings  who  inhabit  that 
country  and  are  dependent  on  their  industry  had  not  due 
security  for  the  fruits  of  their  industry  in  the  tenure  of  the 
land — that  fact  was  brought  again  and  again  from  the  most 
authoritative  and  unsuspected  sources  under  the  notice  of 
Parliament;  bill  after  bill  was  produced,  and  bill  after  bill 
was  rejected  or  evaded,  and  to  this  hour  the  account  of  the 
Irish  nation  with  England  in  respect  of  the  tenure  of  land 
remains  an  unsettled  question."  —  Speech  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  March  16,  1868, 

Lord  Clarendon  (1869) 

"If  he  were  to  take  a  farm  at  will,  upon  which  the  landed 
proprietor  never  did  and  never  intended  to  do  anything, 
and  were  to  build  upon  the  farm  a  house  and  homestead, 
and  effectually  drain  the  land,  and  then  be  turned  out  on  a 
six  months'  notice  by  his  landlord,  would  any  language  be 
strong  enough,  not  forgetting  the  language  made  use  of  at 
the  public  meetings  and  in  the  press  recently  in  this  country, 
to  condemn  such  a  felonious  act  as  that?" — September  26, 
1869. 

General  Gordon  (1880) 

"  I  must  say,  from  all  accounts  and  from  my  own  observa- 
tion, that  the  state  of  our  fellow-countrymen  in  the  parts 
I  have  named  is  worse  than  that  of  any  people  in  the  world, 
let  alone  Europe.  I  believe  that  these  people  are  made  as 
we  are — that  they  are  patient  beyond  belief,  loyal,  but  at 
the  same  time  broken-spirited  and  desperate,  living  on  the 
verge  of  starvation  in  places  where  we  would  not  keep  our 
cattle.  The  Bulgarians,  Anatolians,  Chinese,  and  Indians 
are  better  off  than  many  of  them  are.  ...  I  am  not  well 


A    CHAPTER    OF    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 

off,  but  I  would  offer  Lord or  his  agent  ;(^iooo  if  either 

of  them  would  live  one  week  in  one  of  these  poor  devils' 
places,  and  feed  as  these  people  do." — Letter  to  The  Times, 
from  Ireland,  November,  1880. 

Lord  Derby  (1881) 

"Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  did  not  rest 
their  cause  on  the  alleged  justice  of  the  Catholic  claims; 
they  could  not  well  do  so,  having  for  many  years  opposed 
these  claims  as  unfounded.  But  they  could  and  did  say 
that  the  mischief  of  yielding  to  them  was  less  than  the 
mischief  of  having  to  put  down  an  Irish  insurrection.  The 
same  argument  that  had  prevailed  in  1782  prevailed  in 
1828-29.  A  third  example  of  the  same  mode  of  procedure 
is  in  the  memory  of  everybody.  The  Fenian  movement 
agitated  Ireland  from  1864  to  1867,  producing  among  other 
results  the  Clerkenwell  explosion.  A  few  desperate  men, 
applauded  by  the  whole  body  of  the  Irish  people  for  their 
daring,  showed  England  what  Irish  feeling  really  was;  made 
plain  to  us  the  depth  of  a  discontent  whose  existence  we  had 
scarcely  suspected;  and  the  rest  followed,  of  course.  Few 
persons  will  now  regret  the  disendowment  of  the  Irish  Church 
or  the  passing  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870;  but  it  is  regrettable 
that,  for  the  third  time  in  less  than  a  century,  agitation, 
accompanied  with  violence,  should  have  been  shown  to  be 
the  most  effective  instrument  for  redressing  whatever  Irish- 
men may  be  pleased  to  consider  their  wrongs." — Nineteenth 
Century  for  October,  1881. 

Mr.  a.  J.  Balfour  (Prime-Minister,  1903) 

"I  can  imagine  no  fault  attaching  to  any  land  system 
which  does  not  attach  to  the  Irish.  It  has  got  all  the  faults 
of  peasant  proprietary,  of  extreme  landlordism,  and  of  land- 
lords who  spend  no  money  upon  their  property,  and  with  a 
large  part  of  their  territory  managed  by  a  court  —  all  the 
faults  of  tenants  to  whose  interest  it  is  to  let  their  farms  go 
out  of  cultivation  when  they  are  approaching  the  end  of  their 
term." — Speech  in  the  House  of  Commons,  May  4,  1903. 


CHAPTER  II 

I.— TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

"  History,  looking  back  over  this  France  through  long  times,  .  .  .  con- 
fesses mournfully  that  there  is  no  period  to  be  met  with  in  which  the 
general  twenty-five  millions  of  France  suffered  less  than  in  this  period 
which  they  name  the  Reign  of  Terror.  But  it  was  not  the  dumb 
millions  that  suffered  here,  it  was  the  speaking  thousands  and  units; 
who  shrieked  and  published,  and  made  the  world  ring  with  their  wail, 
as  they  could  and  should:  that  is  the  grand  peculiarity.  The  fright- 
fullest  births  of  Time  are  never  the  loud-speaking  ones,  for  these  soon 
die;  they  are  the  silent  ones,  which  can  live  from  century  to  century!" 
— Carlyle,  French  Revolution. 

There  was  one  purpose  and  policy  in  all  the  "confisca- 
tions," "settlements,"  "plantations,"  and  "forfeitures"  car- 
ried out  by  the  English  invaders,  and  that  was  to  seize  and 
own  the  land  of  Ireland.  To  this  end  the  Celtic  peasantry 
and  their  chieftains  were  to  be  despoiled.  Every  means  that 
could  effectively  secure  this  object  was  justifiable.  The  in- 
terests of  true  "religion"  in  one  reign,  of  "law"  and  loyalty 
in  the  next,  of  the  blessings  and  enlightenment  of  English 
domination  always.  Nothing  of  the  kind  was  ever  avowedly 
done  for  the  puiposes  of  vulgar  plunder. 

This  work  was  greatly  helped  by  the  unwise  action  of  the 
Norman  barons  who  had  settled  in  the  country,  in  taking 
sides,  during  troubles  in  England,  with  rival  English  rulers 
and  sections.  In  the  time  of  Henry  VII.  pretenders  to  the 
throne  were  set  up  in  Ireland,  in  the  persons  of  Simnel  and 
Warbeck,  in  hostility  to  the  Tudor  monarch.  These  re- 
bellions were  easily  put  down,  but  they  caused  the  English 
King  to  take  measures  to  defend  his  throne  against  plotting 
Norman  nobles  by  planting  English  and  Welsh  colonists  and 
adventurers  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  as  a  counterpoise 
to  this  hostile  element.  Henry's  granddaughters,  Elizabeth 
and  Mary,  continued  this  policy,  and  the  massacres  and  de- 
vastations which  marked  the  period  of  the  first  lady's  reign, 
and  the  plantation  of  King's  and  Queen's  counties  in  Mary's 
time,  were  largely  due  to  the  warfare  waged  by  these  colo- 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

nists  against  the  native  Irish,  and  to  the  resistance  of  the  lat- 
ter to  the  spoHations  of  the  intruders. 

The  first  King  James's  plantation  of  Ulster  was  motived 
by  the  double  object  of  raising  money  and  of  extirpating 
"Popery,"  to  which  ends  he  was  loyally  assisted  by  all  the 
pious  and  disinterested  adventurers  who  burned  to  mani- 
fest their  devotion  to  England's  monarch  by  seizing  upon 
the  lands  over  which  the  O'Donnells,  O'Neills,  O'Dohertys, 
O'Cahans,  Maguires,  and  other  Celtic  chieftains  had  held 
kingly  or  tribal  sway  in  the  North. 

The  war  between  the  Stuarts  and  the  Long  Parliament 
again  found  Ireland  dragged  into  the  English  quarrel  by  her 
leaders.  The  Irish  nobles  were  induced  to  take  the  side  of 
the  miserable  King  who  kept  faith  with  no  one,  and  least 
of  all  with  Ireland,  in  the  desperate  fight  to  save  his  crown  and 
head,  in  which  he  deservedly  lost  both.  The  cause  of  the 
Catholic  Church  was  linked  with  that  of  the  Stuarts  in  this 
struggle,  and  both  brought  upon  the  Celtic  people  of  Ireland 
the  scourge  of  Cromwell  and  the  Act  of  Settlement.  Pro- 
prietors (Norman  and  Irish)  and  people  were  alike  involved 
in  the  wholesale  ruin  and  confiscation  which  this  incarna- 
tion of  Anglo-Saxon  hatred  of  everything  Celtic  and  Cath- 
olic wrought  upon  an  already  dragooned  and  impoverished 
country. 

All  the  Irish  who  could  not  be  shipped  off  to  England's  col- 
onies in  America  and  the  West  Indies  as  slaves  were  hunted 
remorselessly  into  Connaught — nobles,  proprietors,  yeomen, 
and  peasants  —  and  upon  their  lands  and  possessions  the 
pious  servant  of  God,  who  had  ruthlessly  butchered  the 
women  and  children  of  Drogheda  and  Wexford,  planted  his 
officers  and  soldiers,  to  create  for  Ireland  the  system  of 
landlordism,  and  to  give  us  the  governors,  statesmen,  law- 
makers, and  land-owners  of  the  past  two  hundred  years  we 
know  so  well  under  the  name  of  "Irish  landlords"  to-day. 

This  book  has  only  a  passing  concern  with  the  regular 
warfare  provoked  in  Ireland  by  England's  rule  from  time 
to  time,  from  the  invasion  to  the  treaty  of  Limerick.  His- 
tory alone  can  deal  fully  with  these  national  conflicts  and 
their  almost  uniform  adverse  results  for  Ireland.  My  task 
is  to  briefly  chronicle  the  irregular  insurrections,  social  and 
agrarian,  carried  on  by  the  peasantry  against  the  enemies 
of  their  homes,  whether  Saxon  or  Irish,  all  through  the  long 
combat  of  the  last  two  centuries. 

Singular  enough,  the  first  "combination,"  if  it  may  be  so 
named,  which  challenged  the  powers  and  law  of  confiscation 
was  known  as  that  of  "The  Tories."     The  name  is  supposed 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

to  be  derived  from  an  Irish  word  signifying  "robber,"  and 
the  apphcation  of  the  term  to  the  men  whom  the  name 
outlawed  was  due  to  the  fact  that  they  were  among  the 
rightful  owners  of  the  land  from  which  they  were  driven 
by  colonists  and  planters  with  the  aid  of  English  troops. 
They  claimed  their  own  after  the  Restoration,  and  became 
"Tories,"  or  robbers;  so  legally  and  morally  righteous  does 
an  act  of  spoliation  become  when  it  has  the  sanction  of 
English  rule  and  the  support  of  a  state  religion  to  uphold  it. 

Nearly  all  the  leaders  of  the  "Tories"  had  fought  for  the 
Stuarts  in  Ireland  and  abroad.  They  returned  to  Ireland 
after  the  fall  of  the  Cromwellian  commonwealth,  to  recover 
their  estates  as  a  reward  for  their  devotion  to  England's 
kings.  They  obtained  for  their  blind  loyalty  to  the  Stuarts 
only  the  blackest  ingratitude. 

The  gay  Charles  II.  ignored  their  services  and  claims.  He 
confirmed  the  Act  of  Settlement,  and  left  the  soldiers  and 
planters  of  his  father's  executioner  in  possession  of  all  the 
lands  that  had  been  taken  from  the  loyalist  gentry  of  Ireland 
for  giving  their  swords  to  the  cause  of  England's  monarchy. 

The  calling  of  a  "Tory"  became  that  of  an  outlaw.  The 
peasantry  sheltered  and  fed  them;  the  English  soldiers  and 
colonists  shot  them  on  sight.  They  were  hunted  down  like 
wolves,  with  a  price  upon  their  heads.  Their  habitations 
were  among  the  woods  and  caves,  and  Irish  legends  have 
woven  round  the  names  and  records  of  many  of  them  deeds 
of  romantic  incident  and  daring.  They  struck  back  at  the 
persons  and  property  of  their  despoilers,  organized  bands  of 
freebooters,  terrorized  the  homes  and  garrisons  of  the  ad- 
venturers, and  rightly  made  the  possession  of  ill-gotten 
property  as  expensive  and  as  precarious  as  the  fraudulent 
ownership  of  land  should  always  be. 

Redmond  Count  O'Hanlon  was  a  leader  of  Ulster  "Tories" 
two  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of  Colonel  Saunderson. 
The  late  Mr.  Prendergast,  in  his  Tory  War  of  Ulster,  gives  a 
brief  history  of  this  Irish  Robin  Hood — of  his  great  daring, 
his  popularity  with  the  peasantry,  whose  protector  he  fre- 
quently was,  and  of  his  many  encounters  with  troops  and 
treacherous  parties  engaged  in  the  hopeless  task  of  putting 
down  this  early  enemy  of  Ulster  landlordism.  Finally,  the 
blackest-hearted  scoundrel  who  ever  bore  the  name  of 
Ormonde  bribed  a  near  relative  to  kill  him,  and  the  deed 
of  treachery  is  thus  recorded  in  state  papers,  signed  by  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  period,  this  same  assassin,  Ormonde: 

"6th  May,  1681.  To  Art.  O'Hanlon  for  killing  'Torie' 
Redmond  O'Hanlon,  ;^ioo. 

12 


toRiEs  And  outlaws 

"12th  December,  1681.  To  John  Mullin,  etc.,  as  reward 
for  killing  Loughlin  O'Hanlon,  ;^5o."* 

Redmond  O'Hanlon's  grave  is  believed  to  be  in  the  parish 
of  Killevy,  County  Armagh. 

The  French  title  of  count  is  supposed  to  have  been  con- 
ferred upon  O'Hanlon  for  signal  deeds  of  bravery  or  for  other 
services  in  the  army  of  France.  His  early  military  career, 
about  which  very  little  has  been  recorded  in  contemporary 
accounts,  was  associated  with  a  soldier's  fortunes  in  conti- 
nental wars.  He  returned  to  Ireland  to  find  himself  out- 
lawed. 

Before  O'Hanlon's  time  the  same  system  of  spoliation  had 
produced  similar  "Tories"  elsewhere.  The  plantation  of 
King's  and  Queen's  counties  drove  out  the  O'Moores,  the 
Lalors  (a  descendant  of  the  Lalors  will  figure  prominently 
in  this  story  and  its  sequel),  the  Dorans,  McEvoys,  and 
Coughlans.  In  Wexford  the  Morris  Kavanaghs,  O'Phelans, 
Donogh  McKanes,  and  others  attacked  and  killed  several  of 
the  usurping  planters,  and  made  the  enemy  pay  dearly  in 
other  ways  before  some  of  these  leaders  were  finally  disposed 
of  by  martial  law. 

Both  historians  and  poets  have  dealt  with  the  romance 
of  the  "Tory"  Daniel  O'Keeffe.  He  was  the  head  of  the 
clan  of  that  name,  and  owned  the  castle  which  still  stands, 
in  picturesque  ruins,  on  the  banks  of  the  Black  water,  some 
eight  miles  westward  of  Mallow.  He  fought  against  Crom- 
well and  his  lieutenants  in  many  Munster  engagements,  and 
took  his  sword  to  Spain  on  the  collapse  of  the  spirited  stand 
which  Owen  Roe  O'Neill  had  made  against  the  Lord  Pro- 
tector's lieutenants  and  forces.  He  served  as  an  officer 
under  the  Duke  of  York,  and  won  his  distinction  in  a  seven- 
years'  campaign  on  the  continent.  He  returned  to  Ireland 
on  the  downfall  of  the  Roundhead  revolution  in  England, 
and  retook  possession  of  the  castle  and  lands  of  Dromagh. 

Once  again,  however,  the  Stuart  cause  was  to  be  his  ruin. 
He  joinjd  the  standard  of  the  most  miserable  of  all  the  kings 
of  that  line,  and  fought  at  the  Boyne.  The  flight  of  the 
royal  coward  with  the  best  of  the  Irish  troops  bft  the  Irish 
forces,  who  had  once  more  put  faith  in  an  English  monarch, 
to  the  penalty  of  defeat  and  all  that  followed  therefrom.  The 
lands  of  Dromagh  were  forfeited  and  sold,  and  Daniel 
O'Keeffe's  life  was  again  that  of  a  "Tory"  outlaw. 

The  "Outlaw's  Cave,"  in  a  steep  cliff  frowning  down  upon 
the  Blackwater  River,  was  his  place  of  retreat,  whence  he 

'  The  Tory  War  of  Ulster,  p.  29. 
13 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

sallied  forth  to  harass  the  planters  and  others,  who  had 
little  of  security  outside  the  garrison  of  Mallow,  while  the 
chieftain  of  Dromagh  was  among  the  clans  whose  lands  had 
been  stolen  by  the  Cromwellians.  But  what  the  English  in 
Ireland  could  not  do  by  force  they  never  failed  to  attempt 
by  fouler  means.  Love  in  this  instance  was  sought  as  an 
ally  for  treachery,  as  blood-kinship  had  been  in  the  case  of 
O'Hanlon.  O'Keeffe's  mistress  was  one  Mary  O'Kelly,  who 
shared  his  adventures  and  brought  him  news  and  necessaries 
from  the  town.  One  day,  in  caressing  her  in  his  v/ild  retreat, 
he  found  a  letter  concealed  in  her  bosom,  proving  that  she 
had  been  bribed  by  the  commander  of  the  English  forces  at 
Mallow  to  betray  him.  The  sequel  is  told  in  the  hnes  of 
Davis,  which  relate  O'Keeffe's  reproach  and  deed: 

"  The  moss  couch  I  brought  thee 
To-day  from  the  mountain 
Has  drunk  the  last  drop 

Of  thy  young  heart's  red  fountain. 

"  For  this  good  skeane  beside  me 
Struck  deep  and  rang  hollow, 
In  thy  bosom  of  treason, 

Young  Mauriade  ny  Kallagh." 

Each  county  in  Ireland  had  its  "Tory"  hero,  who  became 
celebrated  in  song  and  legend,  and  helped  thus  to  keep  alive 
the  old  Celtic  tradition  that  Cromwell's  clan  would  one  day 
lose  again  the  lordship  of  the  land.  Dudley  Costello,  in  Mayo; 
Cornet  Nangle,  in  Longford;  Coughlan,  in  King's  County; 
Costigan,in  Queen's  County;  Gerald  Kinshela,  inCarlow;  and 
the  brothers  Brennan,  in  Kilkenny,  are  among  the  names 
cherished  in  Irish  memory  for  their  resistance  to  the  English 
despoilers  in  days  before  the  Whiteboys,  Steelboys,  and 
Ribbonmen  could  be  organized  as  protectors  for  the  cabins 
of  the  native  peasantry. 

The  Brennans,  of  Kilkenny,  were  of  the  gentleman-yeoman 
class,  and  were  robbed  of  their  lands.  They  became  outlaws, 
and  killed  and  robbed  in  retaliation  where  they  could  lay 
hands  upon  English  grabbers.  In  the  year  1683  they  were 
caught,  tried,  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  The  scafEold  was 
reached,  but  the  hangman's  task  was  interrupted  by  a  rescue. 
A  faithful  band  of  adherents  had  attacked  the  sheriff  and 
his  force,  and  balked  the  law  of  its  prey.  The  brothers  es- 
caped to  England  in  two  ships,  with  their  horses  and  arms, 
but  were  arrested  on  reaching  Chester.  They  were  prisoners 
only  for  a  few  days,  however,  for  they  overpowered  their  jail- 
ers, locked  them  in  their  own  prison,  and  made  good  their  es- 

14 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

cape.  They  made  their  way  back  to  Ireland,  and  were  next 
heard  of  in  the  Duke  of  Ormonde's  castle,  in  Kilkenny,  where 
they  helped  themselves  to  what  they  were  pleased  to  carry 
away  with  them.  But  so  strong  was  their  hold  upon  the  peo- 
ple, and  so  weak  at  the  time  was  the  Dublin  Castle  of  the  day, 
which  generally  hired  assassins  to  do  its  work,  that  the  Bren- 
nans  were  left  at  liberty ;  overtures  being  made  to  them  to  take 
service  as  guardians  of  such  "law  and  order"  as  the  landlords 
of  the  period  were  able  to  sustain  among  a  peasantry  who  had 
the  best  of  human  reasons  to  hate  both.^ 


II.— "THE    WHITEBOYS" 

There  has  been  a  sort  of  division  of  labor  in  the  work  of 
political  and  social  emancipation  between  the  North  and  the 
South  of  Ireland.  Ulster,  with  its  mixed  creeds  and  strong 
pro-republican  ideas,  nurtured  largely  by  its  Presbyterian 
Church,  gave  the  country  the  first  popular  impulse  for  wider 
political  liberty  in  the  Volunteer  movement  of  Grattan  and 
Flood.  Like  most  Irish  movements,  ancient  and  modern,  the 
leaders  went  wrong  in  gross  acts  of  omission.  They  failed 
to  seize  upon  the  supreme  chance  of  1782,  and  the  rank 
and  file,  who  could  easily  have  freed  the  country,  if  rightly 
led,  probably  formed  the  body  of  Wolfe  Tone's  United  Irish- 
men, the  first  organization  since  the  Cromwellian  Settle- 
ment that  rekindled  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Irish  national- 
ism in  Ireland.  Every  political  combination  of  a  national 
character  that  has  arisen  since  then  among  the  Irish  people 
has  derived  something,  either  in  inspiration  or  in  guidance, 
from  the  sacrifices,  teaching,  and  labors  of  the  Irish  Protestant 
patriots  of  1798. 

The  South  and  West  of  Ireland  undertook  more  prominently 
than  the  North  the  work  of  curbing  landlord  rapacity  and  of 
defending  the  people's  right  to  live  on  the  land.  They  had 
borne  greater  wrongs,  and  had  to  endure  a  more  infamous 
oppression  in  the  battle  of  life,  and  the  desperation  which 
drives  human  nature  to  deeds  of  violence  against  the  enemies 
of  its  right  of  existence  entered  more  into  the  struggle  against 
landlordism  in  the  South  than  in  the  North. 

The  first  combination  of  peasants  having  any  degree  of 
regular  agrarian  purpose  was  that  of  "The  Whiteboys,"  so 
called  from  a  covering  which  was  adopted  by  them  for  dis- 
guise in  nocturnal  raids.     Bands  of  men  under  this  name  first 

*  The  Tory  War  of   Ulster,  Prendergast,  pp.   4-6. 
15 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

appeared  in  Munster  about  the  year  1760.  Their  object  was 
a  rightful  one,  though  the  means  they  employed  borrowed 
most  of  its  objectionable  criminality  of  action  from  the  ex- 
ample of  barbarism  shown  by  a  land  law  which  denied  the 
people  almost  all  civilized  rights,  and  made  the  interests  and 
protection  of  landlord  property  the  only  care  or  concern  of 
civil  government.  The  least  infringement  of  this  law  meant 
years  of  savage  imprisonment,  and  frequently  death  for 
the  accused.  The  life  of  a  sheep  or  of  a  pheasant  was  of 
more  value  in  the  eye  of  such  a  law  than  the  life  of  a  human 
being.  Rent  was  the  supreme  end  of  land  tenure.  The  soil 
existed  for  no  other  purpose.  The  rights  of  mere  manhood 
were  as  nothing  compared  with  the  claims  of  rent,  and 
against  this  unnatural  state  of  things  the  Whiteboys  levied  a 
necessary  war  of  social  insurrection.  They  terrorized  grab- 
bers, graziers,  and  other  landlord  supporters,  and  enforced 
their  decrees  by  such  powers  as  secret  combination  gave  them. 
The  owners  had  the  service  of  the  military,  the  law,  the 
prison,  and  the  gallows.  These  peasant  bands  fell  back  upon 
arson,  outrage,  and  frequently  upon  murder  as  a  counter- 
deterrent  to  the  extreme  penalties  inflicted  upon  members 
of  their  body.  In  this  manner  they  gave  some  protection 
to  a  peasant's  life  and  labor,  which  neither  the  government  nor 
the  law  in  the  hands  of  the  landlords  would  offer,  and  White- 
boy  ism,  though  guilty  of  many  acts  of  cruelty  and  of  un- 
necessary violence,  struck  the  first  effective  blow  in  Ireland  at 
the  rampant  tyranny  of  Cromwellian  landlordism  by  assert- 
ing the  superior  natural  right  of  the  people  to  land  for  life 
and  industry. 

The  combinations  in  Ulster  known  as  "Peep-o'-Day-Boys" 
and  "Defenders,"  in  the  later  part  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
were  of  a  mixed  religious  and  labor  character.  They  origi- 
nated primarily  in  the  incursion  of  laborers  from  bordering 
counties,  after  the  great  emigration  of  Protestant  tenants 
from  Ulster  to  the  United  States  following  the  year  1760  to 
the  end  of  the  century.  The  Peep-o'-Day  Boys  resented  this 
intrusion  in  attacks  upon  Catholic  families  and  cabins,  and 
the  "Defenders"  formed  an  opposing  body  of  Catholic 
workers.  Out  of  these  rival  combinations  the  more  modern 
"Orangemen"  and  "  Ribbonmen "  were  respectively  evolved 
in  the  social  sectarianism  of  the  North  of  Ireland  in  our  time. 

Organizations  with  a  similar  object  to  the  Whiteboys  were 
known  in  Connaught  in  the  same  period,  under  local  names, 
generally  called  after  some  "captain"  who  was  the  leader  of 
these  secret  societies.  They  shot  obnoxious  landlords  and 
agents  who  carried  out  evictions,   and  otherwise  punished 

i6 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

persons  who  acted  in  any  way  notoriously  against  the  in- 
terests of  the  peasantry. 

These  bands  were  more  numerous  in  Munster,  however,  and 
were  frequently  under  intelligent  leaders  who  understood  the 
rights  of  tenant  property  in  reclaimed  land  and  knew  how 
to  discriminate  between  the  owner's  legitimate  levy  on  the 
soil  itself  and  the  rent  placed  on  the  cultivator's  industry  in 
excessive  burdens. 

The  story  of  Father  Sheehy  and  the  Whiteboys  has  been  told 
in  Dr.  Madden's  work^  at  great  length.  He  was  prosecuted, 
tried,  and  hanged  in  Clonmel,  in  1766,  on  the  most  tainted 
evidence,  simply  because  the  government  of  the  time  wanted, 
for  its  own  pro-landlord  ends,  to  connect  the  insurrections 
of  the  peasants  of  the  South  with  "Popish  plots,"  the  better 
to  disguise  their  own  despotic  and  inhuman  conduct  tow- 
ards the  people.  This  humane  and  respected  clergyman  was 
a  victim  to  this  atrocious  policy.  The  collection  of  tithes 
from  Catholic  tenants  for  the  benefit  of  the  Protestant  Church 
was  made  the  pretext  for  a  conspiracy  to  involve  the  priest 
in  the  acts  of  the  Whiteboys,  and  the  services  of  paid  per- 
jurers to  this  end  completed  the  horrible  crime  of  executing 
an  innocent  and  educated  minister  of  religion  as  part  of  a 
nefarious  plot  between  local  landlords  and  informers. 

The  name  of  "  Levellers"  was  also  applied  to  the  Whiteboy 
agrarians,  because  they  tumbled  down  fences  erected  round 
commonages  by  the  landlords.  This  ordinary  form  of  legal 
theft  of  state  land  is  known  in  England  as  well  as  in  Ireland. 
Millions  of  acres  of  land,  recognized  for  generations  as  of 
common  use  for  pasturage,  have  been  stolen  in  this  way  under 
laws  made  by  the  landlords,  and  though  the  English  peasantry 
have  never  made  anything  like  the  same  spirited  resistance 
as  the  Irish  to  this  despoiling  of  the  public,  there  have  been 
movements  of  a  more  legal  nature  in  modern  times  to  check 
this  genteel  grabbing  of  the  nation's  inheritance.  In  this 
respect  the  Whiteboys  of  the  eighteenth  century  rendered  a 
signal  service  to  the  movement  against  land  monopoly. 

The  code  of  laws  fashioned  by  the  Irish  landlord  Parliament 
against  Whiteboyism  was  one  of  Draconian  severity.  There 
was  nothing  but  the  argument  of  terrorism  in  these  savage 
enactments.  Instead  of  arresting  agrarian  crime  by  rational 
methods,  the  law  made  itself  the  source  of  violence  in  ap- 
pealing to  a  responsive  sentiment  of  reckless  savagery  in  a 
people  who  were  made  to  feel  that  government  and  law  com- 
bined were  for  them  only  a  despotism  without  justice  or  mercy. 

'  United  Irishmen,  vol.  i.,  pp.  21-88. 
'  17 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

These  land  laws  were,  in  spirit,  as  infamous  as  the  penal 
laws  which  Edmund  Burke  has  forever  pilloried  in  his  classic 
description  of  them  as  "a  machine  of  wise  and  elaborate 
contrivance  as  well  fitted  for  the  oppression,  impoverishment, 
and  degradation  of  a  people,  and  the  debasement  in  them 
of  human  nature  itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  perverted 
ingenuity  of  man."  Both  codes  were  the  offspring  of  Crom- 
wellian  landlord  rule  of  Ireland. 

Writing  of  Whiteboyism,  and  of  the  landlordism  that  gave 
it  birth.  Professor  Goldwin  Smith  sums  up  the  case  as  follows: 

"The  Cromwellian  land -owners  soon  lost  their  religious 
character,  while  they  retained  all  the  hardness  of  the  fanatic 
and  the  feelings  of  the  Puritan  conquerors  towards  a  con- 
quered Catholic  people.  '  I  have  eaten  with  them,'  said  one, 
'  drunk  with  them,  fought  with  them,  but  I  never  prayed 
with  them.'  Their  descendants  became,  probably,  the  very 
worst  upper  class  with  which  a  country  was  ever  afflicted. 
The  habits  of  the  Irish  gentry  grew,  beyond  measure,  brutal 
and  reckless,  and  the  coarseness  of  their  debaucheries  would 
have  disgusted  the  crew  of  Comus.  Their  drunkenness,  their 
blasphemy,  their  ferocious  duelling  left  the  squires  of  Eng- 
land far  behind.  If  there  was  a  grotesque  side  to  their  vices, 
which  mingles  laughter  with  our  reprobation,  this  did  not 
render  their  influence  less  pestilent  to  the  community  of 
which  the  motive  of  destiny  had  made  them  social  chiefs. 
Fortunately,  their  recklessness  was  sure,  in  the  end,  to  work, 
to  a  certain  extent,  its  own  cure;  and  in  the  background  of 
their  swinish  and  uproarious  drinking-bouts  the  Encumbered 
Estates  Act  rises  to  our  view."* 

This  English  testimony  to  the  practices  prevailing  among 
the  landlord  class  in  pre-Union  times  is  not  from  a  Home 
Ruler.  Professor  Goldwin  Smith  has  been  an  opponent  of  the 
Gladstone  policy  of  the  later  eighties.  His  evidence  springs 
from  a  keen  study  of  Irish  history,  and  is  influenced  only  by 
the  force  of  facts,  and  a  courage  in  letting  facts  accuse  his 
own  country's  rule  of  the  Irish  people,  where  no  truth  can  be 
adduced  to  mitigate  the  criminal  ignorance  or  prejudice  which 
tolerated  the  naked  infamies  of  Irish  landlordism. 

Such  a  class,  thus  truly  photographed,  begot,  in  their 
disregard  of  all  law,  moral  or  equitable,  in  the  treatment  of 
tenants,  opposing  agrarian  conspiracies.  This  was  inevitable 
and  humanely  justifiable.  There  is  no  tyranny  worse  than 
that  of  an  obviously  partisan  and  oppressive  law  which  is 
expressly  enacted  to  safeguard  the  power  of  an  unscrupulous 

•Goldwin  Smith,  History  of  Irish  Character,  pp.  13Q,  140. 
18 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

class  to  rob  and  violate  at  will  every  right  of  every  home- 
stead in  a  country  where  constituted  authority  is  not  the 
expression  of  a  people's  franchise  but  of  a  dominant  land- 
owning aristocracy.  Whiteboyism  was  the  illegitimate  child 
of  social  oppression,  begotten  in  rapine  and  in  the  robbery  of 
labor.  It  was  the  Ishmael  of  the  social  system,  born  of  the 
lawless  misuse  of  power  and  property  by  the  Irish  landlords. 
Whiteboyism  made  a  war  of  "righteous"  violence  against 
the  scourge  of  labor  and  country,  and  though,  as  in  all  wars, 
agrarian  or  military,  fearful  crimes  made  the  angels  weep, 
these  confederated  peasants  were  the  soldiers  of  a  wild  jus- 
tice, and  the  defenders  of  homes  which  were  otherwise  aban- 
doned to  the  rapacity  of  the  horde  of  drunken  social  despots 
who  prostituted  government,  law,  justice,  and  women  to  the 
service  of  an  impecunious  greed  and  of  a  swinish  lust. 

Goldwin  Smith  brings  home  with  unerring  truth  the  re- 
sponsibility for  the  deeds  of  the  Whiteboys  to  the  only  source 
of  Irish  agrarian  crime.     He  says:* 

"The  atrocities  perpetrated  by  the  Whiteboys,  especially 
in  the  earlier  period  of  agrarianism  (for  they  afterwards  grew 
somewhat  less  inhuman),  are  such  as  to  make  the  flesh  creep. 
No  language  can  be  too  strong  in  speaking  of  the  horrors  of 
such  a  state  of  society.  But  it  would  be  unjust  to  confound 
these  agrarian  conspiracies  with  ordinary  crime,  or  to  vSuppose 
that  they  imply  a  propensity  to  ordinary  crime  either  on  the 
part  of  those  who  commit  them  or  on  the  part  of  the  people 
who  connive  at  and  favor  their  commission.  In  the  districts 
where  agrarian  conspiracy  and  outrage  were  most  rife,  the 
number  of  ordinary  crimes  was  very  small. 

"In  plain  truth,  the  secret  tribunals  which  administered 
the  Whiteboy  code  were  to  the  people  the  organs  of  a  wild 
law  of  social  morality,  by  which,  on  the  whole,  the  interest 
of  the  peasant  was  protected.  They  were  not  regular  tri- 
bunals; neither  were  the  secret  tribunals  of  Germany  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  existence  of  which,  and  the  submission  of 
the  people  to  their  jurisdiction,  implied  the  presence  of  much 
violence,  but  not  of  much  depravity,  considering  the  wildness 
of  the  times.  We  have  seen  how  much  the  law,  and  the 
ministers  of  the  law,  had  done  to  deserve  the  peasant's  love. 
We  have  seen,  too,  in  what  successive  guises  property  had 
presented  itself  to  his  mind:  first  as  open  rapine;  then  as 
robbery  carried  on  through  the  roguish  technicalities  of  an 
alien  code;  finally  as  legalized  and  systematic  oppression. 
Was  it  possible  that  he  should  have  formed  so  affectionate  a 

'Goldwin  Smith,  History  of  Irish  Character,  pp.  153-157. 

19 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

reverence  either  for  law  or  property  as  would  be  proof  against 
the  pressure  of  starvation?  A  people  cannot  be  expected  to 
love  and  reverence  oppression  because  it  is  consigned  to  the 
statute  book  and  called  law." 

The  "Oakboys"  were  mainly  an  Ulster  combination.  They 
stood  for  a  mixed  movement  against  special  claims  of  the 
landlords  to  tenants'  labors  in  repairing  roads,  and  to  the 
payment  of  tithes  by  both  Presbyterians  and  Catholics  to 
the  ministers  of  the  Established  Protestant  Church.  It 
sought  relief  from  these  and  other  exactions  by  intimidation. 
Bands  of  men  marched  with  oak  leaves  in  their  hats  through 
various  counties,  and  erected  gallowses  in  some  places  as  a 
warning  that  mob  law  would  be  resorted  to  unless  the  de- 
mands were  considered.  These  threats  succeeded.  Anything 
approaching  to  united  efforts  for  a  common  end,  on  the  part 
of  Ulster  Protestants  and  Catholics,  had  a  most  persuasive 
effect  upon  the  ruling  mind  in  those  times,  and  the  prudent 
course  of  concession  was  adopted.  Oakboyism  died  only  to 
assume  other  names  and  functions  in  later  years. 

IIL— "  STEELBOYS" 

The  first  of  these  agrarian  offsprings  took  the  name  of 
"Steelboys."  The  combination  had  a  local  origin,  but  the 
name  only  denoted  the  same  kind  of  resistance  to  landlord 
wrong  as  that  against  which  the  southern  Whiteboys  had 
made  war.  The  birthplace  of  the  Hearts  of  Steel  society 
was  the  County  Down,  and  its  origin  was  an  attempt  on  the 
part  of  an  absentee  landlord,  Lord  Downshire,  to  levy  rent 
upon  other  occupations  besides  that  of  land  carried  on  by  his 
tenants.  Many  of  these  were  weavers,  and  added  to  their 
ordinary  earnings  the  profits  of  cottage  industry.  This  ap- 
peared to  be  a  reason  why  the  landlord  should  increase  his  in- 
come at  the  expense  of  this  extra  labor,  and  as  short  leases 
for  his  land  fell  due  his  agent  demanded  an  extortionate  in- 
crease in  the  way  of  "  fines  "  for  a  renewal  of  the  right  to  earn 
his  lordship's  rental.  These  demands  were  refused  by  num- 
bers of  tenants,  and  they  were  evicted.  Large  numbers  of 
those  who  were  dispossessed  emigrated  to  America.  Others 
formed  the  Hearts  of  Steel  society,  and  adopted  the  meth- 
ods of  Whiteboyism.  Grabbers  were  menaced  or  killed,  their 
cattle  were  maimed,  and  a  reign  of  terror  was  created  where 
rents  had  been  quietly  paid  in  previous  years.  So  general  was 
the  sympathy  of  the  peasants  of  all  creeds  with  the  leaders  of 
this  Ulster  revolt  that  thousands  of  them  around  Belfast  were 
induced  to  march  on  that  town  under  Steelboy  command,  and 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

to  rescue  some  of  the  band  who  were  being  tried  for  outrage. 
The  miUtary  in  charge  of  the  court  and  prison  were  overpow- 
ered, and  the  accused  persons  were  carried  away  in  triumph. 

Juries  in  other  towns  refused  to  convict  men  accused  of 
being  Steelboys.  This  caused  the  government  of  the  day  to 
enact  a  law  whereby  prisoners  could  be  brought  to  trial  in 
counties  other  than  those  in  which  the  crime  was  committed. 
A  similar  law  exists  in  Ireland  to-day.  Dublin  juries,  how- 
ever, followed  the  healthy  example  set  in  the  North,  and  the 
landlord  government  was  compelled  to  fall  back  upon  a  com- 
bination of  martial  law  and  jury-packing  in  order  to  send  a 
number  of  cases  to  the  scaffold  as  an  example.  The  move- 
ment was  crushed  in  County  Down  ultimately,  but  its  spirit 
and  purpose  spread  into  other  parts  of  the  North  and  West, 
there  to  burst  out  again  when  some  intolerable  injustice  should 
call  it  into  activity. 

The  clearances  which  resulted  from  these  acts  of  Ulster 
landlordism  were  the  means,  unconsciously,  of  striking  the 
greatest  blow  at  England's  power  it  had  yet  received.  Thou- 
sands of  men,  tenants  and  laborers,  in  Down,  Antrim,  London- 
derry, and  other  parts  of  the  North,  left  Ireland  for  the  then 
British  colonies  beyond  the  Atlantic.  They  carried  hatred  of 
landlordism  in  their  hearts  and  no  love  for  England  in  their 
memories.  Joining  the  army  of  American  independence  on  the 
outbreak  of  war,  these  and  thousands  more  of  their  countrymen 
from  the  South,  who  had  crossed  the  seas  to  escape  a  similar 
social  oppression,  fought  and  won  for  the  great  republic  of  to- 
day the  freedom  that  has  made  the  United  States  the  mightiest 
democracy  of  all  time  and  the  foremost  nation  of  the  world.* 

IV.-"  ORANGEMEN" 

The  sanguinary  encounter  known  in  Ulster  as  the  "Battle 
of  the  Diamond"  was  fought  between  Defenders  and  Wreck- 
ers, or  Peep -o'- Day    Boys,  in  the  county  of  Armagh,  on 

'  "It  is  surprising  what  a  spirit  of  emigration  pervades  the  devoted 
kingdom  of  Ireland.  About  one  million  of  souls  now  stand  ready  to 
qitit  their  native  country  rather  than  submit  to  the  slavery  which 
hangs  impending  over  them.  Driven  to  desperation  by  the  inroads 
that  poverty  and  want  are  daily  making  on  them,  they  have  demanded 
of  government  vessels  to  transport  them  to  America,  the  asylum  of 
distressed  virtue,  to  avoid  their  rising  in  insurrection,  which  will  in- 
evitably be  the  consequence  if  they  are  obliged  to  stay.  Unhappy 
Hibernians!  Philanthropy  mourns  your  condition  and  benevolence 
will  stretch  out  the  charitable  hand  to  sweeten  your  cup  of  woe.  .  .  . 
The  arms  of  America — once  yoitr  sister  in  adversity — are  extended 
for  your  reception.     The  banks  of  the  Ohio  will  welcome  your  arrival, 

21 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

September  21,  1795,  and  is  still  remembered  on  Orange  fes- 
tive occasions  as  a  victory  won  over  "Popish"  rebels.  The 
fight  lasted  for  two  days,  and  Dr.  Madden,  in  his  narrative 
of  the  event,  relates  that  large  numbers  of  Catholics  were 
killed  by  their  better -armed  opponents.  This  battle  gave 
birth  to  the  Orange  organization,  whose  origin  dates  from 
this  deadly  conflict  between  bodies  of  men  who  were  thus, 
unconsciously,  made  to  shed  each  other's  blood  the  better  to 
secure  and  prolong  the  power  of  landlordism  over  both  sides. 

Out  of  this  fight  there  grew  a  bitter  feud,  which  resulted  in 
the  despoiling  of  Catholics  in  their  homes  and  farms  and  of 
the  forced  banishment  of  large  numbers  of  them  from  Armagh 
into  Connaught  and  elsewhere.  Their  lands  were  grabbed  by 
the  sect  protected  by  the  government  and  garrison  of  the 
time,  and  then,  as  now,  the  society  so  formed  has  been  used, 
politically  and  otherwise,  by  the  landlords  of  Ulster  for  their 
own  purposes.  It  is  to-day  a  sectarian  organization  of  the 
most  bigoted  character,  and  may  be  called  the  party  "mili- 
tia" of  the  Irish  Tories. 

Orangeism  is  one  of  the  typical  products  of  English  rule  over 
the  Irish.  It  is  the  embodiment  of  race  and  sectarian  ha- 
tred, and  stands  for  the  anti-Celtic  and  anti-Catholic  feeling 
which  promoted  the  Act  of  Settlement  and  carried  out  the  fe- 
rocious decrees  and  spirit  of  the  penal  laws.  There  is  nothing 
parallel  to  the  character  and  aims  of  this  combination  known 
in  the  annals  of  modern  society  outside  of  Ulster.  Its  real 
"religion"  is  hate — a  wild,  untamable  sentiment  of  ignorant 
sectarian  malignancy — unteachable  and  unchangeable — and  in 
its  origin,  record,  and  raison  d'etre  it  can  be  truly  said  to  be 
the  living  and  acting  expression,  in  our  time,  of  the  anti-Irish 
nature  of  England's  past  government  of  Ireland. 

v.— "RIGHT    BOYS" 

Whiteboyism  survived  the  Draconian  code  of  savage  laws 
which  sent  hundreds  to  the  gallows  and  penal  colonies 
during  the  eighteenth  century.  Its  recruiting  agencies  were 
dire  poverty  and  the  ferocious  severity  of  legal  prosecutions. 

and  the  environs  of  the  Mississippi  shall  smile  with  your  cultivation. 
Here  nature  has  been  liberal  with  her  gifts.  Here  all  the  advantages 
that  agriculture,  arts,  and  commerce  recjuire  are  centred.  Vast  regions 
remain  vet  to  be  explored,  sufficient  not  only  to  supply  you  with  all 
the  necessaries  but  with  the  con\eniences  of  life.  Here  you  may  en- 
joy inviolate  your  rights  and  property,  be  instrumental  in  founding  a 
mighty  nation,  help  to  make  America  the  garden  of  the  world,  and  rear 
a  paradise  on  its  surface." — The  Maryland  Journal,  copied  into  the 
Irish  Volunteers'  Journal  of  October  25,  1784. 

22 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

Landlord  cruelty  and  the  pious  exactions  of  tithes  in  the 
name  of  religion  drove  a  maddened  peasantry  to  the  only 
manful  remedy  of  the  oppressed  poor  —  social  revolt.  In 
Leinster  this  renewed  insurrection  took  the  name  of  "Right 
Boys,"  from  the  untutored  peasant  conception  of  his  right  to 
live  by  his  labor  on  land  without  having  to  be  a  slave  to  his 
own  poverty  and  squalor  for  the  maintenance  of  "his  su- 
periors." 

The  Right  Boys  acted  under  captains,  and  terrorized  the 
counties  of  Kildare,  Queen's,  Kilkenny,  and  the  border  coun- 
ties of  Munster.  They  and  their  organization  were  attacked 
by  prelates  and  priests  of  the  Catholic  Church,  as  well  as  by 
the  law  -  and  -  order  forces  of  the  Protestant  establishment 
and  the  government.  Dr.  Troy,  the  Catholic  bishop  of  Os- 
sory,  the  subsequent  tool  of  Castlereagh  in  the  treachery  of 
the  Act  of  Union,  was  conspicuous  in  his  denunciations  of 
Right-Boyism.  These  were  dangerous  associations  in  many 
respects.  All  combinations  against  despotism  are.  But 
these  bodies  did,  in  doubtless  a  rude  and  riotous  way,  what 
Dr.  Troy  and  his  episcopal  brethren  did  not  do  in  any  way 
— namely,  tried  to  protect  the  people  from  extermination. 
"Captain  Right"  and  "Captain  Rock"  and  the  rest  were 
good  subjects  for  pulpit  censure  by  the  priests  and  bishops  of 
the  period,  but  it  was  by  them,  by  brave  if  desperate  and 
sometimes  criminally  disposed  men,  that  the  Celtic  peasantry 
of  Ireland  had  both  their  land  and  religion  preserved  in  those 
penal  times,  and  not  through  any  sacrifice  made  by  the  com- 
plaisant pro-English  prelates  of  the  Dr.  Troy  class. 

The  Right  Boys  struck  back  at  all  their  enemies,  land- 
lord, legal,  and  ecclesiastic,  and  cut  off  supplies  from  both 
parson  and  priest  wherever  the  Catholic  clergy  took  sides 
against  the  home  defenders. 

In  Connaught  the  uprising  took  the  name  of  "Thrashers," 
probably  from  the  use  of  the  flail  as  a  weapon  of  assault. 
Their  methods  in  Mayo,  Sligo,  Leitrim,  and  Longford  were 
thus  described  by  a  contemporary  Crown  prosecutor  a  few 
years  later  than  the  period  dealt  with  above:  "It  is  notori- 
ous that  for  some  time  past  the  peace  of  the  country  has  been 
infested  by  a  set  of  persons  assuming  the  name  of  Thrashers. 
Their  outrageous  associations  have  been  in  direct  defiance 
of  the  law.  .  .  .  The  pretext  upon  which  these  illegal  con- 
federacies is  formed  is  repugnance  to  the  payments  in  sup- 
port of  the  legal  establishment  of  the  Church  of  the  coun- 
try (tithes)  and  also  fees  to  the  clergymen  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  These  persons  administer  oaths  of  secrecy.  This 
offence  is  by  law  punishable  with  death  or  transportation. 

23 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISxM    IN    IRELAND 

.  .  .  Gentlemen,  it  is  no  wonder  that  those  who  searched  after 
democratical  equaUty  should  be  the  foes  of  religion,"^  etc., 
etc.  The  greater  wonder,  rather,  that  the  ministers  of  any 
religion  should  be  the  friends  of  the  law  and  order  which 
stood  for  the  then  government  of  Ireland. 

"  Captain  Right "  was  not  frightened  by  the  pulpit  thunder- 
bolts of  the  time.  His  bands  visited  the  presbyteries  alike 
of  parson  and  priest,  and  made  them  pay  dear  for  their  con- 
federacy with  the  common  enemy  of  the  people — the  Dublin 
Castle  of  the  period.  Some  priests  were  driven  from  their 
parishes,  and  many  outrages  of  a  revolting  kind  were  com- 
mitted in  the  wanton  exercise  of  force  by  an  outlawed  associa- 
tion. All  this  is  to  the  historic  discredit  of  the  anti-landlord 
foes  of  these  rude  times.  They  have  been  reprobated  and 
condemned  on  all  sides.  But,  as  there  never  yet  has  been  in 
the  history  of  human  society  an  uprising  of  the  common 
people  of  any  country  against  a  government,  independent  of 
an  overwhelming  justification  for  their  revolt  in  the  despotism 
of  the  rule  or  the  infamy  of  the  laws  that  oppressed  them, 
one's  indignation  is  constrained  to  expend  itself  a  little  upon 
the  causes  that  drove  the  Right  Boys  into  criminal  pro- 
ceedings, and  not  altogether  against  those  who  on  the  whole 
were  less  ruffian  in  motives  and  purpose  than  the  rulers  and 
"classes"  of  their  time. 

It  has  been  alleged  that  in  its  later  developments  Right- 
Boyism  was  instigated  in  some  of  its  actions  by  landlords 
who  wished  to  avoid,  by  the  aid  of  these  bands,  the  pay- 
ing of  tithes  to  their  ministers.  Doubtless  some  landlords 
were  desirous  of  diverting  the  attentions  of  these  rural  con- 
spiracies from  themselves  to  the  clergy.  Orangeism,  which 
grew,  in  a  measure,  out  of  a  labor  opposition  to  competing 
workers,  was  made  use  of  by  both  government  and  landlords, 
and  finally  moulded  for  class  purposes,  and  it  is  reasonable 
to  assume,  in  the  Hght  of  this  fact,  that  some  Southern  land- 
owners acted  with  a  similar  object  in  regard  to  Whiteboyism. 
But  there  is  no  conclusive  evidence  to  prove  the  allegation 
that  this  peasant  uprising  had  any  other  object  than  opposi- 
tion to  landlordism  and  tithes  as  its  governing  aim  and 
purpose.  No  other  proof  in  this  respect  is  needed  than  the 
record  of  the  way  in  which  these  bands  were  hunted  down 
by  the  law  and  the  military  during  the  dozen  years  or  more — 
from  1760  to  1778 — in  which  this  form  of  the  Whiteboy  in- 
surrection prevailed  in  parts  of  Leinster,  Munster,  and  Con- 
naught. 

1  Attorney-General  for  Ireland.  Address  to  the  jury,  Special  Com- 
mission, in  Sligo,  1806. 

24 


TORIES    AND    OUTLAWS 

One  marked  tribute  was  paid  to  the  Right  Boys  by 
John  Philpot  Curran,  the  famous  patriot  lawyer  and  wit. 
He  opposed  a  coercion  bill  directed  against  this  form  of 
Whiteboyism,  and  said:  "I  will  mention  a  circumstance  of 
disturbance  in  a  Kerry  (Protestant)  diocese  from  which  the 
publication  so  much  reprobated  was  issued,  in  a  parish  worth 
eight  hundred  or  nine  hundred  pounds  a  year,  which  would 
make  the  House  (Irish  House  of  Commons)  blush.  It  was  a 
rising  of  Right  Boys  to  banish  a  seraglio  kept  by  a  rector 
who  received  nearly  one  thousand  pounds  from  the  Church, 
and  to  reinstate  the  unoffending  mother  and  innocent  children 
in  their  mansion."^ 

'  Irish  Parliamentary  Debates,  February  27,  1789. 


CHAPTER  III 
"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 

The  march  of  events  across  the  Atlantic  began  to  exercise 
a  marked  and  beneficial  change  on  what  passed  as  popular 
feeling  in  Ireland,  between  the  period  of  the  Volunteer 
movement  and  that  of  the  organization  of  the  "United 
Irishmen."  Political  opinions  began  to  spread  among  the 
trading  and  commercial  sections  of  the  people.  The  Amer- 
ican War  of  Independence  brought  the  hopeful  knowledge  to 
Ireland  that  England's  power  was  not  invulnerable,  and 
flattered  the  growing  force  of  national  sentiment  with  the 
intelligence  that  Irishmen  had  played  a  conspicuous  part  in 
the  great  achievement.  Men  like  Grattan  and  Flood  had 
arisen  as  exponents  of  the  liberal  views  which  Swift,  Molyneux, 
and  Lucas  had  advocated  when  the  penal  code  was  at  its 
worst,  and  "when  the  law  of  the  land  did  not  presume  a 
Papist  to  exist  in  the  kingdom,  nor  could  they  exist  in  it 
without  the  connivance  of  the  government."*  Class  tyranny 
was  breaking  up  like  all  decomposing  systems  resting  upon 
rotten  foundations,  and  the  voice  of  liberty  was  frequently 
heard  in  the  Irish  landlord  Parliament  in  favor  of  the  fran- 
chise and  of  other  measures  of  popular  freedom. 

It  is  only  just  to  the  Cromwellian  settlers  to  say  that  all 
the  constitutional  leaders  of  this  revolt  against  a  grinding 
and  debasing  oppression,  religious,  social,  and  political,  were 
of  English  descent.  Dean  Swift,  who  may  be  honorably 
credited  with  being  the  first  leader  of  the  moral-force  move- 
ments, which  succeeded  the  military  struggles  against  sub- 
jection that  had  ended  for  the  time  in  the  treaty  of  Limerick, 
was,  like  Grattan,  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  So  were  Wolfe 
Tone  and  the  Emmets.  These  latter  were  republican  leaders 
who  had  conceived  a  higher  national  ideal  than  a  "Parlia- 
ment "  nominated  by  landlords  to  act  hke  so  many  land-agent 
legislators  solely  for  class  and  selfish  interests.  A  movement 
on  this  high  plane  of  public  hfe  put  the  agrarian  insurrection 

•  Plowden's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  270. 
26 


"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 

in  the  background  for  some  years.  It  enlisted  the  best- 
educated  men  of  the  people  in  the  service,  first,  of  reform 
in  the  legislature,  and,  subsequently,  in  the  rebellion  which 
followed  on  the  conviction  and  knowledge  of  Tone,  Addis 
Emmet,  and  others,  that  the  Parliament  of  the  Pale  was  ut- 
terly corrupt  and  incapable  of  being  emancipated  from  pro- 
English  jobbery  and  control. 

The  poet,  Thomas  Moore,  in  recording  his  contempt  for  a 
class  whose  "nobility"  had  been  baptized  in  patricide  and 
corruption,  thus  described  the  Irish  landlord  legislators  of 
the  previous  generation:  "A  writer  on  Egypt  mentions,  as  a 
singular  phenomenon,  the  respect  which  the  Mamelukes  have 
for  men  who  have  been  purchased — far  beyond  what  they 
feel  for  the  most  ancient  rank.  A  Turkish  officer,  in  pointing 
out  to  him  some  personage  who  had  held  an  important 
situation  under  government,  said:  'C'est  un  homme  de  bonne 
race — il  a  ete  achete.'  What  homage,  then,  would  a  Mame- 
luke feel  for  the  'hommes  achetes'  of  the  Irish  nobility,  many 
of  whom  might  introduce  an  auctioneer's  hammer  into  their 
coats  of  arms,  so  often  have  they  and  their  illustrious  sires 
been  knocked  down  to  the  highest  bidder? 

"  During  the  administration  of  the  Marquis  of  Buckingham, 
the  (Irish)  Pension  List  outstripped  that  of  England  by 
several  thousand  pounds;  and  when,  at  length,  under  Lord 
Westmoreland,  as  a  monetary  sacrifice  to  public  opinion,  a 
bill  was  allowed  to  pass  limiting  the  grants  of  pensions  to 
;^i2oo  a  year,  advantage  was  taken  of  the  few  months  that 
were  to  elapse  before  the  commencement  of  the  act  to  grant 
pensions  to  the  amount  of  more  than  ;;^i20o  —  being  equal 
to  ten  years'  anticipation  of  the  powers  of  the  Crown. 

"This  system  was  the  consummation,  the  coronis,  of  Eng- 
land's deadly  policy  in  Ireland.  Having  broken  down  and 
barbarized  our  lower  orders  by  every  method  that  was  ever 
devised  for  turning  men  into  brutes,  she  now  premeditately, 
by  the  encouragement  of  habits  of  expense,  and  the  ready 
proflEer  of  the  wages  of  corruption  to  maintain  them,  so  de- 
moralized and  denationalized  our  upper  classes  that  perhaps 
the  most  harmless  part  many  of  them  have  since  played  has 
been  that  of  Absentees."^ 

So  long  as  the  "  Parliament"  of  Irish  landlords  was  the  sole 
property  of  that  class,  the  guardian  of  their  privileges  and  the 
source  of  their  perquisites,  they  associated  with  its  existence 
and  functions  a  sentiment  of  local  partiotism.  They  talked 
and  wrote  of  "their"  country  in  the  sense  in  which  they  apoke 

^Captain  Rock,  pp.  288,  289. 
27 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  their  estates.  It  was  the  property  of  the  Anglo-Irish  gar- 
rison. The  members,  with  some  noted  exceptions,  were  pa- 
triots or  coercionists,  just  as  their  interests  incHned  them 
either  to  encourage,  for  the  time  being,  the  unenfranchised 
Celts  to  hope  for  the  rights  of  representation  in  College  Green, 
or  to  convince  the  English  government  of  the  day,  in  drastic 
measures  of  repression,  that  they  were  still  the  inheritors  of 
Cromwellian  plunder,  and  the  true  descendants  of  the  Carews, 
Chichesters,  and  Mountjoys  of  the  seventeenth  century.  No 
man  saw  more  clearly  through  the  sham  nationalism  of  this 
"  Parliament "  than  Wolfe  Tone.  And  when,  at  last,  it  seemed 
as  if  the  Celts  were  really  about  to  obtain  the  franchise  (in 
1793),  to  use  it,  of  course,  only  as  some  of  their  social  lords 
and  masters  should  direct,  the  majority  of  these  patriots 
of  the  Pale  resolved  to  auction  off  the  whole  legislative 
establishment  in  Dublin  to  the  highest  monetary  advan- 
tage for  themselves,  and  thus  prevent  the  Irish  people 
from  having  any  direct  voice  in  the  rule  of  their  own 
country. 

Pitt  and  Castlereagh  have  been  liberally  abused  in  Irish 
nationalist  history  and  in  political  controversy  for  the  de- 
struction of  the  Irish  Parliament.  They  were,  it  is  true,  the 
chief  engineers  of  the  transaction.  They  had  to  provide  the 
money  and  guarantee  the  patents  of  "nobility"  which  were 
to  reward  the  venal  gang  who  would  sell  the  legislature  rather 
than  permit  the  people  to  share  in  its  law-making  rights  and 
labors.  But  "the  baseness  and  blackguardism  of  the  Act  of 
Union"  were  not  all  theirs.  The  purchaser  of  the  fruits  of 
theft,  vile  though  his  calling  may  be,  is,  after  all,  the  immoral 
product  of  the  person  who  steals  the  article  for  which  he  must 
seek  a  buyer.  The  Irish  landlords  who  held  both  Houses  of  the 
Irish  Parliament  in  their  hands  were  the  willing  traitors  and 
the  bargaining  malefactors  in  this  base  and  sordid  design,  and 
theirs  is  the  major  share  of  the  infamy  belonging  to  this  un- 
paralleled act  of  corruption.  They  are  the  only  class  in  his- 
tory who  will  be  eternally  infamous  for  having  virtually  auc- 
tioned off  a  country's  constitution  for  money  so  as  to  frustrate 
the  hopes  of  their  countrymen  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  modicum 
of  popular  liberty. 

Sir  Jonah  Barrington's  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation 
gives  a  list  of  the  perfidy  and  prices  of  these  landlord  traitors, 
and  a  few  of  these  "noble"  names  will  not  be  out  of  place  in 
this  narrative. 

A  Mr.  Trench,  seeing  the  ministerial  and  opposition  parties 
about  equal  when  the  decisive  vote  for  or  against  the  Union 
was  being  taken,  sold  his  vote  to  the  government,  actually 

28 


"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 

within  the  Irish  House  of  Commons.  For  this  he  was  raised 
to  the  peerage  under  the  title  of  Lord  Ashtown. 

A  Mr.  Handcock,  member  for  Athlone,  who  "sang  songs 
against  the  Union  in  1799,  at  a  pubHc  dinner  of  the  opposition, 
and  sang  songs  for  it  in  1800,"  according  to  Barrington,  was 
rewarded  by  being  made  Lord  Castlemaine. 

A  General  Henniker  and  a  Colonel  Blaquiere,  who  represent- 
ed pocket-boroughs,  were  Englishmen,  and  were  ennobled  and 
obtained  pensions  for  their  votes.  They  were  the  founders  of 
the  distinguished  houses  and  peerages  now  bearing  those  names. 

Mr.  John  Bingham  owned  the  pocket-borough  of  Tuam. 
He  offered  to  sell  its  two  votes — it  had  two  members — for 
;;^8ooo  to  the  opponents  of  the  Union.  Lord  Castlereagh's 
party  raised  the  price  to  £1^,000.  This  settled  the  bargain. 
He  was  likewise  made  a  peer,  and  became  Lord  Clanmorris. 
His  father-in-law,  a  judge,  was  made  Viscount  Avonmore  for 
supporting  the  Union  in  the  House  of  Lords. 

Mr.  Clotworthy  Rowley,  of  Meath,  belonged  to  the  family  of 
Bective,  also  noble.  He  obtained  a  peerage  for  his  vote,  and 
chose  the  title  of  Lord  Langford.  His  brother,  already  a  lord, 
was  created  Marquis  of  Headfort  for  supporting  the  same  cause. 

Sir  Richard  Quin  entered  the  Irish  Parliament  with  the 
express  purpose  (according  to  Lord  Cornwallis)  of  helping  to 
carry  the  measure  which  was  to  overthrow  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment. He  purchased  seats  (from  landlord  patrons)  for  him- 
self and  another.  "  His  object,"  remarks  Lord  Cornwallis, 
"  was  to  be  made  a  baron."  He  became  Lord  Adare  in  July, 
1800,  and  was  created  Earl  of  Dunraven  in  1822. 

The  chairman  of  the  Land  Conference  of  1903,  and  the 
author  of  "The  Dunraven  Treaty,"  which  most  successfully 
spoiled  a  radical  and  final  settlement  of  the  Irish  land  ques- 
tion, is  the  present  head  of  this  noble  house. 

Charles  Henry  Coote,  of  Queen's  County,  got  a  peerage 
(Lord  Castlecoote)  and  ;;^7ooo  for  his  services  in  defeating  an 
opponent  of  the  Union,  and  electing  a  supporter. 

John  Preston,  of  Meath,  was  made  a  peer  (Lord  Tara)  and 
given  ^7500  for  a  similar  performance. 

Maurice  Mahon,  of  Roscommon,  was  made  Lord  Hartland 
for  the  service  of  his  two  sons,  Thomas  and  Stephen,  who  were 
members  of  Parliament  and  aided  the  Union. 

Henry  Prittie,  of  Tipperary,  like  the  noble  founder  of  the 
House  of  Hartland,  had  two  profitable  sons,  also  in  College 
Green,  and  they  earned  a  peerage  for  their  father  by  selling 
their  votes.  Their  father  was  made  Lord  Dunally,  and  one  of 
the  sons  became  Viscount  Charleville. 

Thomas  Mullins  was  made  a  lord  for  the  statesmanship  of  a 

29 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

son  who  supported  the  Castlereagh  poHcy.  Subsequently  the 
plebeian  name  of  Mullins  was  changed  into  "  De  Moleyns"  by 
royal  license,  a  blue-blooded  transformation  almost  as  modest 
as  that  of  the  Irish-American  school-girl  who  resolved  to  sign 
her  letters  "  Bidelia  Pomme  de  Terre"  in  lieu  of  Bridget 
Murphy.  Thomas  Mullins's  present-day  descendant  is  men- 
tioned in Dodd's  Peerage  as  "Sir  DayroUes  Blakeney  Eveleigh 
de  Moleyns,  Baron  Ventry." 

Sir  James  Blackwood,  for  supporting  the  Union  in  County 
Down,  raised  his  mother  to  a  baroness,  with  remainder  to 
himself  and  heirs,  and  obtained  ;^i 5,000  in  compensation  for 
the  disfranchisement  of  his  pocket  -  borough  of  Killyleagh. 
Lord  Dufferin  inherited  the  title. 

William  Hare,  landlord  in  Cork  and  Kerry,  was  made  Lord 
Ennismore,  and  subsequently  Earl  of  Listowel,  for  putting 
two  members  into  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  to  vote  for  the 
Union. 

Robert  King,  second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Kingstown,  a  Ros- 
common landlord,  was  made  Baron  Erris  for  Union  services. 
The  earl  received  ;^i 5,000  for  the  disfranchisement  of  the  town 
of  Boyle. 

Lord  Clanricarde  was  made  a  "representative"  peer  for 
similar  services.  He  was  grandfather  of  the  notorious  Clan- 
ricarde of  the  Land  League  period. 

Henry  Sandford,  Roscommon  landlord,  was  made  Lord 
Mount  Sandford,  with  remainder  to  the  sons  of  his  brother, 
with  ;^i 5,000  compensation  for  the  town  of  Roscommon 
ceasing  to  be  a  parliamentary  borough. 

General  Massey  was  made  Lord  Clarina  in  reward  for  sup- 
port of  the  Union.  His  brother  had  already  been  created 
Baron  Massey  in  the  year  1776. 

Joseph  Blake.son  of  a  Galway  landlord, became  Lord  Walles- 
court  as  a  reward  for  similar  services. 

Lodge  Morres,  son  of  a  landlord,  was  made  Lord  Frankfort, 
to  blossom  subsequently  into  Viscount  Frankfort  de  Mont- 
morency in  recompense  for  his  labors. 

John  Toler,  a  Castle  hack  of  the  worst  character.  Attorney - 
General  in  1798,  made  Chief-Justice  and  Lord  Norbury  in 
1800,  was  the  judge  who  tried  Robert  Emmet  in  1803.  He 
was  probably  the  most  infamous  of  all  the  corrupt  Castle 
agents  who  were  ever  promoted  to  the  Irish  bench  in  order 
to  dispense  English  justice. 

The  Marquis  of  Ely,  a  landlord,  was  made  an  English 
peer,  and  paid  ;^45,ooo  for  compensation  for  six  seats. 

Charles  Agar,  Archbishop  of  Cashel,  was  made  Earl  of 
Normanton.     His  brother  received  ;^3o,ooo  compensation. 

30 


"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 

John  Fitzgibbon,  lawyer  and  political  renegade,  was  made 
Lord  Clare  for  Union  services.  Pitt,  on  hearing  him  speak 
in  the  British  House  of  Lords,  subsequently  declared  him  to 
be  a  rascal.  When  his  funeral  cortege  was  passing  through 
Dublin  dead  cats  were  thrown  at  the  hearse. 

Robert  Cunningham  became  Lord  Rossmore,  and  received 
;(^i 5,000  to  boot.  He  belonged  to  a  landlord  family  in 
Monaghan,  and  earned  his  nobility  and  compensation  in  the 
Union  market. 

Nicholas  Lawless  became  Lord  Cloncurry.  This  title  was 
purchased  for  money,  the  cash  being  expended  in  the  cause 
of  the  Union.  Curran,  the  famous  advocate  and  wit,  alluding 
to  this  and  similar  transactions,  said:  "The  sale  of  peerages 
is  as  notorious  as  the  sale  of  cart-horses  in  the  Castle  Yard; 
the  publicity  the  same,  the  terms  not  any  different,  the  horses 
not  warranted  sound,  the  other  animals  warranted  rotten." 
Lawless  turned  Protestant  in  order  to  buy  landed  property, 
and  then  bought  himself  a  peerage  by  helping  to  sell  the 
Parliament  of  his  country. 

Sexton  Perry,  political  renegade,  promoted  from  a  follower 
of  Grattan  and  Flood  to  be  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
got  his  brother  raised  to  the  peerage  from  the  position  of 
bishop  of  the  State  Church.  This  title  was  also  bought. 
The  Earl  of  Limerick  is  the  present  head  of  the  house  thus 
founded. 

James  Alexander,  member  for  Londonderry,  created  Earl 
of  Caledon,  and  paid  ;^i 5,000  compensation. 

Sir  John  Brown,  a  Mayo  landlord,  purchased  the  title  of 
Lord  Kilmaine  with  money  got  for  services  in  aid  of  the 
Union. 

Hugh  Carlton,  after  the  manner  and  morals  of  Toler  Lord 
Norbury,  used  his  chances  as  a  place  -  hunting  lawyer  to 
mount  to  Castle  dignities.  He  earned  the  title  of  Viscount 
Carlton  in  these  successful  efforts. 

Robert  Stewart's  father  was  elevated  to  the  peerage  for 
loyal  services  as  member  for  County  Down,  and  assumed  the 
title  of  Baron  Londonderry.  Robert  followed  the  father  as 
representative  of  that  county,  and  recommended  himself  so 
well  to  the  Pitt  ministry  for  his  enmity  to  Irish  nationhood 
that  he  was  made  secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  He 
became  the  chief  agent  and  auctioneer  in  the  sale  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  and  is  known  to  history  as  Lord  Castlereagh. 
The  present  Lord  Londonderry  is  the  holder  of  the  title  and 
the  representative  of  the  nobility  thus  created. 

William  Trench  and  his  son  Richard  were  of  a  Galway 
lawyer-landlord    stock.     The    father    was    made    Lord    Kil- 

31 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

connell  for  services  to  Lord  Camden  in  fomenting  the  Re- 
bellion of  1798,  and  the  son,  who  became  member  for  Galway, 
was  made  Earl  of  Clancarty  for  Union  services. 

Henry  Luttrell,  a  mercenary  renegade  to  his  party,  an 
apostate  and  traitor,  was  the  founder  of  the  house  of  Car- 
hampton.  One  of  his  offspring  became  an  earl,  and  was 
commander  of  the  British  forces  in  Ireland  during  the  Re- 
bellion of  1798.  The  atrocities  committed  during  the  in- 
surrection have  never  been  surpassed,  if  even  equalled,  in 
systematic  cruelties  by  a  Turkish  army.  He  quartered  his 
soldiers  on  the  peasantry  and  incited  them  by  encouragement 
and  example  to  a  wholesale  violation  of  women  and  girls. 
This  truly  monstrous  family  is  now  extinct,  but  it  will  always 
be  in  the  memory  of  Ireland  that  it  was  a  scion  of  the  man 
stigmatized  by  Lord  Macaulay  as  having  lived  a  life  of  infamy, 
who  was  the  chief  instrument  of  landlord  and  anti-Irish 
vengeance  in  1798.  The  last  member  of  this  house  of 
scoundrels  died  a  convicted  thief  in  a  German  prison. 

John  Scott,  the  notorious  Earl  of  Clonmel,  belongs  to  the 
Toler,  Carlton,  Fitzgibbon  class  of  Irish  nobles,  as  one  of  the 
unscrupulous  legal  instruments  of  the  landlord  garrison.  He 
died  before  the  Act  of  Union  became  law,  but  his  title  was 
earned  in  like  manner  to  that  of  the  ancestors  of  the  present 
Irish  nobility. 

John  Hely-Hutchinson,  a  successful  place-hunter  and  sine- 
curist,  founded  the  noble  house  of  Donoughmore.  He  wormed 
himself  into  the  lucrative  post  of  Provost  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin,  and  succeeded  in  electing  his  son  as  one  of  its  mem- 
bers to  the  House  of  Commons.  This  son  was  made  Viscount 
Donoughmore  in  reward  for  his  services  during  the  rebellion 
of  1798. 

James  Cuffe,  member  for  Mayo,  became  Lord  Tyrawley  for 
varied  services  rendered  to  the  enemies  of  the  Irish  people. 

Barry  Yelverton,  apostate  from  his  faith  and  renegade 
from  his  party,  earned  the  title  of  Viscount  Avonmore. 
Barrington  calls  him  "one  of  the  salesmasters  of  the  Irish 
Parliament." 

William  Tonson,  as  owner  of  a  parliamentary  borough  in 
County  Cork,  undertook  to  "elect"  supporters  of  the  govern- 
ment in  return  for  a  peerage.  He  was  made  Lord  Riv- 
ersdale. 

John  Burke,  successful  place-man,  owner  of  a  nomination 
borough,  was  made  Lord  Naas,  and  afterwards  created  a  peer 
as  Earl  of  Mayo.  The  customary  ;^i 5,000  compensation 
followed  the  title  as  the  price  of  the  borough. 

James  Corry,  land-owner  of  Fermanagh,  was  create(^Earl  of 

2,2 


"NOBILITY    AND    GENTRY" 

Belmore,   and   received  ;^3o,ooo    compensation    for    general 
support  of  the  Camden-Castlereagh  policy. 

Abraham  Creighton  was  member  for  Enniskillen,  and  was 
ennobled  in  1768.  His  two  sons  became  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  They  first  voted  against,  and  then  for, 
the  Union.  They  sold  their  votes  for  a  price.  The  father 
was  promoted  in  the  peerage,  and  was  paid  ;;^  15,000. 

James  Agar  was  a  Kilkenny  landlord,  and  reckoned  two 
boroughs  among  his  property.  For  voting  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  day  he  was  made  Baron  Clifden.  He  quartered 
his  sons  on  the  public  purse,  one  of  them  obtaining  ;;^3o,ooo 
for  the  sale  of  two  boroughs  in  behalf  of  the  Union. 

St.  Leger  Aldworth,  member  for  Doneraile,  County  Cork, 
was  created  Lord  of  that  name  for  loyalty  to  the  government 
and  the  support  given  by  two  sons  who  were  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  the  Union  project:  ;,£i 5,000  compen- 
sation was  paid  to  one  of  the  sons. 

These  were  the  peers  and  their  political  henchmen,  the 
members  of  Parliament,  whom  the  Act  of  Union  transferred 
as  law  -  makers  for  Ireland  from  Dublin  to  Westminster. 
The  change  of  social  and  legislative  duties  brought  no 
change  for  the  better  in  their  treatment  of  tenants  or  care 
for  the  country.  They  remained  the  same  lavishly  expen- 
sive, devil-may-care  class,  and  soon  contracted  what  new 
vices  in  London  society  were  not  theirs  already  by  habit 
or  natural  disposition.  They  at  once  began  to  compete 
with  the  manners  and  customs  of  an  English  landocracy  far 
richer  than  themselves.  In  this  spendthrift  rivalry  with  the 
owners  of  greater  wealth  commenced  the  ruinous  phase  of 
Irish  landlordism  known  as  absenteeism.  Evictions  began 
for  the  first  time  on  a  large  scale.  The  cost  of  extravagant 
London  living  and  of  gambling  fell  upon  their  unfortunate 
Irish  tenants,  who  had  no  right  or  protection  of  any  kind  in 
the  soil  beyond  their  capacity  to  earn  whatever  rent  the  own- 
ers' debts  or  rapacity  caused  to  be  placed  upon  the  toil  of  a 
half-starved  people.  And  it  was  in  this  way,  too,  that  the 
species  of  legal  extortion  known  as  "rack-rent"  began  in 
modern  Ireland. 

Famines  came  and  went;  distress  was  then,  as  later,  of 
periodic  occurrence;  and  English  travellers  through  Ireland 
noted  and  told  of  the  miserable  hovels  of  the  people,  of  their 
poverty,  ignorance,  and  discontent,  of  the  squalor  of  their 
homes,  the  rags  and  barbarism  of  the  children,  and  denounced 
the  lawlessness  of  a  "semi-civilized"  Popish  peasantry  who 
battled  against  the  "humanizing  spirit  and  character"  of  an 
enlightened  English  rule! 

3  33 


CHAPTER  IV 

I.— DANIEL    OCONNELL 

The  agrarianism  of  the  two  first  decades  of  the  nineteenth 
century  was  but  the  recrudescence  of  previous  outbursts  in 
the  three  Southern  provinces.  The  cause  was  that  of  the 
same  operative  injustice — the  tyranny  of  the  landed  pro- 
prietors. The  Cathohc  Church,  however,  became  more  and 
more  the  opponent  of  Whiteboyism,  and  of  its  various  off- 
shoots in  Connaught  and  Leinster,  as  the  deferred  promises 
of  emancipation  loomed  within  the  domain  of  possibility. 
Thrashers  and  Steelboys  rose  in  all  the  Western  counties, 
and  made  no  distinction  among  enemies,  whether  clergy  or 
landlords  or  their  adherents.  The  law  and  its  agents  were 
defied,  outrages  were  made  to  follow  evictions  or  grabbing, 
in  regular  and  certain  punishment,  while  altar  denunciations 
failed  to  frighten  the  leaders,  who  could  command  the  loyalty 
of  the  peasants  who  knew  that  their  homes  were  secure  only 
through  the  terrorism  which  the  doubly  banned  associations 
created.  Insurrection  acts  and  the  older  Whiteboy  laws 
were  enforced  to  put  the  agrarian  bands  down,  with  the 
usual  crop  of  hangings  and  transportations.  There  was, 
however,  no  regular  police  force  to  deal  with  these  lawless 
societies,  the  military  being  the  only  available  power  to  put 
the  law  in  operation,  and  full  advantage  was  taken  of  this 
state  of  things  by  the  various  "Captains"  who  were  the 
peasant  leaders.  An  irregular  insurrection  was  kept  up  in 
midnight  raids,  threatening  letters,  and  violence  in  all  forms 
in  the  West  and  in  some  of  the  Southern  counties,  until  after 
1825  the  attention  of  the  country  was  diverted  from  these 
doings  to  the  great  and  absorbing  issue  of  Catholic  emanci- 
pation. 

The  rise  and  wonderful  career  of  Daniel  O'Connell  had  more 
of  an  indirect  than  an  actual  influence  upon  the  cause  of  land 
reform.  He  was  not,  in  any  sense,  an  active  land  reformer, 
either  by  the  media  of  passive  resistance  or  in  the  consti- 
tutional way  of  Gavan  Duffy's  Tenants'  League.  O'Connell 
was  a  small  landlord  himself,  and  had  all  the  good  and  very 

34 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL 

few  of  the  bad  qualities  of  the  class  to  which  he  belonged. 
He  was  an  occasional  advocate  of  long  leases  and  of  fair 
rent,  of  a  tenure  of  land  which  was  deemed  to  be  as  radical 
in  his  time  as  the  "Three  F's"'  in  the  reforming  generation 
of  Isaac  Butt.  O'Connell's  dream  and  ambition,  after  first 
winning  a  measure  of  religious  liberty  for  his  fellow-Catholics, 
was  to  see  the  constitution  of  the  pre-Union  period  (freed,  of 
course,  of  its  grosser  social  and  religious  inequalities)  restored. 
Repeal  stood  for  a  landlord  House  of  Lords  and  for  a  higher 
and  middle  class  Irish  House  of  Commons,  in  O'Connell's  am- 
bition, though  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  progressive  views 
which  he  developed  in  his  parliamentary  career,  especially  dur- 
ing the  thirties,  would  have  found  expression  in  his  statesman- 
ship at  home,  had  he  succeeded  in  his  hope  of  being  the  first 
minister  of  a  restored  Irish  Parliament. 

While  he  cannot  be  classed  among  those  who  have  fought 
strenuously  against  landlordism,  his  mighty  power  in  Ireland, 
the  magic  hold  which  his  name  had  upon  the  Irish  imagina- 
tion, as  a  giant  champion  of  the  race  and  country  during  a 
whole  generation,  could  not  fail  in  exercising  an  enormous  in- 
fluence upon  almost  every  Irish  question. 

He  was  the  first  truly  great  leader  the  Celtic  people  had 
found  since  the  death  of  Owen  Roe  O'Neill.  He  was  Irish 
to  the  very  marrow  of  his  bones,  and  combined  all  the 
masculine  qualities  of  the  race,  along  with  many  of  its  weaker 
ones,  in  a  personality  that  towered  far  above  any  man  of 
his  time.  Ireland  has  never  produced  a  greater  man  than 
O'Connell,  and  Europe  very  few  that  can  truly  be  called  his 
equal  in  the  work  of  uplifting  a  people  from  the  degrading- 
status  of  religious  and  political  serfdom  to  conditions  of 
national  life  which  necessarily  created  changes  and  chances 
of  progress  that  were  bound  to  lead  on  to  the  gain  of  further 
liberty.  His  fame  lies  in  the  fact  that  he  did  this  practically 
alone.  He  created  a  national  public  opinion  in  Ireland;  with- 
out a  press  he  welded  an  ignorant  people  into  a  huge  combi- 
nation, unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  reform  movements,  and 
fought  the  enemies  of  his  cause,  in  and  out  of  Parliament, 
with  an  ability  and  a  mighty  resourcefulness  of  power, 
aggressive  capacity,  eloquence,  knowledge,  and  wit  never 
equalled  by  any  popular  leader  ever  produced  by  any  other 
race. 

It  is  claimed,  and  not  without  justice,  that  O'Connell  was 
the  originator  of  the  reforming  weapon  of  agitation  and  the 
founder  of  the  modern   political  school   of  moral-force  na- 

'  Fixity  of  Tenure,  Fair  Rents,  and  Free  vSale. 
35 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

tionalism.  Views  differ  among  Irish  nationalists  as  to  his 
claims  to  praise  for  this  service.  The  fame,  at  least,  no  one 
can  deny,  and  the  praise  is  subject  only  to  the  varying 
estimates  of  opinion.  One  need  not  approve  of  all  Napoleon 
did  in  his  career,  but  to  challenge  the  verdict  of  the  world  as 
to  his  claim  to  greatness  would  be  absurd. 

O'Connell's  chief  weakness  was  more  induced  than  inherit- 
ed. This  was  his  political  abhorrence  of  revolutionary  media. 
His  constant  declarations  on  this  head,  and  his  truly  ridicu- 
lous contention  that  liberty  was  not  worth  the  shedding  of 
human  blood,  injured  the  political  force  of  his  movement 
enormously  with  English  rulers.  They  felt  that  they  knew  the 
measure  of  their  man,  the  limits  of  his  power  to  make  them 
uneasy,  and  of  the  danger  it  represented  to  their  system  in 
Ireland,  and  they  shaped  their  policy  accordingly.  They, 
in  fact,  conceded  more  to  the  action  of  a  few  peasants  who 
attacked  and  killed  a  small  body  of  soldiers  and  police  at 
Carrigshock  during  the  tithe  war  of  the  thirties  than  to  all 
the  huge  repeal  meetings  addressed  by  the  great  tribune  for 
ten  years. 

O'Connell  was  educated  in  a  French  Catholic  college  dur- 
ing some  of  the  years  of  the  French  Revolution,  and  he  ap- 
pears never  to  have  shaken  the  anti-Jacobin  prejudices  of  his 
early  mentors  out  of  his  mind.  What  was  to  Europe  and 
to  civilized  mankind  an  epoch  of  social  deliverance  and  of 
political  enfranchisement  greater  and  more  blessed  in  its  re- 
sults than  that  of  any  previous  struggle  for  human  liberty, 
was  but  a  horror  and  a  calamity  to  a  certain  class  of  ultra- 
montane minds  that  would  put  a  higher  social  and.  moral 
value  upon  the  heads  of  a  French  Catholic  king  and  queen 
than  on  the  lives  of  a  hundred  thousand  peasants  of  France 
or  Ireland. 

But,  with  all  his  limitations,  O'Connell  stands  out  promi- 
nently on  the  canvas  of  Irish  history  as  a  Colossus  who  im- 
pressed the  world  with  the  greatness  of  his  Celtic  personality, 
and  who  has  established  an  undying  claim  to  gratitude  and 
to  admiration  upon  the  memory  of  his  own  race. 

The  anti-tithe  agitation  of  the  thirties,  being  a  mixed 
agrarian  and  creed  movement,  and  inviting  the  co-operation 
of  the  Catholic  clergy  on  the  latter  ground,  showed  greater 
force  of  organization  than  the  previous  irregular  Whiteboy 
combinations.  The  influence  of  O'Connell's  methods  of 
organized  public  gatherings  was  felt  in  the  more  general 
plan  of  uniform  passive  resistance  adopted  in  the  tithe  war. 
Distraint  for  cattle  was  systematically  obstructed;  tithe 
proctors  were  waylaid  and  beaten,  just  as  process-servers 

36 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL 

were  in  1880-81,  in  the  days  of  the  Land  League;  and  the 
power  of  social  ostracism  was  brought  to  bear  upon  traitors 
to  the  popular  revolt  against  an  abominable  form  of  sectarian 
ascendency.  But  the  effective  power  behind  the  agitation 
against  the  payment  of  tithes  was  that  of  the  Whiteboy 
spirit  —  the  young  men  who  ran  risks  and  drilled  at  night, 
collected  arms,  and  otherwise  kept  up  the  racial  antagon- 
ism to  the  law  that  made  the  land  the  property  of  a 
rapacious  and  anti-Irish  class.  These  were  the  men  who 
anticipated  the  "boycotting"  of  a  later  period,  and  who 
made  a  village  or  county  an  uncomfortable  place  for  a  grabber 
or  a  proctor  to  reside  in  without  English  military  protection. 

The  varied  forms  in  which  Whiteboyism  manifested  itself 
in  the  South  and  West,  in  the  earlier  period  of  O'Connell's 
time,  indicated  little  or  no  change  in  purpose  or  methods. 
Districts  or  counties  gave  names  of  their  own  to  a  branch  of 
the  same  movement.  The  "Whitefeet"  and  "  Blackfeet," 
the  "Terry  Alts,"  "Rockites,"  "The  Lady  Clares,"  and  the 
rest,  were  all  peasant  bands  leagued  irregularly  against  the 
common  enemy  —  landlordism,  and  the  law,  government, 
class,  or  interests  on  which  it  relied  for  the  power  to  rack- 
rent  the  land  and  to  harass  the  lives  of  the  laboring  poor. 
In  the  South  the  evil  of  turning  tillage  land  into  grazing  farms, 
to  the  injury  of  laborers  and  of  the  interests  of  general  in- 
dustry, engaged  the  attention  of  the  Whiteboy s,  and  showed 
on  their  part  an  intelligent  appreciation  of  sound  political 
economy. 

It  frequently  happened  that  these  names  were  made  covers 
for  robbery  and  crime,  having  no  relation  to  the  general  pur- 
pose of  the  agrarian  societies.  Factions,  too,  grew  out  of 
some  of  these  local  combinations,  like  the  "Caravats"  and 
"Shanavats  "  of  Kilkenny  and  Waterford,  who  fought  among 
themselves  at  fairs  and  patterns,  but  were  otherwise  one 
in  sympathy  with  the  general  policy  of  lawless  attacks  on 
the  adherents  of  the  landlord  garrison.  Raids  for  arms, 
posting  of  threatening  notices,  and  firing  into  the  dwellings  of 
obnoxious  persons  were  the  modus  operandi  of  all  the  sections 
in  common,  with  occasional  fights  with  the  military  forces 
who  were  in  constant  requisition  for  the  pursuit  and  repres- 
sion of  these  nocturnal  bands. 

Testimony  to  the  power  they  wielded,  and  to  the  kind  of 
lawless  "law"  upheld  by  them,  abounds  in  the  ofificial  papers 
and  blue-books  of  the  time — especially  in  the  evidence  given 
before  a  parliamentary  committee  which  inc[uired  into  their 
origin  and  objects  in  1832. 

Mr.  Justice  Jebb,  addressing  the  grand  jury  of  the  county 

37 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  Limerick,  in  a  special  commission,  in  1831,  thus  defined 
the  illegal  programme  of  the  Wliiteboys: 

"The  offences  I  allude  to  are  those  against  the  statutes  too 
well  known  to  you  under  the  name  of  the  Whiteboy  Acts;  and 
the  species  of  crime  against  which  these  acts  provide  may  be 
fairly  characterized,  in  a  few  words,  as  '  a  war  of  the  peasantry 
against  the  proprietors  and  occupiers  of  land.'  The  object  of 
this  warfare  is  to  deprive  the  proprietors  and  occupiers  of 
land  of  the  power  of  disposing  of  their  property  as  they  think 
fit,  to  dictate  to  them  the  terms  on  which  their  estates  and 
property  shall  be  dealt  out  to  the  peasantry,  and  to  punish  by 
all  the  means  that  can  be  resorted  to  such  as  disobey  those 
dictates  which  the  people  think  proper  to  issue."  ^ 

Lord  Wellesley,  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  writing  to  Lord 
Melbourne,  on  April  15,  1834,  thus  described  the  objects  of 
Whiteboyism  generally : 

"A  complete  system  of  legislation,  with  the  most  prompt, 
vigorous,  and  severe  executive  power,  sworn,  equipped,  and 
armed  for  all  purposes  of  savage  punishment,  is  established  in 
almost  every  district.  On  this  subject  I  cannot  express  my 
opinions  more  clearly,  nor  with  more  force  nor  justice,  than 
your  lordship  will  find  employed  in  a  letter  addressed  by 
Lord  Oxmantown,  Lieutenant  of  the  Queen's  County,  to  Mr. 
Littleton.  Lord  Oxmantown  truly  observes  that  the  com- 
bination established  surpasses  the  [Dublin  Castle]  law  in  vigor, 
promptitude,  and  efficacy,  and  that  it  is  more  safe  to  violate 
the  law  than  to  obey  it."^ 

The  dispassionate  view  of  Sir  George  Cornwall  Lewis  is  thus 
given  in  his  invaluable  book  upon  the  sources  of  Irish  agrarian 
discontent : 

"They  [the  Whiteboys]  act  on  the  general  impression, 
prevalent  among  their  class,  that  land  is  necessary  to  the 
maintenance  of  a  poor  man's  family;  and  though  they  may 
not  have  a  present,  yet  they  have  a  future  interest  in  the  mat- 
ter; though  they  may  not  be  personally  concerned,  yet  their 
kinsmen  and  friends  and  fellows  are  concerned.  It  is  possible 
for  men  to  be  swayed  by  a  regard  for  the  general  advantage 
of  their  order  without  reaping  any  individual  or  immediate 
benefit.  In  like  manner  we  are  not  to  conclude  because  all 
the  Whiteboys  are  not  ejected  tenants,  therefore  the  prevention 
of  ejectment  is  not  the  object  of  their  system;  the  fear  of  losing 
land  may  be  as  powerful  a  motive  as  the  actual  loss  of  it."^ 

Giving  evidence  before  the  House  of  Commons  committee, 

'  IrisJi  Disturbances,  p.   106. 

^  "House  of  Commons  Papers,"  July  7,  1834,  p.  5. 

*  Irish  Disturbances,  p.  188. 

38 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL 

in  1832,  a  Queen's  County  magistrate  related  this  story  of 
Whiteboy  vengeance: 

"On  the  very  borders  of  the  barony  of  Ossory,  on  a  noble 
lord's  estate,  an  ejectment  was  brought  against  the  middleman ; 
ahabere  was  issued,  possession  taken,  and  the  land  was  relet  to  a 
Mr.  Marum,  not  to  the  tenants  in  possession,  which  is  the  usual 
way,  for  the  six  months'  equity  of  redemption.  Mr.  Marum 
deluded  the  tenants  with  the  hope  that  he  took  the  land  for 
their  benefit ;  but  when  the  six  months  expired  he  turned  out 
those  tenants,  and  I  am  told  he  sold  their  household  effects  for 
the  six  months'  rent;  the  consequence  was  his  cattle  were 
houghed,  and  driven  from  the  county  of  Kilkenny  into  Queen's 
County  for  that  purpose.  For  three  years  that  system  was 
kept  up,  and  Mr.  Marum  was  shot  in  the  open  day  afterwards, 
in  the  midst  of  a  dense  population."* 

The  son  of  this  Mr.  Marum  was  an  earnest  tenant-righter 
under  Isaac  Butt's  leadership,  in  the  seventies  of  last  century, 
and  was  one  of  the  followers  of  Mr.  Parnell,  who  gave  his  sup- 
port to  the  Land  League  on  its  formation.  He  was  elected 
to  the  House  of  Commons  for  North  Kilkenny,  in  the  eighties, 
and  was  a  member  of  Mr.  Parnell's  parliamentary  party. 
It  was  in  the  bye-election  which  followed  in  this  constituency, 
after  Mr.  Marum's  demise,  and  following  the  split  in  "Com- 
mittee Room  15,"  that  Mr.  Parnell  was  defeated,  in  the  person 
of  his  candidate  (a  relative  of  the  notorious  Scully,  of  Bally- 
cohy,  who  was  shot  at  but  not  killed  in  1867),  by  the  nominee 
of  the  opposing  majority,  the  late  Sir  John  Pope  Hennessy. 
Yet  another  singular  incident  connected  with  this  contest 
was  the  death,  upon  the  same  date,  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  of 
Pope  Hennessy,  October  6,  1891. 

Both  O'Connell  and  Dr.  Doyle,  the  famous  Bishop  of  Ossory, 
denounced  the  Whiteboy s  in  unmeasured  censure,  and  were 
anxious  to  disassociate  the  Catholic  cause  from  the  violence  and 
raiding  of  the  insurgent  peasants.  This  was  partly  prompted 
by  policy  and  partly  by  sincerity.  The  enemies  of  both  the 
Repeal  movement  and  of  all  Catholic  claims  falsely  charged 
these  disturbances  against  the  alleged  disloyal  teachings  of 
the  clergy  and  the  Liberator,  when,  in  reality,  the  Church  was 
making  itself  too  much  the  slave  of  an  abominable  law,  and 
was  tacitly  upholding  landlordism  by  not  denouncing  the 
glaring  injustices  which  drove  the  tenants  to  outrage  as  the 
only  protection  against  a  condoned  and  tolerated  oppression 
of  the  poor.  It  was  the  same  in  the  early  period  of  the  White- 
boy insurrection.    Sir  George  Cornwall  Lewis  quotes  from  Mr. 

•  Irish  Disturbances,  p.  116. 
39 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Wyse's  History  of  the  Catholic  Association  the  following  con- 
demnation of  this  attitude: 

"Neither  in  a  collective  nor  individual  capacity  do  the 
Catholic  gentry  and  clergy  appear  to  have  had  much  control 
over  the  lower  classes  of  their  communion.  Mr.  O 'Conor  fre- 
quently complains,  in  terms  of  just  bitterness,  of  the  more 
than  Protestant  severity  of  the  Catholic  landholders;  and  the 
thunders  of  the  episcopacy,  and  the  exhortations  of  the  lower 
clergy,  in  the  insurrection  of  Munster  (1760-70),  fell  idly 
on  the  affections  and  fears  of  the  infuriated  peasantry."^ 

The  author  in  a  similar  manner  points  out  how  the  historic 
German  peasants'  war,  in  1525,  was  used  as  a  controversial 
argument  against  the  Reformation,  by  Catholic  prelates  and 
nobles,  in  being  attributed  by  them  to  the  revolt  of  Luther; 
while  English  Catholic  historians  attempted  to  father  upon 
the  doctrines  of  Wycliff  and  his  followers  the  uprising  of  Wat 
Tyler  and  the  peasants  of  Kent.  Neither  in  Germany,  Eng- 
land, nor  Ireland  did  it  seem  to  occur  to  the  wielders  of  censure 
to  search  for  the  real  source  of  these  uprisings,  and  to  lay  the 
blame  honestly  for  the  true  causes  of  them  where  it  should 
rightly  be  placed. 

For  the  first  twenty-nine  years  of  the  Union  with  England 
no  measure  for  the  protection  of  the  Irish  tenant  was  even  in- 
troduced into  the  British  House  of  Commons  by  any  minister 
or  member.  Numerous  acts  were  passed  to  put  down  dis- 
turbances and  to  make  still  more  arbitrary  tUe  power  of  the 
landlord  to  do  with  the  land  as  he  pleased.  The  Whiteboy 
organization  was  the  only  security  for  the  tenant,  and  its  stern 
decrees  the  one  restraint  upon  the  despotism  of  the  owner. 
Mr.  Sharman  Crawford,  a  Protestant  landlord  from  County 
Down,  introduced  two  bills,  in  the  sessions  of  1835-36,  to 
effect  some  slight  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the  Irish  tenant, 
but  no  attention  was  paid  to  his  pleading.  His  bills  were 
dropped.  The  legislative  record  of  the  House  of  Commons  in 
this  respect  was  summed  up  in  two  sentences  by  Mr.  Isaac 
Butt,  in  1866,  when  he  said:  "  For  two  centuries  they  had  seen 
all  the  law  arrayed  on  the  side  of  the  landlord.  Numerous 
statutes  had  been  passed  to  enforce  his  rights.  Not  one  has 
been  passed  in  favor  of  the  tenant."^ 

II.  — "THE    RIBBON  MEN" 

The  Ribbon  organization,  which  came  into  prominence  at 
the  later  stages  of  the  anti-tithe  movement,  was  founded  in 

*  Irish  DisUirbances,  p.  178.         ^  .4  Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race,  p.  75. 

40 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL 

Ulster,  and  had  its  origin  in  the  Defenders,  already  briefly  de- 
scribed. It  became  the  most  powerful  of  all  the  Irish  secret 
societies  of  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  exer- 
cised very  considerable  influence  upon  the  subsequent  up- 
building of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood.  It  absorbed  almost  all 
the  existing  agrarian  bodies  after  1830,  Whiteboyism  being 
largely  transformed  into  the  better  organized  and  more  wide- 
spread Ribbon  combination. 

It  was  as  exclusive  in  its  religious  constitution  as  Orangeism, 
and  admitted  no  members  to  its  ranks  who  were  not  Catholics. 
Its  original  object  was  more  protective  than  aggressive,  and 
had  anti  -  Orangeism  rather  than  anti  -  landlordism  as  its 
guiding  spirit  and  purpose.  The  part  which  the  society 
played,  however,  in  the  war  against  tithes,  and  in  the  Repeal 
gatherings  of  the  forties,  broadened  the  sphere  of  its  activity, 
and  in  a  few  years'  time  united  the  agrarian  plans  of  the 
Whiteboys  to  the  pro-Catholic  programme  of  its  Defender 
organizers. 

It  was  an  oath -bound  society,  with  signs  and  passwords, 
and  as  such  was  denounced  and  opposed  by  all  the  powers  of 
the  Catholic  Church  down  to  recent  years.  This  did  not 
materially  arrest  its  rapid  spread  through  Ulster,  and  in 
counties  stretching  from  Louth  westward  through  Westmeath 
and  Longford  to  the  northern  counties  of  Connaught.  It 
had  no  very  strong  hold,  at  any  time,  upon  the  more  southern 
counties  of  Ireland,  where  the  power  of  anti-Catholic  in- 
fluences gradually  diminished  after  the  growth  of  the  Repeal 
and  anti-tithe  agitations.  The  sectarian  tyranny  of  Ulster 
was  not  felt  where  laborers  and  farmers  were  of  the  same 
faith  as  the  members  of  secret  associations,  and  the  need  for 
a  society  of  the  Defenders  type  was  not  required. 

The  Ribbon  society  has  been  remarkable  among  secret 
organizations  in  Ireland  for  the  few  informers  it  has  pro- 
duced. Not  one,  I  believe,  of  its  leaders  or  prominent  mem- 
bers ever  betrayed  the  association.  Spies  were  sent  into  its 
ranks  by  Dublin  Castle,  and  many  of  the  ordinary  members 
turned  traitors  on  their  fellows,  when  arrested  for  complicity 
in  some  illegal  action,  but  the  secrets  of  the  society,  the  names 
of  its  leaders,  its  methods  of  government  and  of  action  were 
far  more  successfully  concealed  than  those  of  any  other  oath- 
bound  combination  among  the  Irish  people.  This  was  due, 
primarily,  to  a  wise  precaution  against  keeping  books,  doc- 
uments, or  records  that  would  reveal  information  if  lost  or 
seized.  In  this  respect  these  peasant  conspirators  were  far 
wiser  in  their  plans  than  the  educated  organizers  and  leaders 
of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood.     It  has  been  said  that  nature 

41 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

intended  Irishmen  to  be  agitators  but  not  conspirators.  Be 
that  as  it  may,  it  can  be  safely  affirmed  that  the  more  or 
less  uneducated  Ribbonmen  have  shown  themselves  to  be 
more  skilled  in  the  methods  of  secret  conspiracy  than  the 
more  cultured  class  of  their  countrymen  who  founded  Fenian- 
ism,  to  a  large  extent  upon  the  Ribbon  lodges  of  Ireland. 

Ribbonism  failed  completely,  in  company  with  every  other 
Irish  power  or  influence — political,  revolutionary,  social,  and 
ecclesiastical — to  render  any  combative  service  to  the  cause 
of  the  peasantry  of  Ireland  during  the  great  famine  of  1847-48. 
I  shall  have  more  to  say  on  this  shameful  period  of  Ireland's 
history  in  the  next  chapter. 

The  Ribbonmen  carried  their  organization  with  them 
when,  in  the  great  emigration  which  followed  the  famine 
years,  they  went,  with  millions  of  their  race,  to  the  United 
States,  Great  Britain,  and  Canada.  The  Ancient  Order  of 
Hibernians,  now  perhaps  the  most  powerful  pro-Celtic  or- 
ganization in  the  world,  was  the  trans-Atlantic  offspring  of 
the  Ribbonism  of  Ireland.  It  has  long  ceased  to  be  a  se- 
cret or  oath -bound  organization,  and  has  become  mainly 
a  benevolent  society.  Its  membership  is  strictly  confined 
to  Catholics,  in  accord  with  the  original  aim  of  the  parent 
(Defender)  body,  and  this  and  other  causes  have  prevented 
its  becoming  an  effective  revolutionary  force  on  the  side  of 
the  general  Irish  struggle  for  freedom.  But  no  association  of 
Irish-American  citizens  rendered  more  loyal  or  more  pecuniary 
assistance  to  the  Land  League  movement,  and  to  Mr.  Parnell's 
parliamentary  party,  than  the  divisions  of  the  Ancient  Order 
of  Hibernians  of  America. 

After  the  failure  of  Gavan  Duffy's  league,  and  the  triumph 
of  the  Archbishop  Cullen  policy,  James  Stephens  found  the 
Ribbon  lodges  one  of  the  best  recruiting  grounds  for  his 
democratic  revolutionary  brotherhood.  His  Fenian  move- 
ment largely  absorbed  the  younger  members  of  the  pro- 
agrarian  society.  One — among  other — extraordinary  effect 
of  this  transformation  was  to  procure  for  the  landlords  of 
Ireland  almost  twenty  years  of  agrarian  peace — that  is,  of  a 
cessation  of  Whiteboy  forms  of  attack  upon  their  system  and 
its  adherents  and  interests. 

On  the  seeming  collapse  of  Fenianism,  following  the  trials 
and  punishments  of  1867-70,  the  agrarian  spirit  asserted 
itself  again.  Ribbonism  manifested  great  activity  in  West- 
meath,  Longford,  and  adjacent  counties  in  fighting  the  old 
Whiteboy  cause  against  landlordism,  and  compelled  the 
government  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  during  the  chief-secretaryship 
of  the  present  Duke  of  Devonshire  (then  Lord  Hartington) 

42 


DANIEL    O'CONNELL 

to  suspend  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  and  to  pass  one  of  the 
many  Whiteboy  acts  of  the  Irish  ParHament  and  of  the  first 
decades  of  the  Union,  under  the  name  of  the  Westmeath  Act, 
to  cope  with  the  social  insurrectionary  activity  of  the  Ribbon 
organization  in  this  and  adjoining  counties. 

The  "Molly  Maguires,"  largely  confined  to  Cavan,  Leitrim, 
and  Armagh,  in  the  sixties  and  seventies,  grew  out  of  and 
became  a  rival  body  to  the  Ribbon  society,  as  "The  Lady 
Clares  "  sprang  from  the  Whiteboy  movement  in  the  thirties. 
They  committed  many  outrages  of  a  shocking  kind,  which 
were  unjustly  fathered  upon  the  larger  society.  They  an- 
ticipated the  Moonlighters  of  a  later  period  in  mere  sense- 
less lawlessness.  And,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Moonlighters, 
there  were  policemen  of  the  Whelehan  class,  and  informers  of 
the  Cullinan  type,  who  planned  outrages  under  cover  of  the 
"  Mollies"  for  the  rewards  which  were  liberally  given  by  Dub- 
lin Castle  for  the  detection  of  outrage  and  crime. 

In  recent  years  the  Ribbon  societies  of  Ireland  and  Great 
Britain  have  followed  the  lead  of  the  new  development 
across  the  Atlantic,  and  have  ceased  to  be  both  secret  and 
oath-bound,  save  in  the  sense  in  which  the  Ancient  Order  of 
Foresters  and  Odd  Fellows  still  adhere  to  the  forms  and 
ceremonies  of  "mystery"  that  were  necessary  when  all  com- 
binations of  working-men  were  under  the  ban  of  a  blindly 
jealous  law.  The  name  "Hibernian"  is  now  substituted  for 
the  old,  illegal  Ribbon  calling  of  these  Catholic  and  once 
agrarian  societies,  and  they  exist  mainly  as  rival  bodies  to 
the  Orange  lodges,  in  the  spirit  of  the  Defenders  of  the 
latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


PART    II 

O'CONNELL  TO  PARNELL 


CHAPTER  V 

I.  — THE  GREAT   FAMINE  AND  THE  YOUNG 
IRELANDERS 

"  Where  the  corn  waves  green  on  the  fair  hill-side, 
But  each  sheaf  by  the  serfs  and  the  slavelings  tied 
Is  taken  to  pander  a  foreigner's  pride — 

There  is  our  suffering  fatherland! 
Where  broad  rivers  flow   'neath  a  glorious  sky, 
And  the  valleys  like  gems  of  emerald  lie, 
Yet  the  young  men  and   strong  men  starve  and  die 
For  the  want  of  bread  in  their  own  rich  land!" 

— "Speranza"  (Lady  Wilde). 

It  is  related  that  Mr.  John  O'Connell,  M.P.,  eldest  son  of 
the  Liberator,  read  aloud  in  Conciliation  Hall,  Dublin,  a  let- 
ter he  had  received  from  a  Catholic  bishop  in  West  Cork, 
in  1847,  in  which  this  sentence  occurred,  "The  famine  is 
spreading  with  fearful  rapidity,  and  scores  of  persons  are 
dying  of  starvation  and  fever,  but  the  tenants  are  bravely 
paying  their  rents."  Whereupon  John  O'Connell  exclaimed, 
in  proud  tones,  "I  thank  God  I  live  among  a  people  who 
would  rather  die  of  hunger  than  defraud  their  landlords  of 
the  rent!"  It  is  not,  unfortunately,  on  record  that  the  au- 
thor of  this  atrocious  sentiment  was  forthwith  kicked  from 
the  hall  into  the  sink  of  the  Liffey.  He  was  not  even  hissed 
by  his  audience ;  so  dead  to  every  sense  and  right  of  manhood 
were  the  Irish  people  reduced  in  these  black  years  of  hopeless 
life  and  of  a  fetid  pestilence  of  perverted  morality. 

There  is  possibly  no  chapter  in  the  wide  records  of  human 
suffering  and  wrong  so  full  of  shame — measureless,  unadul- 
terated, sickening  shame — as  that  which  tells  us  of  (it  is  esti- 
mated) a  million  of  people — including,  presumably,  two  hun- 
dred thousand  adult  men — lying  down  to  die  in  a  land  out  of 
which  forty-five  millions'  worth  of  food  was  being  exported,  in 
one  year  alone,  for  rent — the  product  of  their  own  toil — and 
making  no  effort,  combined  or  otherwise,  to  assert  even  the 
animal's  right  of  existence — the  right  to  live  by  the  necessities 
of  its  nature.     It  stands  unparalleled  in  human  history,  with 

47 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

nothing  approaching  to  it  in  the  complete  surrender  of  all  the 
ordinary  attributes  of  manhood  by  almost  a  whole  nation, 
in  the  face  of  an  artificial  famine. 

England's  callous  action  has  been  pleaded:  Smith  O'Brien's 
warnings,  in  1845,  to  Sir  Robert  Peel,  and  this  minister's  an- 
swer by  a  coercion  bill,  in  1846;  the  dilatory  and  heartless 
policy  of  Lord  John  Russell;  and  the  lupine  conduct  of  the 
Irish  landlords,  in  pressing  for  money  grants  from  public 
funds  to  relieve  distress,  out  of  which  rents  might  be  extracted. 
All  this,  and  everything  else  that  stands  in  the  records  of  this 
awful  epoch  against  this  class,  may  be  urged,  in  truth  and  in 
reprobation,  but  it  neither  explains  nor  extenuates  nor  excuses 
in  any  way  the  wholesale  cowardice  of  the  men  who  saw  food 
leave  the  country  in  ship-loads,  and  turned  and  saw  their 
wives  and  little  ones  sicken  and  die,  and  who  "bravely  paid 
their  rent"  before  dying  themselves. 

What  was  the  explanation  of  this  inhuman  spirit  of  social 
suicide  ? 

It  is  a  serious  question  to  answer,  but  I  firmly  believe  the 
answer  to  be  this:  During  the  tithe  war  of  the  thirties 
the  peasantry  were  organized  to  resist  the  payment  of  these 
penal  levies  upon  Catholics.  Tithes  were  a  combined  in- 
justice upon  both  priests  and  people,  and  there  was  a 
tacit,  if  unacknowledged,  co  -  operation  between  the  spirit 
of  Whiteboyism  and  of  the  anti  -  tithe  combinations  in 
the  conflict  against  the  laws  responsible  alike  for  the 
wrongs  inflicted  on  the  peasantry  both  as  Catholics  and 
tenants.  The  great  Dr.  Doyle  preached  an  endless  and  un- 
relenting war  against  tithes.  O'Connell  hurled  all  his  powers 
of  invective,  and  all  the  might  of  his  great  following,  against 
this  "Protestant  tyranny"  of  the  Established  Church.  And 
it  is  on  record  that  it  was  in  an  attempt  to  seize  upon  the  cow 
of  a  priest,  on  the  demand  of  tithes  from  a  Protestant  parson, 
that  the  fight  ensued  at  Carrigshock  in  which  a  dozen  police 
and  soldiers  were  killed,  and  the  hands  of  the  English  Parlia- 
ment were  forced  in  the  passing  of  the  Tithe  Commutation 
Act  of  1838. 

No  sooner  was  an  end  put  to  the  tithe  war  than  the  usual 
denunciations  of  secret  societies,  of  Whiteboyism,  of  Ribbon- 
ism,  and  of  every  combination  of  an  illegal  kind  or  character, 
was  recommenced  in  pastoral  letters,  from  altars,  and  from  the 
O'Connell  platforms.  To  war  against  tithes  was  righteous  and 
legitimate.  To  continue  the  combat  against  landlordism  and 
unjust  rent  would  do  injury  to  Catholic  as  well  as  to  Protes- 
tant interests,  and  this  was  a  moral  abomination,  "  a  violation 
of  Catholic  doctrine,"  and  all  the  rest. 

48 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

All  this  moral  and  loyal  toadyism  to  the  law  and  order  of 
the  time  did  not  placate  the  enemy  of  Repeal.  Nothing  of 
the  kind.  O'Connell  and  some  of  his  chief  supporters  were 
prosecuted  and  imprisoned,  and  the  great  moral-force  move- 
ment, led  by  the  Liberator  and  the  Catholic  clergy,  was  put 
down  by  a  not  very  formidable  show  of  force;  not,  however, 
before  the  government  of  Sir  Robert  Peel  had  taken  the  pre- 
caution to  increase  the  Maynooth  grant. 

The  collapse  of  O'Connell — in  his  old  age  and  with  impaired 
powers — the  rivalry  of  the  Young  Irelanders  with  the  move- 
ment cursed  by  John  O'Connell's  leadership,  and  the  teach- 
ings of  The  Nation  newspaper,  though  dividing  the  educated 
national  opinion  of  the  cities  and  towns  into  factions,  left 
the  mas§  of  the  people  —  the  peasantry  of  the  country — 
under  the  all  but  absolute  leadership  of  the  bishops  and 
priests. 

The  year  1845  saw  the  dread  herald  of  the  coming  calamity 
in  the  failure  of  the  potato  crop,  and  in  the  efforts  of  Sir  Rob- 
ert Peel  in  the  next  session,  with  true  British  spirit,  to  safe- 
guard in  time  the  menaced  interests  of  the  landlord  garrison 
by  an  attempt  to  pass  a  coercion  act  to  enforce  the  payment 
of  rents.  These  were  warnings  to  the  people's  leaders  as  to 
what  the  callous  English  and  landlord  spirit  would  stand  for 
in  any  great  national  peril  that  might  arise.  But  the  altars 
thundered  against  the  wickedness  of  Ribbonism  just  the 
same.  The  pastorals  of  the  bishops  smote  the  Whiteboys, 
and  proclaimed  the  general  obligation  of  obeying  magistrates 
and  masters,  as  carrying  authority  from  a  divine  source;  and 
it  was  in  this  mood,  and  in  a  kindred  one  of  begging  for  alms 
from  the  Parliament  of  a  nation  that  would  sink  Celtic  Ire- 
land beneath  the  waves  of  the  Atlantic  if  she  could,  that  the 
awful  crisis  of  the  great  famine  was  faced  by  the  popular  and 
moral  guides  of  the  peasantry  of  Ireland.  The  position  and 
policy  of  these  leaders,  the  backbone  of  the  Repeal  Associa- 
tion, was  to  proclaim,  in  the  month  of  July,  1846 — with  the 
dread  famine  fiend  already  waving  its  wings  of  death  over 
the  country — the  following  slavish  political  profession: 

"  First.  Most  dutiful  and  ever-inviolate  loyalty  to  our  most 
gracious  and  ever-beloved  sovereign,  Queen  Victoria,  and  her 
heirs  and  successors  forever. 

"Secondly.  The  total  disclaimer  of,  and  the  total  absence 
from,  all  physical  force,  violence,  or  breach  of  the  law;  or,  in 
short,  any  violation  of  the  laws  of  man,  or  the  ordinances  of 
the  Eternal  God,  whose  holy  name  be  ever  blessed! 

"Thirdly.  The  only  means  to  be  used  are  those  of  peace- 
able, legal,  and  constitutional  combinations  of  all  classes,  sects, 
4  49 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  persuasions  of  her  Majesty's  most  loyal  subjects,  and  by  al- 
ways legal  means  and  objects."  ^ 

Even  in  the  meeting  in  Dublin  at  which  this  crawling  polit- 
ical creed  was  reaffirmed — even  there  only  one  voice — that  of 
Thomas  Francis  Meagher — was  raised  in  protest  against  the 
impotency  and  disgrace  of  this  policy  in  face  of  the  greatest 
calamity  that  had  befallen  Ireland  since  the  Cromwellian  ex- 
termination. 

The  government  and  the  Church  had  put  down  Whiteboy- 
ism,  Ribbonism,  and  all  illegal  combinations,  and  the  re- 
sponsibility for  what  followed — for  the  holocaust  of  humanity 
which  landlordism  and  English  rule  exacted  from  Ireland  in 
a  pagan  homage  to  an  inhuman  system — must  be  shared  be- 
tween the  political  and  spiritual  governors  of  the  Irish  people 
in  those  years  of  a  measureless  national  shame.  One  power 
ruled  the  material  interests  of  the  people,  the  other  their  re- 
ligious and  moral  convictions.  Both  authorities  preached 
law  and  order — one  by  coercion,  soldiers,  police,  and  evictions; 
the  other  in  homilies,  sermons,  and  denunciation. 

Both,  too,  agreed  in  fathering  upon  the  Almighty  the  cause 
of  the  famine.  It  was  the  visitation  of  God!  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  women,  children,  and  men  were,  on  this  hideous 
theory,  murdered  by  starvation  because  of  some  inscrutable 
decree  of  the  God  of  the  poor,  who,  two  thousand  years  be- 
fore, had  died  to  rescue  them  from  the  actual  slavery  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  and  of  other  pagan  powers,  by  His  Gospel, 
teaching,  and  life  among  the  working-people.  No  more  horri- 
ble creed  of  atheistic  blasphemy  was  ever  preached  to  a  Chris- 
tian people  than  this;  and  looking  back  with  a  shudder  upon 
that  time  one  can  well  understand  now  how  and  why  it  was 
that  myriads  of  human  beings,  into  whose  souls  this  moral 
poison  had  been  instilled,  should  have  lain  down  and  died,"  in 
obedience  to  the  will  of  God,"  after  having  "bravely  paid 
their  rent." 

Two  brave  episcopal  voices  spoke  out  against  this  mon- 
strous perversion  of  the  law  of  Providence,  but,  unfortunate- 
ly, in  vain:  Dr.  Maginn,  the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Derry,  in  let- 
ters addressed  to  Lord  Stanley,  and  the  famous  Dr.  Hughes, 
Archbishop  of  New  York,  in  a  fiercer  and  finer  strain  of  in- 
dignant Christian  protest.  The  Bishop  of  Derry  thus  palli- 
ated, but  also  condemned,  the  general  attitude  of  the  clergy: 

"...  And  if  the  Irish  priesthood  have  anything  to  answer 
for  to  God,  it  is  for  the  tameness  and  the  silence  and  the 
patient  submission  with  which  most  of  them  looked  upon  the 

*  History  of  the  Fatnine,  Father  O'Roiirke,  p.   138. 
50 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

wrongs,  the  ruin  of  their  country,  or  for  the  gentle  whispers 
they  used,  when  their  voices  should  have  been  as  loud  as  the 
roar  of  the  deep  or  the  crash  of  the  thunder-storm,  arousing, 
awakening  the  world  to  humanity,  outraged  in  the  persons 
of  their  flocks,  and  thereby  shaming  their  persecutors  into 
mercy." 

In  a  lecture  delivered  in  New  York,  on  March  20,  1847, 
Archbishop  Hughes  expounded  the  true  Christian  and  relig- 
ious position  in  this  lofty  and  courageous  deliverance : 

"  I  fear  there  is  blasphemy  in  charging  on  the  Almighty  the 
result  of  human  doings.  The  famine  in  Ireland,  like  the 
cholera  in  India,  has  been  for  many  years  indigenous.  As 
long  as  it  has  been  confined  to  a  few  cases  in  obscure  and 
sequestered  parts  of  the  country,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
public  administrators  of  the  state  are  excusable,  inasmuch  as 
the  facts  did  not  come  under  their  notice.  But  in  the  present 
instance  it  has  attracted  the  attention  of  the  world,  and 
they  call  it  God's  famine.  Yet  the  soil  has  produced  its  usu- 
al tribute  for  the  support  of  those  for  whom  it  is  cultivated. 
But  political  economy,  finding  Ireland  too  poor  to  buy  the 
products  of  its  own  labor,  exported  that  harvest  to  '  a  better 
market,'  and  left  the  people  to  die  of  famine  or  live  by  alms. 

"Still  the  rights  of  life  are  dearer  and  higher  than  the 
rights  of  property,  and,  in  a  general  famine  like  the  present, 
there  is  no  law  of  Heaven — no  law  of  nature — that  forbids  a 
starving  man  to  seize  on  bread  wherever  he  can  find  it,  even 
though  it  should  be  the  loaves  of  propitiation  on  the  altar  of 
God's  temple.  But  I  say  to  those  who  maintain  the  sacred 
and  inviolable  'rights  of  property,'  if  they  would  have  them 
respected,  to  be  careful  also,  and  scrupulous,  in  recognizing 
the  rights  of  humanity. 

"Let  us  be  careful,  then,  not  to  blaspheme  Providence  by 
calling  this  God's  famine.  The  state,  that  great  civil  cor- 
poration which  we  call  the  state,  is  bound,  so  long  as  it  has 
power  to  do  so,  to  guard  the  life  of  its  members  from  being 
sacrificed  by  famine  from  within  as  much  as  from  their  be- 
ing slaughtered  by  the  enemy  from  without. 

"  But  the  vice  inherent  in  our  system  of  social  and  political 
economy  is  so  subtle  that  it  eludes  inquiry;  you  cannot  trace 
it  to  the  source.  The  poor  man  on  whom  the  coroner  holds 
an  inquest  has  been  murdered,  but  no  one  has  killed  him. 
There  is  no  external  wound,  there  is  no  symptom  of  internal 
disease.  Society  guards  him  against  all  outward  violence. 
It  merely  encircled  around,  and  in  order  to  keep  up  what  is 
called  the  regular  current  of  trade  it  allowed  political  economy, 
with  an  invisible  hand,  to  apply  the  air-pump  to  the  narrow 

51 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

limits  within  which  he  was  confined  and  exhaust  the  atmos- 
phere of  his  physical  life.  Who  did  it  ?  No  one  did  it.  Yet 
it  was  done! 

"It  is  manifest  that  the  causes  of  Ireland's  present  suffer- 
ing have  been  multitudinous.  Nearly  the  whole  of  the  soil  is 
under  the  ownership  of  persons  having  no  sympathy  with  the 
population  except  the  cold  tie  of  self-interest. 

"Since  her  union  with  England  her  commerce  has  followed 
capital  to  the  sister  isle.  Nothing  has  remained  but  the  prod- 
uce of  the  soil ;  and  that  is  sent  to  England  to  find  a  '  better 
market,'  for  the  rent  must  be  paid,  but  neither  the  produce 
nor  the  rent  is  ever  returned. 

"It  has  been  established  that  the  average  exportation  of 
capital  from  this  source  alone  (indeed,  it  is  the  only  resource 
that  has  been  left)  is  equal  to  some  twenty  -  five  or  thirty 
million  dollars  annually  for  the  last  seven  -  and  -  forty  years; 
and  it  is  at  the  close  of  this  last  period,  by  the  failure  of  the  po- 
tato crop,  that  Ireland,  without  trade,  without  manufactures, 
without  a  return  from  her  agricultural  exports,  sinks  beneath 
the  last  feather;  not  that  that  feather  was  so  weighty,  but  that 
the  burden  previously  imposed  was  far  above  her  strength  to 
bear." 

Here  we  have  both  the  Christian,  the  economic,  and  po- 
litical position  clearly  expounded;  but  Dr.  Hughes  spoke  in 
New  York.  The  prelates,  priests,  and  people  of  Ireland  aban- 
doned themselves  to  the  soulless  creed  of  slaves,  and  probably 
confounded  "the  rights  of  humanity"  with  the  disloyal  and 
illegal  combinations  of  the  Ribbonmen,and  held  the  true  mor- 
al gospel  to  be  what  John  O'Connell  boasted  of — death  rather 
than  to  "defraud"  the  landlord  of  his  rent. 

The  facts  of  this  unparalleled  famine  are  matters  of  history, 
and  do  not  require  reproduction  in  this  story.  The  above 
extract  truthfully  explains  the  originating  cause  of  a  calamity 
which  cost  Ireland  more  lives  than  were  lost  in  all  the  wars 
of  Napoleon.  There  were  a  few  disturbances  at  Westport,  in 
Mayo,  Dungarvan,  Mallow,  Skibbereen,  Killarney,  and  other 
places,  in  most  of  which  clergymen  distinguished  themselves 
by  "  restraining  the  people,"  thereby  earning  the  special  thanks 
of  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  the  time  for  their  services  to  "law 
and  order." 

Had  the  people  been  encouraged  to  stop  the  exportation 
of  food  when  O'Connell's  demand  for  a  measure  of  this  kind 
had  been  refused  in  1845  (^  measure  resorted  to  by  the  Irish 
executive  of  the  period  in  the  famine  of  1740-41),  the  hands 
of  the  government  would  have  been  forced  in  time,  and  the 
horrors  of  "  Black  '47  "  would  have  been  greatly  mitigated.   He 

52 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

was  not  backed  up  as  he  ought  to  have  been  by  those  who  dif- 
fered with  him  on  other  questions.  He  made  his  proposal  in 
October,  1845,  and  induced  a  deputation  to  wait  upon  Lord 
Heytesbury,  at  the  Viceregal  Lodge,  to  obtain  a  government 
consideration  of  the  scheme.  He  pointed  out  how  sixteen 
thousand  quarters  of  Irish  oats  had  been  exported  in  one 
week  of  that  year  from  Ireland  to  England,  and  urged  that 
the  further  shipping  of  such  food  should  be  arrested;  that 
distilling  and  brewing  should  be  suspended;  the  ports  of 
Ireland  be  thrown  open  to  the  free  importation  of  foreign 
food,  while  a  loan  of  a  million  and  a  half  of  money  should 
be  made  to  Ireland,  on  the  security  of  the  annual  proceeds 
of  the  woods  and  forests,  with  which  to  meet  the  peril  that 
menaced  the  country.  These  timely  and  practical  proposals 
were,  of  course,  rejected  by  the  English  government.  The 
friction  between  O'Connell  and  the  Young  Irelanders  followed ; 
the  split  of  1847  eventuated.  O'Connell  died  in  the  same 
year  at  Genoa,  on  his  way  to  Rome,  it  is  said,  broken-hearted, 
and  the  people  were  left  to  the  consolation  that  they  were 
victims  of  God's  famine,  and  not  of  landlordism  or  of  English 
rule. 

A  dozen  repetitions  of  Carrigshock  in  the  three  southern 
provinces,  in  the  early  part  of  1846  —  in  reply  to  Peel's 
proposed  coercion  —  would  have  largely  saved  the  situation. 
O'Connell's  proposal  ought  to  have  been  the  minimum 
demand  of  Ireland  that  year,  and  on  its  refusal  the  whole 
country  should  have  been  thrown  into  social  revolt,  against 
the  payment  of  all  rent  to  landlords,  with  vigilance  committees 
in  every  seaport  to  stop  all  exportation  of  food.  Lives 
would,  of  course,  be  lost,  but  had  five  thousand  men  died 
then  for  the  right  to  live  on  the  products  of  their  labor,  they 
would  have  redeemed  the  race  of  the  period  from  the  stigma 
of  national  pusillanimity,  and  have  saved  three-fourths  of  the 
slaves  who  subsequently  died  like  sheep,  without  leaving  on 
record  one  single  redeeming  trait  of  courageous  manhood 
to  the  credit  of  their  memories. 

The  conduct  of  the  Irish  landlords  before,  during,  and  after 
the  famine  was  only  in  keeping  with  and  worthy  of  their 
record.  Nothing  more  inhumanly  selfish  and  base  is  found 
to  the  disgrace  of  any  class  in  any  crisis  in  the  history  of 
civilized  society.  They  urged  the  government  to  pass 
coercion;  they  pressed  for  more  stringent  laws  for  the  better 
payment  of  rents;  they  carried  out  evictions,  and  did  every- 
thing else  that  their  antecedents  and  character  generally 
would  incite  so  morally  corrupt  a  privileged  order  to  commit. 
There  were  a  few  exceptions  to  the  general  conduct  of  the 

53 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

mercenary  horde,  but  these  only  bring  into  greater  contrast 
the  vulture  propensities  of  the  mass  of  Irish  land-owners  of 
the  time. 

Their  brutal  heartlessness  was  even  too  much  for  the 
London  Times.  That  organ  of  the  English  classes  lashed 
the  sordid  crew  with  scorpions  in  a  series  of  scathing  editorial 
attacks.  Two  brief  extracts  w^ill  suffice  to  show  what  so 
virulent  an  enemy  of  the  Celtic  people  felt  compelled  to  say 
of  the  ' '  nobility  and  gentry  ' '  for  whom  Ireland  was  held  down 
by  England's  power. 

Times,  September  22,  1846:  "A  confederacy  of  rich  pro- 
prietors to  dun  the  national  treasury,  and  to  eke  out  from 
their  resources  that  employment  for  the  poor  which  they  are 
themselves  bound  to  provide  by  every  sense  of  duty  to  a  land 
from  which  they  derive  their  incomes.  It  is  too  bad  that  the 
Irish  landlord  should  come  to  ask  charity  of  the  EngHsh  and 
Scotch  mechanic,  but  it  seems  that  those  who  forget  all  duties 
forget  all  shame.     The  Irish  rent  must  be  paid  twice  over." 

Times,  January  6,  1847:  "For  the  future  we  will  take  no 
denial.  We  in  England  maintain  our  own  poor;  and  unless 
the  Irish  land-owners  are  prepared  to  see  the  British  public 
deliberately,  formally,  and  explicitly  demanding  a  summary 
confiscation  of  the  whole  soil  of  Ireland,  they  must  and  shall 
maintain  theirs." 


II.  — JAMES    FINTAN    LALOR 

It  is  no  part  of  my  task  to  deal  at  any  length  with  the  birth, 
teaching,  and  influence  of  The  Nation,  the  poetry  and  power 
of  Thomas  Davis,  or  the  great  impetus  which  Gavan  Duffy's 
and  Mitchel's  propaganda  gave  to  the  cause  of  nationalism 
from  1842  to  the  famine  years.  All  this  belongs  to  the  do- 
main of  popular  history,  and  the  ample  records  of  the  prog- 
ress thus  made,  left  to  us  in  the  writings  of  Duffy  and  Mitchel, 
render  any  such  task  altogether  unnecessary. 

Both  Duffy  and  John  Blake  Dillon  made  The  Nation  a 
powerful  advocate  of  land  reform.  They  raised  no  uncertain 
voice  in  behalf  of  a  fundamental  change  in  the  tenure  of  land, 
such  as  would  offer  greater  security  to  the  cultivators.  Not 
in  one  but  in  scores  of  numbers  of  the  great  organ  Duffy, 
Davis,  and  Dillon  had  founded  were  the  doctrines  of  "the 
land  for  the  people"  advanced,  almost  as  radically  as  in  the 
later  times  when  John  Blake  Dillon's  son  preached  his  father's 
evangel  of  land  emancipation  in  every  county  of  Ireland. 
But  The  Nation  was  read  chiefly  in  the  cities  and  towns,  and 

54 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

not  so  generally  among  the  common  people.  Its  supporters 
were  far  more  interested  in  the  fortunes  of  the  national  move- 
ment than  in  the  changes  of  tenure  urged  upon  Parliament  in 
the  interests  of  the  tenant  farmer. 

The  Young  Irelanders  were  no  more  "agrarians"  than 
O'Connell's  following.  Smith  O'Brien,  their  leader,  was  him- 
self a  landlord.  While  he  was  in  every  sense  a  chivalrous 
Irishman  and  a  moderate  land  reformer,  as  a  Parliamen- 
tarian he  could  not  shake  off  all  the  social  influences  of  the 
class  to  which  he  belonged,  and  anticipate  the  action  of  Mr. 
Parnell  by  becoming  the  leader  of  a  revolt  against  the  system 
upheld  by  England  for  the  advantages  of  his  own  order. 
Herein  lay  another  reason  why  the  history  of  the  famine  years 
will  ever  be  a  record  of  Celtic  humiliation. 

John  Mitchel's  fiery  spirit  went  into  revolt  against  the 
whole  Repeal  movement  when  it  had  nothing  more  to  offer 
to  the  people  menaced  with  a  dire  calamity  than  moral-force 
arguments  and  professions  of  loyalty.  He  felt  that  the  crisis 
cried  out  for  some  revolutionary  media  as  the  only  desperate 
remedy  which  equally  desperate  evils  require.  He  had  no 
fixed  ideas  of  how  such  a  revolution  should  be  organized  or 
carried  on.    He  only  saw  the  need,  and  he  boldly  proclaimed  it. 

Up  to  1847  Mitchel,  like  all  the  Young  Irelanders,  hoped 
for  a  coming-over  of  the  landlords  to  the  people's  side,  as  did 
smaller  men  than  Mitchel  in  later  years.  The  landlords  had 
encouraged  this  view  until  they  saw  all  danger  of  a  no  -  rent 
movement  pass,  when  they  threw  off  the  mask  and  clamored 
as  ever  for  repression.  This  conduct  enraged  Mitchel,  and  he 
commenced  to  change  his  views  in  their  regard.  Before  this 
change  had  made  any  marked  headway  in  his  opinion  he 
had  proposed  an  extraordinary  scheme — a  strike  against  the 
payment  of  poor  rates,  half  of  which  were  chargeable  to  the 
landlords.  The  object  was,  of  course,  to  force  the  hands  of 
the  government  in  this  manner  into  the  adoption  of  excep- 
tional measures  of  state  assistance ;  but  the  way  in  which  this 
was  proposed  to  be  done  condemned  the  plan  as  utterly  im- 
practicable, and  as  possessing  no  real  revolutionary  impulse 
or  impelling  power. 

In  the  mean  time — that  is,  early  in  1847 — ^  series  of  letters 
commenced  to  appear  in  The  Nation  over  the  signature  of  an 
otherwise  unknown  person,  "James  F.  Lalor,"  residing  in  a 
village  in  Queen's  County.  They  at  once  riveted  the  atten- 
tion of  Dufl[y  and  Mitchel  by  their  powerful  style,  direct 
force,  concentrated  passion,  and  revolutionary  fire.  The't 
writer  called  for  action,  not  debate.  The  time  for  discussion! 
had  gone  by.     Repeal  was  not  the  issue  then.      It  was  thef 

55 


V 


v/ 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

agony  question  of  the  people's  lives.  The  cause  and  culprit 
for  the  condition  of  the  country  were  not  so  much  the  English 
government  as  the  Irish  landlords,  and  the  remedy  lay  in  a 
strike  against  rent  and  not  in  any  paltry  scheme  for  the  with- 
i  holding  of  rates.  The  incurable  and  calculated  treason  of 
^he  landlord  class  to  country  and  people  was  demonstrated 
in  language  of  burning  invective,  and  the  Confederation  and 
Repeal  clubs  were  called  upon,  in  terms  of  commanding  dig- 
nity and  force,  to  drop  their  parleying  with  the  territorial 
traitors  and  strike  at  the  main  source,  not  alone  of  the  pres- 
ent but  of  past  and,  unless  destroyed,  of  future  calamities  to 
the  nation — landlordism. 

This  programme  captured  Mitchel's  combative  mind.  It 
was  the  plan  which  could  alone  rouse  the  country  into  most 
general  action,  cause  the  government  most  embarrassment, 
and  give  more  punishment  to  the  class  who  had  betrayed 
Smith  O'Brien  into  the  expectation  of  their  adhesion  to  the 
national  cause,  only  to  persuade  the  English  government  in 
the  autumn  session  of  1847  to  give  Ireland  coercion  instead  of 
a  national  administration.  This  perfidy  won  Mitchel  over, 
more  or  less,  to  Lalor's  plans  and  principles. 

Mitchel  naturally  wished  to  give  expression  to  his  more  in- 
surrectionary ideas  in  the  columns  of  The  Nation,  but  he  met 
with  the  objection  of  Duffy's  cooler  judgment,  that  to  turn  the 
paper  into  a  frankly  revolutionary  organ  would  be  a  challenge 
to  the  Castle  to  suppress  it,  while  there  were  neither  organized 
forces  nor  arms  available  to  carry  the  controversy  along  the 
logical  lines  of  argument  with  her  Majesty's  military  resources. 
So  Mitchel  broke  with  The  Nation  in  December,  1847,  and  in 
a  few  months'  time  started  The  United  Irishman. 

Shortly  after  this  the  difference  of  opinion  and  of  principles 
which  caused  the  rupture  between  Duffy  and  Mitchel  broke 
out  in  the  Young  Ireland  body,  the  National  Confederation. 
A  three  days'  discussion  took  place  in  Dublin,  with  Smith 
O'Brien  in  the  chair,  on  virtually  Mitchel's   proposals  and 
plans.    The  result  was  unfavorable  to  Mitchel,  and  he  and  his 
friends  withdrew.     Thus  two  splits  occurred  among  the  na- 
tional leaders  within  the  famine  period.     The  guides  were  de- 
bating and  quarrelling  while  the  people  were  dying.     Meagher 
delivered  a  classic  speech  on  the  sword,  and  similar  warrior 
sentiments  were   eloquently  spoken   and  written  in   Dublin, 
jDut  there  was  no  response  to  Lalor's  appeal  for  an  effective 
\  ikttack  upon  the  citadel  of  the  real  enemy's  position  and  power 
jl — rent. 

■"""  Mitchel's  United  IrisJiman  had  but  a  brief  existence.     Its 
open  defiance  of  government  power  and  frankly  revolution- 

56 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

ary  principles  challenged  Lord  Clarendon  to  repressive  ac- 
tion. Plans  of  guerilla  warfare  were  expounded  in  its  columns 
and  the  evils  and  humiliations  of  English  rule  in  Ireland  were 
depicted  in  a  style  which  has  probably  never  been  surpassed 
by  any  writer  in  the  English  language  for  combined  brilliancy 
and  power.  His  analysis  of  the  human  aspect  of  the  country 
under  the  moral  and  physical  miasma  of  the  famine  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  hopeless,  social  despair  in  a  setting  of  literary  fin- 
ish that  fascinates  the  reader  with  its  magic  realism  of  picture 
and  expression. 

"Last  year"  (1847),  he  wrote,  "we  recollect  it  well,  a 
calm,  still  horror  was  over  the  land.  Go  where  you  would, 
in  the  heart  of  the  town  or  in  the  suburb,  there  was  the  still- 
ness and  heavy,  pall-like  feel  of  the  chamber  of  death.  You 
stood  in  the  presence  of  a  dread,  silent,  vast  dissolution. 
An  unseen  ruin  was  creeping  round  you.  You  saw  no  war 
of  classes,  no  open  janizary  war  of  foreigners,  no  human 
agency  of  destruction.  You  could  weep,  but  the  rising  curse 
died  unspoken  within  your  heart  like  a  profanity.  Human 
passion  there  was  none,  but  inhuman  and  unearthly  quiet. 
Children  met  you,  toiling  heavily  on  stone-heaps,  but  their 
burning  eyes  were  senseless  and  their  faces  cramped  and 
weazened  like  stunted  old  men.  Gangs  worked,  but  without 
a  murmur  or  a  whistle  or  a  laugh,  ghostly,  like  voiceless 
shadows  to  the  eye.  Even  womanhood  had  ceased  to  be 
womanly.  The  birds  of  the  air  carolled  no  more,  and  the 
crow  and  the  raven  dropped  dead  upon  the  wing.  Nay, 
the  sky  of  heaven,  the  blue  mountains,  the  still  lake,  stretch- 
ing far  away  westward,  looked  not  as  their  wont.  Between 
them  and  you  rose  up  a  steaming  agony,  a  film  of  suffering, 
impervious  and  dim.  It  seemed  as  if  the  anima  mmidi,  the 
soul  of  the*  land,  was  faint  and  dying,  and  that  the  faint- 
ness  and  the  death  had  crept  into  all  things  of  heaven  and 
earth." ^ 

The  story  of  Mitchel's  trial  and  sentence  in  1848  is  part  of 
Irish  history.  He  was  the  first  Irish  political  prisoner  tried 
under  the  Treason  Felony  Act,  a  law  specially  passed  in  that 
year  by  Parliament,  to  degrade  an  Irish  enemy  to  England's 
spotless  Irish  rule  to  the  level  of  a  common  felon. 

On  the  seizure  of  The  United  Irishman  by  Dublin  Castle, 
John  Martin,  a  bosom  friend  of  Mitchel's,  and  subsequently 
his  brother-in-law,  started  The  Felon,  in  which  to  uphold  the 
principles  and  faith  of  the  suppressed  revolutionary  organ. 
To  this  paper  James  Fintan  Lalor  contributed  letters  which 

^ Life  of  John  Mitchel,  William  Dillon,  vol.  i.,  p.  211. 
57 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

further  expounded  his  doctrines  of  the  national  ownership 
of  land,  and  helped  to  have  Mr.  Martin  sent  to  Tasmania 
in  the  "felon"  footsteps  of  his  leader  and  friend. 

There  was  no  real  Irish  revolutionary  mind  in  the  '48  period 
except  Lalor's.  There  were  brilliant  writers,  ardent  patriots, 
eloquent  orators,  and  nationalist  poets;  a  galaxy  of  talent, 
of  fine  characters,  of  noble  idealists,  and  of  splendidly  earnest 
men.  But  it  was  only  in  the  head  and  heart  of  a  little, 
deformed  gentleman-farmer's  son — a  descendant  of  an  out- 
lawed "Tory"  of  the  early  confiscations — that  the  spirit  and 
fire  and  purpose  of  a  true  Celtic  revolutionist  were  found. 
Lalor's  plan  was  suited  to  the  race,  the  time,  and  the  calam- 
ity it  was  intended  to  cope  with.  It  was  exactly  what  the 
occasion  demanded.  It  combined  the  national  sentiment  with 
the  agrarian  interest  and  passion,  and  would  have  rallied  the 
aggressive  Whiteboy  and  Ribbon  spirit,  and  entire  peasant 
feeling  of  the  country,  behind  a  movement  that  would  have 
given  Lord  Clarendon  a  social  insurrection,  as  well  as  a 
revolutionary  nationalist  uprising,  to  deal  with  before  that 
revolutionary  year  of  1848. 

To  avert  all  the  horrors  of  the  situation  would  probably 
have  been  impossible  even  if  Lalor's  plans  had  been  acted 
upon  when  first  proposed.  For  even  he  had  been  dilatory  in 
dealing  with  the  spirit  of  social  disease  that  crept  into  the 
life  of  Ireland  in  1846.  But  there  would  have  been  less 
loss  of  life,  less  national  shame  to  lament  over  in  after  years, 
while  there  would  have  been  a  far  speedier  settlement  of  the 
land  and  national  cjuestions. 

The  following  extracts  from  his  letters  in  John  Martin's 
Irish  Felon  will  give  my  readers  a  presentation  of  his  theories 
^  of  the  national  ownership  of  land  and  of  his  revolutionary 

_)  scheme  in  1847-48: 

"For  wisdom  knows  that  in  national  action  littleness  is 
more  fatal  than  the  wildest  rashness;  that  greatness  of  ob- 
ject is  essential  to  greatness  of  effort,  strength,  and  success; 
that  a  revolution  ought  never  to  take  its  stand  on  low  or 
narrow  grounds,  but  seize  on  the  broadest  and  highest  ground 
it  can  lay  hands  on,  and  that  a  petty  enterprise  seldom 
succeeds.  Not  to  fall  back  on  '82,  but  act  up  to  '48,  not 
to  resume  or  restore  an  old  constitution,  but  to  found  a 
new  nation  and  raise  up  a  free  people,  and  strong  as  well 
as  free,  and  secure  as  well  as  strong,  based  on  a  peasantry 
rooted  like  rocks  in  the  soil  of  the  land,  this  is  my  object, 
as  I  hope  it  is  yours,  and  this,  you  may  be  assured,  is 
the  easier,  as  it  is  the  nobler  and  the  more  pressing  enter- 
prise." 

58 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

"For  Repeal  all  the  moral  means  at  our  disposal  have  in  / 
turn  been  used,  abused,  and  abandoned.  All  the  military  |  s^ 
means  it  can  command  will  fail  us  utterly.  Compare  the  two  • 
questions.  Repeal  would  require  a  national  organization;  a 
central  representative  authority,  formally  convened,  formally 
elected;  a  regular  army,  a  regulated  war  of  concerted  ac- 
tion and  combined  movement.  When  shall  we  have  them? 
Where  is  your  national  council  of  three  hundred.-*  Where 
is  your  national  guard  of  three  hundred  thousand?  On 
Repeal,  Ireland,  of  necessity,  should  resolve  and  act  by  the 
kingdom  altogether,  linked  and  led,  and  if  beaten  in  the 
kingdom  there  would  be  nothing  to  fall  back  upon.  She 
could  not  possibly  act  by  parishes.  To  club  and  arm  would 
not  be  enough,  or  rather  it  would  be  nothing,  and  for  Repeal 
alone  Ireland  will  neither  club  nor  arm.  The  towns  only 
will  do  so.  A  Repeal  war  would  probably  be  the  fight  and 
defeat  of  a  single  field  day;  or,  if  protracted,  it  would  be  a  mere 
game  of  chess,  and  England,  be  assured,  would  beat  you  in 
a  game  of  chess.  On  the  other  question  all  circumstances 
differ,  as  I  could  easily  show  you.  But  I  have  gone  into 
this  portion  of  the  subject  prematurely  and  unawares,  and 
here  I  stop,  being  reluctant,  besides,  to  trespass  too  long 
on  the  time  of  her  Majesty's  legal  and  military  advisers. 

"I  would  regret  much  to  have  my  meaning  in  any  degree 
misconceived.     I  do  not  desire,  by  any  means,  to  depreciate 
the  value  and  importance  of  Repeal,  in  the  valid  and  vigorous 
sense  of  the  term,  but  only  in  its  vulgar  acceptation.     I  do   ' 
not  want  to  make  the  tenure  question  the  sole  or  main  topic    \ 
and  purpose  of  The  Felon,  or  to  make  Repeal  only  secondary   ,  y 
and  subservient.     I  do  not  wish — far  from  it — to  consider 
the  two  questions  as  antagonistic  or  distinct.     My  wish  is  to 
combine  and  cement  the  two  into  one,  and  so  perfect  and 
reinforce  and  strengthen  both,  and  carry  both.     I,  too,  want 
to  bring  about  an  alliance  and  'combination  of  classes,'  an 
alliance  more  wanted  and  better  worth,  more  feasible,  ef- 
fective,  and  honorable  than  any  treasonable    alliance   with 
the  enemy's  garrison,  based  on  the  surrender  and  sacrifice    . 
of  the  rights  and  lives  of  the  Irish  people.     I  want  to  ally       / 
the  town  and  the  country.     Repeal  is  the  question  of  the 
town  population;   and  the  tenure   question   is   that   of   the 
country  peasantry;  both   combined,  taking  each  in  its  full 
extent  and  efficacy,  form  the  question  of  Ireland — her  ques- 
tion for  the  battle-day. 

"The  principle  I  state,  and  mean  to  stand  upon,  is  this, 
that  the  entire  ownership  of  Ireland,  moral  and  material, 
up  to  the  sun  and  down  to  the  centre,  is  vested  of  right  in 

59 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  people  of  Ireland;  that  they,  and  none  but  they,  are  the 
land-owners  and  law-makers  of  this  island;  that  all  laws  are 
null  and  void  not  made  by  them,  and  all  titles  to  land  invalid 
not  conferred  or  confirmed  by  them;  and  that  this  full  right 
of  ownership  may  and  ought  to  be  asserted  and  enforced 
by  any  and  all  means  which  God  has  put  in  the  power  of  man. 
In  other,  if  not  plainer,  words,  I  hold  and  maintain  that  the 
entire  soil  of  a  country  belongs  of  right  to  the  entire  people  of 
that  country,  and  is  the  rightful  property,  not  of  any  one 
class,  but  of  the  nation  at  large,  in  full  effective  possession, 
to  let  to  whom  they  will,  on  whatever  tenures,  terms,  rents, 
services,  and  conditions  they  will,  one  condition  being,  how- 
ever, unavoidable  and  essential,  the  condition  that  the  tenant 
shall  bear  full,  true,  and  undivided  fealty  and  allegiance  to 
the  nation,  and  the  laws  of  the  nation,  whose  lands  he  holds, 
and  owns  no  allegiance  whatsoever  to  any  other  prince, 
power,  or  people,  or  any  obligation  of  obedience  or  respect  to 
their  will,  orders,  or  laws.  I  hold  further,  and  firmly  believe, 
that  the  enjoyment  by  the  people  of  this  right  of  first  owner- 
ship in  the  soil  is  essential  to  the  vigor  and  vitality  of  all 
other  rights;  to  their  vitality,  efficacy,  and  value;  to  their 
secure  possession  and  safe  exercise.  For  let  no  people  de- 
ceive themselves  or  be  deceived  by  the  words  and  colors 
and  phrases  and  forms  of  a  mock  freedom,  by  constitutions 
and  charters  and  articles  and  franchises.  These  things  are 
paper  and  parchment,  waste  and  worthless.  Let  laws  and 
institutions  say  what  they  will,  this  fact  will  be  stronger 
than  all  laws,  and  prevail  against  them — the  fact  that  those 
who  own  your  lands  will  make  your  laws  and  command 
your  liberties  and  your  lives.  But  this  is  tyranny  and 
slavery;  tyranny  in  its  wildest  scope  and  worst  shape; 
slavery  of  body  and  soul,  from  the  cradle  to  the  coffin; 
slavery  with  all  its  horrors  and  with  none  of  its  physical  com- 
forts and  security;  even  as  it  is  in  Ireland,  where  the  whole 
community  is  made  up  of  tyrants,  slaves,  and  slave-drivers. 
A  people  whose  lands  and  lives  are  thus  in  the  keeping  and 
custody  of  others  instead  of  in  their  own  are  not  in  a  position 
of  common  safety.  The  Irish  famine  of  '46  is  example  and 
proof.  The  corn  crops  were  sufficient  to  feed  the  island. 
But  the  landlords  would  have  their  rents  in  spite  of  famine 
and  defiance  of  fever.  They  took  the  whole  harvest  and  left 
hunger  to  those  who  raised  it.  Had  the  people  of  Ireland 
been  the  landlords  of  Ireland  not  a  human  creature  would 
have  died  of  hunger,  nor  the  failure  of  the  potato  been  con- 
sidered a  matter  of  any  consequence. 

"This  principle,  then — that  the  property  and  possession  of 

60 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

the  land,  as  well  as  the  powers  of  legislation,  belong  of  right 
to  the  people  who  live  in  the  land  and  under  the  law — do  you 
assent  to  it,  in  its  full  integrity,  and  to  the  present  and  pressing 
necessity  of  enforcing  it?  Your  reason  may  assent,  yet  your 
feelings  refuse  and  revolt,  or  those  of  others,  at  least,  may  do 
so.  Mercy  is  for  the  merciful;  and  you  may  think  it  a  pity 
to  oust  and  abolish  the  present  noble  race  of  land-owners, 
who  have  ever  been  so  pitiful  and  compassionate  themselves. 
What!  Is  your  sympathy  for  a  class  so  great  and  your 
sympathy  for  a  whole  people  so  small?  For  those  same  land- 
owners are  now  treading  out  the  very  life  and  existence 
of  an  entire  people,  and  trampling  down  the  liberties  and 
hopes  of  this  island  forever.  It  is  a  mere  question  between  a 
people  and  a  class,  between  a  people  of  eight  millions  and  a 
class  of  eight  thousand.  They  or  we  must  quit  this  island. 
It  is  a  people  to  be  saved  or  lost;  it  is  the  island  to  be  kept 
or  surrendered.  They  have  served  us  with  a  general  writ  of 
ejectment.  Wherefore,  I  say,  let  them  get  a  notice  to  quit  at 
once,  or  we  shall  oust  possession  under  the  law  of  nature. 
There  are  men  who  claim  protection  for  them,  and  for  all 
their  tyrannous  rights  and  powers,  being  as  one  class  of  the 
Irish  people.  I  deny  the  claim.  They  form  no  class  of  the 
Irish  people,  or  of  any  other  people.  Strangers  they  are  in 
this  land  they  call  theirs,  strangers  here  and  strangers  every- 
where; owning  no  country  and  owned  by  none;  rejecting  Ire- 
land and  rejected  by  England ;  tyrants  to  this  island  and  slaves 
to  another;  here  they  stand,  hating  and  hated,  their  hand  ever 
against  us,  as  ours  against  them,  an  outcast  and  ruffianly 
horde,  alone  in  the  world  and  alone  in  its  history,  a  class 
by  themselves.  They  do  not  now,  and  never  did,  belong 
to  this  island  at  all.  Tyrants  and  traitors  have  they  ever 
been  to  us  and  ours  since  first  they  set  foot  on  our  soil.  Their 
crime  it  is,  and  not  England's,  that  Ireland  stands  where  she 
does  to-day — or  rather  it  is  our  own,  that  have  borne  them 
so  long.  Were  they  a  class  of  the  Irish  people  the  Union 
could  be  repealed  without  a  life  lost.  Had  they  been  a  class 
of  the  Irish  people  that  Union  would  have  never  been.  But 
for  them  we  would  now  be  free,  prosperous,  and  happy. 
Until  they  be  removed  no  people  can  ever  take  root,  grow  up, 
and  flourish  here.  The  question  between  them  and  us  must 
sooner  or  later  have  been  brought  to  a  deadly  issue.  For 
Heaven's  sake  and  Ireland's  let  us  settle  it  now  and  not  leave 
it  to  our  children  to  settle.  Indeed,  it  must  be  settled  now; 
for  it  is  plain  to  any  ordinary  sight  that  they  or  we  are 
doomed.  A  cry  has  gone  up  to  Heaven  for  the  living  and  for 
the  dead — to  save  the  living,  to  avenge  the  dead. 

6i 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"There  are,  however,  many  landlords,  perhaps,  and  certain- 
ly a  few,  not  fairly  chargeable  with  the  crimes  of  their  order, 
and  you  may  think  it  hard  they  should  lose  their  lands. 
But  recollect,  the  principle  I  assert  would  make  Ireland  in 
fact,  as  she  is  of  right,  mistress  and  queen  of  all  those  lands; 
that  she,  poor  lady,  had  ever  a  soft  heart  and  grateful  dis- 
position; and  that  she  may,  if  she  please,  in  reward  of  alle- 
giance, confer  new  titles  or  confirm  the  old.  Let  us  crown  her 
queen,  and  then  let  her  do  with  her  lands  as  a  queen  may  do." 

"  In  the  case  of  any  existing  interest,  of  what  nature  soever, 
I  feel  assured  that  no  question  but  one  would  need  to  be 
answered.  Does  the  owner  of  that  interest  assent  to  swear 
allegiance  to  the  people  of  Ireland  and  to  hold  in  fee  from 
the  Irish  nation?  If  he  assents,  he  may  be  assured  he  will 
suffer  no  loss  —  no  eventual  or  permanent  loss,  I  mean,  for 
some  temporary  loss  he  must  assuredly  suffer.  But  such 
loss  would  be  incidental  and  inevitable  to  any  armed  in- 
surrection whatever,  no  matter  on  what  principle  the  right 
of  resistance  should  be  resorted  to.  If  he  refuse,  then  I  say 
away  with  him — out  of  this  land  with  him — himself  and  all 
his  robber  rights  and  all  things  himself  and  his  rights  have 
brought  into  our  island — blood  and  tears  and  famine  and 
the  fever  that  goes  with  famine." 

"Between  the  relative  merits  and  importance  of  the  two 
rights,  the  people's  right  to  the  land  and  their  right  to  legisla- 
tion, I  do  not  mean  or  wish  to  institute  any  comparison.  I 
am  far,  indeed,  from  desirous  to  put  the  two  rights  in  competi- 
tion or  contrast,  for  I  consider  each  alike  as  the  natural 
complement  of  the  other,  necessary  to  its  theoretical  com- 
pleteness and  practical  efficacy.  But  considering  them  for  a 
moment  as  distinct,  I  do  mean  to  assert  this,  that  the  land 
question  contains,  and  the  legislative  question  does  not  con- 
tain, the  materials  from  which  victory  is  manufactured,  and 
that,  therefore,  if  we  be  truly  in  earnest  and  determined  on 
success,  it  is  on  the  former  question,  and  not  on  the  latter, 
we  must  take  our  stand,  fling  out  our  banner,  and  hurl  down 
to  England  our  gage  of  battle.  Victory  follows  that  banner 
alone,  that  and  no  other.  This  island  is  ours,  and  have  it 
we  will,  if  the  leaders  be  but  true  to  the  people  and  the 
people  be  true  to  themselves." 

"But  I  do  not  class  among  them  the  robbers'  right  by 
which  the  lands  of  this  country  are  now  held  in  fee  from 
the  British  Crown.     I  acknowledge  no  right  of  property  in 

62 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

a  small  class  which  goes  to  abrogate  the  rights  of  a  numerous 
people.  I  acknowledge  no  right  of  property  in  eight  thou- 
sand persons,  be  they  noble  or  ignoble,  which  takes  away  all 
right  of  property,  security,  independence,  and  existence  itself, 
from  a  population  of  eight  millions,  and  stands  in  bar  to  all 
the  political  rights  of  this  island  and  all  the  social  rights  of 
its  inhabitants.  I  acknowledge  no  right  of  property  which 
takes  the  food  of  millions  and  gives  them  a  famine,  which 
denies  to  the  peasant  the  right  of  a  home  and  concedes,  in 
exchange,  the  right  of  a  workhouse.  I  deny  and  challenge 
all  such  rights,  howsoever  founded  or  enforced.  I  challenge 
them  as  founded  only  on  the  code  of  the  brigand  and  en- 
forced only  by  the  sanction  of  the  hangman.  Against  them 
I  assert  the  true  and  indefeasible  right  of  property — the  right 
of  our  people  to  live  in  this  land  and  possess  it;  to  live  in  it 
in  comfort,  security,  and  independence;  and  to  live  in  it  by 
their  own  labor,  on  their  own  land,  as  God  and  nature  meant 
them  to  do.  Against  them  I  shall  array,  if  I  can,  all  the 
forces  that  yet  remain  in  this  island.  And  against  them  I 
am  determined  to  make  war,  to  their  destruction  or  my  own. 

"These  are  my  principles  and  views.  I  shall  have  other 
opportunities  to  develop  and  defend  them.  I  have  some  few 
other  requisitions  to  make;  but  I  choose  to  defer  them  for 
other  reasons  besides  want  of  time  and  space.  Our  first 
business,  before  we  can  advance  a  step,  is  to  fix  our  own 
footing  and  make  good  our  position.  That  once  done,  this 
contest  must,  if  possible,  be  brought  to  a  speedy  close. 

"James  F.  Lalor. 

"  Tenakil,  Abbeyleix,  June  21,  1S48." 

After  the  trial  and  sentence  of  Mitchel,  the  more  moderate 
Young  Irelanders,  most  of  those  who  had  opposed  his  appeals 
to  the  people  to  arm  and  fight  for  life  and  country  the  previous 
year,  ventured  to  call  upon  the  country  to  prepare  and  hold 
the  coming  harvest.  It  was  only  two  years  too  late.  Thou- 
sands were  dying  of  hunger  each  week.  Myriads  had  already 
fallen  victims  to  starvation  and  fever.  But  so  many  eloquent 
articles  on  resistance  had  been  written,  and  so  many  in- 
vocations to  the  sword  had  been  spoken,  that  action  of  some 
sort  was  called  for  and  resolved  upon — two  years  too  late. 

The  government  was  equal  to  the  occasion,  and  suspended 
the  Habeas  Corpus  Act.  Warrants  were  issued  for  the 
arrest  of  Smith  O'Brien,  Meagher,  Dillon,  O'Gorman,  and 
others  less  prominent;  Gavan  Duffy,  John  Martin,  and  Kevin 
O'Doherty  being  already  arrested  and  placed  under  trial  for 
seditious  articles  in  The  Nation  and  The  Felon  newspapers. 

63 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

O'Brien  marched  on  Callan,  in  Kilkenny,  with  a  small  fol- 
lowing. They  encountered  some  hussars,  who  begged  not  to 
be  taken  prisoners,  and  were  allowed  to  proceed — with  their 
arms.  At  Killenaule,  over  the  border  of  Tipperary,  a  barri- 
cade was  put  up.  John  Blake  Dillon  commanded  here,  and 
had  under  him  one  James  Stephens,  a  name  destined  to  figure 
more  prominently  in  after  Irish  history  than  .all  the  names 
of  all  the  Young  Ireland  leaders  put  together.  He  wanted  to 
fire  upon  the  first  soldier  who  approached  the  barricade,  but 
Dillon  had  orders  from  O'Brien  not  to  shed  blood,  if  possible. 
So  he  lowered  his  weapon  and  no  enemy  was  hurt.  Similar 
irresolution,  or  aversion  to  real  insurrection,  dominated  all 
O'Brien's  actions  in  these  days,  and  the  inglorious  rising 
came  to  an  end  with  his  subsequent  arrest. 

Mitchel  blames  the  priests,  primarily,  for  persuading  the 
people  not  to  fight.  Begging  alms  and  making  paupers  of 
men  they  had  already  taught  to  be  slaves  was  more  in  their 
line,  and  the  taunt  of  Mitchel  is  only  too  well  deserved: 

"When  the  final  scene  opened,  however,  and  the  whole 
might  of  the  empire  was  gathering  itself  to  crush  us,  the 
clergy,  as  a  body,  were  found  on  the  side  of  the  enemy. 
They  hoped  more  for  their  Church  in  a  union  with  monarchical 
and  aristocratic  England  than  in  an  Ireland  revolutionized 
and  republicanized,  and  having  taken  their  part,  they  certain- 
ly did  the  enemy's  business  well."^ 

Mr.  John  O'Leary,  the  veteran  and  widely  esteemed  na- 
tionalist leader,  tells  a  delightful  story  in  a  charmingly  candid 
manner  against  Fintan  Lalor  and  himself,  in  connection  with 
an  "insurrection"  which  also  missed  fire.  It  followed  that  of 
Ballingarry  in  the  order  of  time,  but  has  figured  less  promi- 
nently in  history  for  the  reason  that  its  leaders  had  the  good 
sense  not  to  talk  or  write  too  much  about  it. 

"After  much  moving  about  for  months  on  the  part  of 
Lalor,  Luby,  myself,  and  others,  and  much  conferring  with 
many  more  or  less  influential  people  in  the  various  counties, 
it  was  agreed  that  action  was  to  be  taken'on  a  certain  day, 
or,  rather,  on  the  night  of  that  day.  My  part  in  that  action 
was  to  consist  in  gathering  such  people  as  I  could  from  in  and 
about  Tipperary,  and  directing  them  on  Cashel — some  ten 
miles  distant — where  Lalor  then  was,  and  where  he  intended 
to  attack  the  barracks  (if  sufficient  forces  could  be  got  to- 
gether), with  what  exact  ulterior  object  is  more  than  I  can 
now  call  to  mind.  It  is  probable  it  was  intended  that  we 
should  afterwards  march  on  Clonmel  with  such  contingents 

*  Last  Conquest  of  Ireland,  Perhaps,  p.  300. 
64 


THE    GREAT    FAMINE 

as  might  be  supplied  by  Brennan,  who  was  to  operate,  and, 
indeed,  did  operate,  in  another  region  on  the  same  night. 
However,  the  ultimate  object  mattered  not  at  all,  for  the  im- 
mediate attack  on  Cashel  proved  an  utter  failure.  .  .  . 

"  However,  there  was  no  betrayal  or  leaking  out  of  the  de- 
sign. The  next  day  Lalor  and  I,  finding  ourselves  and  our 
schem.es  apparently  unsuspected,  moved  on  to  Clonmel.  .  .  . 
Such  was,  practically,  the  end  of  Lalor's  conspiracy,  the  re- 
sult being  substantially  the  same  as  in  the  operations  of 
O'Brien  and  O'Mahony  in  the  preceding  autumn.  The  moun- 
tain in  labor  was  not  so  big,  and  the  mouse  that  came  forth 
was  not  appreciably  smaller;  but  still  there  was  no  gainsaying 
the  fact  that  the  product  was  only  a  mouse,  and  in  so  far 
ridiculous."  ^ 

Lalor  was  arrested,  subsequently,  for  proclaiming  revolu- 
tionary ideas  in  Tipperary,  and  removed  from  Nenagh  prison 
to  Dublin  to  give  evidence  for  John  Martin  in  the  prosecution 
of  Mitchel's  friend  for  publishing,  among  other  matters,  some 
of  Lalor's  letters.  His  health  was  so  bad  that  he  had  to  be 
released.  He  died  at  39  Great  Britain  Street,  Dublin,  on 
December  27,  1849.     He  had  only  reached  his  fortieth  year. 

Mr.  O'Leary,  who  is  himself  a  distinguished  author  and  a 
man  of  high  literary  tastes  and  judgment,  placed  Fintan 
Lalor  before  any  of  the  '48  school  of  writers  for  clearness,  di- 
rectness, and  strength. 

The  wonderful  little  hunchback  from  the  village  in  Queen's 
County  powerfully  influenced  the  minds  and  convictions  of 
two  noted  men,  as  dissimilar  as  two  virile  minds  could  well  be, 
in  his  brief  public  life  of  some  three  years.  He  made  John 
Mitchel  an  agrarian  revolutionist,  and,  indirectly,  gave  Henry 
George  the  social  gospel  of  land  nationalization  —  minus  all 
its  pro-rebellious  Irish  bearings. 

*  Introductionby  John  O'Leary,  Writings  of  Fintan  Lalor,  pp.  15,  16. 
5 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE  TENANTS'  LEAGUE:  CHARLES  GAVAN 

DUFFY 

Both  gods  and  men  appeared  to  have  deserted  the  Irish 
peasants  during  the  years  1846-50.  John  Mitchel  asserts 
that  one  milHon  five  hundred  thousand  human  beings  died  of 
famine  and  fever  during  the  three  years  of  1846-47-48. 

"  Now,  that  milhon  and  a  half  of  men,  women,  and  children 
were  carefully,  prudently,  and  peacefully  slain  by  the  English 
government.  They  died  of  hunger  in  the  midst  of  abundance, 
which  their  own  hands  created,  and  it  is  quite  immaterial  to 
distinguish  those  who  perished  in  the  agonies  of  famine  itself 
from  those  who  died  of  typhus  fever,  which  in  Ireland  is  al- 
ways caused  by  famine."  ^ 

In  1847  alone  food  to  the  value  of  ;^44  958,000  sterling  was 
grown  in  Ireland,  according  to  the  statistical  returns  for  that 
year.  But  a  million  of  people  died  for  want  of  food  all  the 
same. 

The  astounded  world  poured  out  its  charity  in  lavish  streams 
when  the  English  and  the  landlords  raised  the  cry  for  alms; 
and  it  is  on  record  that  some  of  the  food-laden  ships,  speeding 
on  a  voyage  of  mercy  to  the  Irish  shores,  passed  on  their  way 
other  ships  laden  with  Irish  produce,  sailing  from  the  same 
shores  to  England,  with  the  exported  fruits  of  Irish  toil  and 
land,  to  be  turned  into  rent  for  the  Irish  landlords  in  the  Eng- 
lish market.  But,  as  the  peasants  had  chosen  to  die  like 
sheep  rather  than  retain  that  food  in  a  fight  for  life,  to  live 
or  die  like  men,  their  loss  to  the  Irish  nation  need  not  occasion 
many  pangs  of  racial  regret. 

In  these  years  coercion  reigned  supreme  in  Ireland.  Of 
this  commodity  Ireland  had  no  famine.  State  trials  were 
the  order  of  the  day  in  '48.  Juries  in  all  political  cases  were 
openly  and  systematically  packed  by  Dublin  Castle,  and  the 
only  feeling  this  provoked  in  England  was  one  of  savage  re- 
gret that  there  was  not  a  more  summary  way  of  disposing  of 

*  Last  Conquest  of  Ireland,  Perhaps,  p.  323. 
66 


THE    TENANTS'    LEAGUE 

the  "felonious"  editors  and  others  who  had  dared  to  write 
sedition  against  the  most  humane  and  progressive  rule  known 
to  civilized  lands.  So  Mitchel,  Meagher,  O'Brien,  Martin, 
and  others  were  shipped  as  "felons"  to  Tasmania,  while 
Dillon,  Stephens,  O'Mahony,  and  many  more  escaped  into 
exile,  leaving  the  country  to  the  leadership  of  the  priests  and 
to  the  tender  mercies  of  the  landlords. 

One  prominent  leader  remained.  Charles  Gavan  Duffy 
was  twice  put  on  trial  on  treasonable  charges,  but  he  had  the 
good-fortune  not  to  be  convicted.  In  after  years  this  fact 
invited  unworthy  taunts  from  former  friends,  and  the  name 
of  "Give-in"  Duffy  was  invented  to  insinuate  a  most  un- 
warranted charge  of  backing  down  on  the  part  of  the  founder 
of  The  Nation.  There  was  not  the  remotest  ground  for  this 
suggestion. 

Duffy  was  a  kind  of  compendium  of  the  Young  Ireland 
party.  He  had  much  of  the  distinguishing  qualities  of  each 
of  its  most  prominent  men — Smith  O'Brien's  chivalrous  de- 
votion to  Ireland;  Thomas  Davis's  poetic  gifts  and  broad- 
minded  nationalism;  Mitchel's  literary  power  and  fervid 
Celtic  imagination,  and  Dillon's  high  personal  qualities.  He 
had,  likewise,  a  fuller  grasp  of  economic  questions  and  a 
wider  range  of  information  than  any  of  those  who  were  pos- 
sessed of  some  one  quality  in  fuller  measure  than  was  given 
to  the  more  varied  equipment  of  Duffy's  capacity. 

He  had  not  been  won  over  to  Lalor's  principles  as  Mitchel 
had;  possibly  because  his  mind  was  cast  more  in  the  mould 
of  what  is  called  "statesmanship"  than  in  that  of  a  revolu- 
tionist. Duffy  was,  however,  an  ardent  land  reformer,  who 
saw  clearly  the  use  and  abuse  of  parliamentary  media  for  the 
attainment  of  measures  essential  to  Ireland's  future  welfare 
and  progress.  He  revolted  against  O'Connell's  plan  of  mak- 
ing the  Irish  representation  in  Westminster  a  means  of  pro- 
moting Catholics  to  ofhce,  and  of  waiting  until  some  ministry 
might  be  induced  by  some  chance  to  offer  Repeal,  for  Irish 
support.  That  policy  had  completely  and  disastrously  failed 
in  1846,  and  at  a  meeting  of  the  National  Confederation,  be- 
fore the  break-up  of  the  Young  Ireland  party,  Duffy  proposed 
and  carried  resolutions  calling  for  a  policy  of  independent 
opposition  of  all  English  parties  and  governments  by  the 
representatives  from  Ireland.  This  was  the  identical  policy 
which  Isaac  Butt  put  into  operation  in  the  seventies,  and 
which  Parnell  carried  to  its  full  length — and  a  little  farther — 
in  the  eighties,  with  marvellously  successful  results. 

In  1849  the  humane  rulers  of  Ireland  passed  an  Encumber- 
ed Estates  Act,  to  enable  the  impecunious  Irish  landlords  to 

67 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

break  the  legal  bonds  of  the  English  law  of  primogeniture  and 
to  sell  their  estates.  A  large  number  of  them  disposed  of 
their  properties  and  removed  from  the  country,  to  make  way 
for  a  new  class  who  were  induced  to  invest  capital  in  Irish 
land  as  a  purely  profit-making  enterprise,  and  for  the  social 
distinction  which  the  ownership  of  estates  offers  to  the  mem- 
bers of  English  society.  The  tenants  were  virtually  bought 
with  the  land,  under  the  operations  of  this  act — that  is,  their 
improvements  and  occupancy  rights  were. 

In  order  the  better  to  dispose  of  their  properties,  old  owners 
began,  in  1849,  a  system  of  clearances  in  wholesale  evictions 
which,  according  to  Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics,  dis- 
posed of  one  hundred  and  ninety  thousand  families  in  three 
years — that  is,  of  over  nine  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  peo- 
ple. These  evicted  farms  were  to  be  consolidated  into  large 
grazing  ranches,  and  larger  tillage  holdings,  in  the  expectation 
that  English  and  Scotch  farmers  with  capital  would  come  to 
Ireland  and  occupy  them.  This  system  was  carried  on  and 
extended  by  the  new  class  of  landlords,  too,  whenever  possible 
during  the  early  fifties. 

There  were  but  comparatively  few  agrarian  outrages  in  the 
country  in  retaliation  for  these  wholesale  clearances  in  1849- 
51,  but  the  number  that  did  occur  seemed  not  to  suggest  to 
English  rulers  what  had  caused  such  violence.  The  Ribbon- 
men  were  still  under  the  ban  of  the  Church,  and  the  sacred 
cause  of  English  law  and  order  had  all  its  moral  protection. 
Possibly  this  had  something  to  do  with  the  legislative  blind- 
ness of  Westminster.  So  the  evicted  people  fled  to  all  quar- 
ters of  the  globe,  and  those  who  had  not  wherewith  to  fly 
crowded  themselves  into  the  already  congested  workhouses 
of  the  country  to  live  and  die  as  paupers. 

In  1849  two  Catholic  curates,  to  their  eternal  credit  be  it 
once  more  recorded,  broke  the  sickening  record  of  apathy  or 
indifference  on  the  part  of  the  clergy  to  the  fate  of  the  peas- 
antry since  the  tithe  war,  and  founded  a  tenants'  organiza- 
tion. They  were  the  Rev.  Thomas  O'Shea  and  the  Rev. 
Matthew  Keefe,  made  known  to  well-deserved  fame  by  Gavan 
Duffy  as  the  "The  Callan  Curates,"  their  sacred  ministry 
being  in  the  little  Kilkenny  capital  of  a  once  sturdy  Whiteboy 
district.  They  started  "The  Callan  Tenant  Protection  So- 
ciety," with  a  platform  of  "Fair  Rents,  Tenant  Right,  and 
Employment."  This  small  association  was  the  beginning  of 
the  movement  for  land  reform,  which  merged  later  into  "The 
Tenant  League  of  North  and  South,"  organized  by  Gavan 
Duffy,  Sharman  Crawford,  Frederick  Lucas,  George  Henry 
Moore,  and  others,  in   1852,  and  which  Archbishop  Cullen 

68 


THE    TENANTS'    LEAGUE 

and  other  bishops  destroyed  by  their  opposition  and  treach- 
ery in  1855. 

Ulster  had  anticipated  the  new  combination  of  tenants  in 
the  South,  in  the  formation  of  tenant  associations  in  1848, 
and  these  examples,  along  with  the  terrible  lessons  of  landlord 
clearances,  stimulated  the  action  of  the  country  elsewhere, 
and  gave  Duffy  and  his  coworkers  the  opportunity  of  weld- 
ing the  scattered  branches  into  one  combination.  He  has 
related  in  his  League  of  North  and  South  the  story  of  these 
efforts,  their  temporary  success  and  ultimate  heart-breaking 
failure,  in  a  narrative  of  absorbing  interest  to  every  student 
of  the  history  of  Irish  land  reform. 

Aided  by  Lucas  (an  Englishman  of  transparent  sincerity  in 
his  labors  for  Ireland,  and  a  public  man  of  the  highest  char- 
acter), who  had  transferred  his  paper.  The  Tablet,  from  Lon- 
don to  Dublin  in  1850,  and  by  Dr.  McKnight,  the  editor  of 
The  Banner  of  Ulster,  a  Presbyterian  organ  in  Belfast,  Duffy 
and  his  allies  succeeded  in. uniting  the  North  and  South  on 
the  land  question  in  these  potential  years.  A  tenant  league 
was  formed,  a  programme  drawn  up,  and  a  policy  of  inde- 
pendent opposition  declared,  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  Duffy 
in  1848,  and  in  a  short  time  the  leaders  of  the  new  combina- 
tion dominated  the  public  life  of  Ireland  with  the  popular 
demand  that  the  "Tenants'  Charter"  should  be  made  the  law 
of  the  land. 

This  charter  practically  embodied  the  views  on  land  reform 
which  Duffy,  Dillon,  and  Mitchel  had  put  forward  in  The  Na- 
tion up  to  the  year  1846,  and  embraced  the  (theoretical)  ab- 
olition of  landlordism,  coupled  with  fair  rents  and  a  protec- 
tion to  the  cultivator  for  his  improvements  or  property  in  his 
holding. 

The  Tenant  League  had  an  opportunity  of  anticipating 
some  of  the  chief  plans  of  the  Land  League  of  later  years  had 
its  leaders  listened  to  and  possessed  the  courage  of  one  whose 
advice  rang  out  then,  as  later,  fearlessly  for  aggressive  action. 
This  tenant-righter  wrote: 

"Let  there  be  established  in  each  parish  a  tenant  society 
including,  if  possible,  every  tenant-farmer  in  the  parish,  whose 
members  would  take  a  pledge  in  these  terms:  'We  promise 
God,  our  country,  and  each  other  never  to  bid  for  any  farm 
of  land  from  which  any  industrious  farmer  in  this  district  has 
been  ejected.'  Should  any  person  violate  this  pledge,  his 
name  must  be  struck  off  the  registry  as  unworthy  to  asso- 
ciate with  honest  men.  To  sustain  the  tenantry,  there  should 
be  established,  at  the  same  time,  in  the  chief  town  of  every 
district,  a  tenant  protection  society,  consisting  of  shop-keep- 

69 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ers,  professional  men,  and  artisans,  which  would  collect  a 
fund  for  the  sustenance  of  tenants  unjustly  evicted.  If  any 
member  bid  for  land  from  which  a  tenant-farmer  had  been 
ejected,  he  must  forfeit  his  membership,  and  at  the  same 
time  'the  call  and  patronage  of  his  townsfolk  and  the  dis- 
trict.'"^ 

The  author  of  this  plan  was  then  (1852)  the  Rev.  T.  W. 
Croke,  Curate  of  Charleville,  County  Cork,  to  become  the  great 
Archbishop  of  Cashel,  and  champion  of  the  Land  League  thirty 
years  subsequently. 

This  was  the  programme  of  the  Whiteboys  and  Ribbonmen 
reduced  to  moral  and  constitutional  standards  and  plans  of 
action;  and  had  the  prelates  and  priests  of  Ireland  backed 
Duffy  and  Father  Croke  in  1852,  in  a  righteous  crusade 
against  the  evils  of  landlordism,  instead  of  attacking  and  be- 
traying such  a  movement  of  bright  hopes  and  promises,  un- 
told blessings  would  have  been  won  for  Ireland  inside  of  these 
thirty  years  of  wasteful  agrarian  warfare. 

English  rulers,  watchful  over  ascendency  interests  in  Ire- 
land, were  not  slow  to  see  the  danger  to  their  hold  on  the 
country  in  a  unity  between  the  Protestant  North  and  the 
Catholic  South.  National  unity  would  stand  for  strength  and 
political  progress,  and  it  has  ever  been  the  purpose  of  Eng- 
lish rule  in  Ireland,  and  in  India,  to  divide  the  people  so 
as  to  keep  them  down.  Lord  John  Russell,  therefore,  wrote 
his  historic  "Durham  Letter,"  and  raised  the  cry  of  "No  Po- 
pery" in  English  ecclesiastical  titles.  Dr.  Wiseman  had  been 
made  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Westminster,  and  the  question 
whether  this  title  should  or  should  not  be  tolerated  in  Prot- 
estant England  was,  of  course,  so  vitally  important  to  the 
life,  labor,  and  liberty  of  the  peasants  of  Munster  and  Con- 
naught  (whose  temporal  welfare  had  always  been  so  strenuous- 
ly advocated  by  English  Catholics!)  that  the  mere  secondary 
issue  of  tenant  right  and  fair  rents  in  Ireland  could  be  noth- 
ing short  of  infidel  folly  to  such  churchmen  as  Dr.  Cullen,  the 
new  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  and  to  his  Irish  episcopal  breth- 
ren.    And  as  with  Dr.  Cullen,  so  with  Rome. 

Men  had  crept  into  the  councils  of  the  League,  and  upon 
its  back  into  Parliament,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  Duffy's 
objects.  They  were  ofhce-seeking  lawyers  and  adventurers; 
two  of  them,  Keogh  and  Sadlier,  having  the  added  dangerous 
qualities  of  ability  when  associated  with  purposes  of  political 
treachery.  These  and  similar  persons  soon  found  favor  with 
Dr.  Cullen  and  his  colleagues.     They  began  to  burn  with  fiery 

^League  of  North  and  South,  pp.  41,  42. 
70 


THE    TENANTS'    LEAGUE 

zeal  at  the  indignities  proposed  to  be  heaped  upon  English 
Catholic  bishops  in  the  Ecclesiastical  Titles  Bill,  and  the  bet- 
ter to  protect  these  sacred  interests  from  heretical  assault, 
they  sold  the  cause  of  the  Irish  tenants  and  took  office  and 
pay  under  the  English  government. 

These  men  and  their  followers  became  known  in  Parlia- 
ment as  "The  Pope's  Brass  Band,"  and  it  was  their  success- 
ful disruption  of  the  parliamentary  party  and  organization 
built  up  by  Duffy  and  others  which  gave  a  death  -  blow  to 
constitutional  agitation  in  the  fifties,  and  contributed  to  in- 
duce James  Stephens  to  create  a  power  out  of  a  people  be- 
trayed by  both  prelates  and  parliamentarians  that  should 
curb  to  some  extent  the  domineering  influence  of  "Castle" 
bishops  in  the  national  life  of  Ireland. 

Duffy,  always  a  stanch  Catholic,  has  left  his  impressions 
of  the  bishops  of  his  period  in  true  and  scathing  judgments  on 
their  conduct  in  wrecking  the  hopes  of  the  people. 

"Nothing  was  to  be  done,"  he  wrote,  "and  three-fourths 
of  the  representatives  elected  by  the  people  assented  in  si- 
lence [to  the  continued  extermination  of  the  peasantry],  and 
three-fourths  of  the  bishops,  born  and  bred  among  them, 
sanctioned  the  perfidy." — "In  every  election  lost  for  two 
years,  quondam  members  of  the  League  co-operated  with  its 
[landlord]  opponents,  and  if  a  deserter  had  behaved  with  sig- 
nal faithlessness  he  might  count  on  presenting  himself  to  the 
people  leaning,  like  Richard  III.,  on  two  bishops."^ 

"As  the  bishops  aimed  to  control  the  politics  of  Ireland  at 
their  discretion,  it  was  plainly  declared  that  bishops  had 
hitherto  been  the  least  intrepid  or  reliable  class  among  the 
Irish  people.  At  the  invasion  a  synod  of  bishops  in  Munster 
welcomed  Henry  II.  and  confirmed  his  claim  to  possess  the 
island,  an  Ulster  synod,  however,  having  taken  a  more  pa- 
triotic course.  In  the  Middle  Ages  bishops  of  English  birth 
or  selection  were  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Irish  rights  and  the 
worst  defamers  of  the  Irish  name.  At  the  Reformation  a 
shameful  proportion  of  the  episcopacy  accepted  the  new  doc- 
trines to  save  their  revenues.  In  the  Confederation  of  Kil- 
kenny, Charles  I.  had  more  partisans  among  the  bishops  than 
the  Pope  and  the  people  together.  In  1800  half  the  episco- 
pacy were  Castle  bishops,  and  supported  the  Union,  and  ap- 
plauded Castlereagh  and  Cooke  in  language  which  would  have 
been  unbecomingly  obsecjuious  if  addressed  to  Cardinal  Fran- 
soni  or  Cardinal  Antonelli.  If  the  second  order  of  the  clergy 
had  accepted  the  advice  of  certain  bishops  a  few  years  later 

'  League  of  North  and  South,  p.  292. 
71 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

no  good  Irishman  would  ever  after  have  been  permitted  to 
attain  a  mitre.  O'Connell  declared  that  they  favored  the 
project  of  giving  the  English  Crown  '  an  indirect  but  efficient 
power  of  nominating  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Ireland,'  and  ve- 
hemently discountenanced  the  opposition  of  the  laity  to  that 
measure.  The  same  spirit  was  still  at  work;  every  defeat  of 
the  League  at  the  hustings  was  directly  attributable  to  the 
influence  of  some  Whig  bishop."  ' 

In  this  way  the  Tenant  League  failed  and  fell.  Duffy  left 
Ireland  for  Australia,  there  to  make  for  himself  an  honored 
career.  He  became  a  Victorian  premier  for  a  short  time,  and 
as  minister  of  lands  in  one  or  two  other  administrations  laid 
the  foundation  of  the  system  of  land  laws  now  obtaining  in 
some  of  the  Australasian  colonies.  He  died  at  Nice,  France, 
in  1903. 

*  League  of  North  and  South,  pp.  335,  336. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ROMANCE    AND     REVOLUTION:    JAMES 
STEPHENS 

No  Irish  leader  since  the  time  of  Wolfe  Tone  has  had  a 
more  romantic  career  than  the  young  man,  then  almost  un- 
known, who  was  wounded  in  Smith  O'Brien's  very  tame  re- 
bellion. James  Stephens  was  born  in  Kilkenny  some  twenty 
years  previous  to  the  ridiculously  small  revolution  of  1848, 
and  was  educated  to  be  a  civil  engineer  He  was  a  man  of 
handsome  address  and  of  medium  height,  with  a  compact, 
well-knit  frame,  and  of  gentlemanly  manners.  In  later  years 
he  developed,  in  facial  features  and  pose  of  the  head,  a  strong 
Garibaldian  expression,  denoting  great  strength  of  purpose 
and  a  masterful  personality. 

He  escaped  from  Ireland  to  France  through  having  a  notice 
inserted  in  a  Kilkenny  paper  that  he  had  been  killed  in  the 
not  over-sanguinary  conflict,  and  in  company  with  Mr.  John 
O'Mahony,  also  a  refugee  rebel,  led  for  a  time  a  somewhat 
Bohemian  life  in  the  French  capital.  He  soon  acquired  a  good 
knowledge  of  French,  and  succeeded  for  a  few  years  in  sup- 
porting himself  by  teaching  English  and  in  translating  some 
of  Dickens's  works  into  French.  General  Pepe,  a  refugee  in 
Paris,  taught  the  young  Irishman  Italian,  in  exchange  for  a 
similar  tuition  in  the  tongue  of  the  Saxon.  Stephens,  who 
had  abated  no  jot  of  his  revolutionary  principles  and  hopes, 
made  the  acquaintance  of  the  leading  European  revolu- 
tionists who  were  found  in  Paris  in  these  years,  and  thus 
equipped  with  more  resourcefulness,  a  wider  knowledge  of 
the  world,  and  a  growing  confidence  in  his  own  power  to  ac- 
complish something  big  and  daring  for  Ireland,  he  returned 
home  a  few  years  after  John  O'Mahony  had  left  France  for 
America. 

The  late  John  Blake  Dillon,  who  had  been  "out"  with  the 
other  Young  Irelanders  in  '48,  was  residing  in  Ballybrack, 
County  Dublin,  after  his  return  from  exile  in  the  United 
States.  One  day,  on  entering  his  library  in  Druid  Lodge,  he 
found  himself  face  to  face  with  Stephens,  who  was  engaged  in 

73 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

giving  lessons  in  French  to  Mr.  Dillon's  children.  Their  last 
meeting  had  been  at  Killenaule,  on  the  day  of  the  "rising,"  in 
'48.  It  is  related  that  a  friendly  dispute  at  once  arose  as  to 
which  of  the  two  had  possessed  the  only  rifie  that  had  gone 
off  on  that  memorable  occasion,  Stephens  insisting  that  he 
had  been  armed  with  that  unique  weapon. 

Stephens  had  been  recommended  to  Mrs.  Dillon  by  the  wife 
of  a  (subsequent)  judge  in  whose  family  he  had  taught  foreign 
languages,  and  it  was  while  earning  a  livelihood  in  this  manner 
that  he  was  preparing  his  plans  for  the  great  movement  which 
was  destined  to  make  history  in  the  next  decade. 

He  had  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  O'Mahony,  Doheny, 
and  others  in  the  United  States,  and  was  aware  that  these  had 
formed  a  body  in  New  York,  in  1854,  called  the  Emmet  Monu- 
ment Association,  with  no  very  definite  objects  beyond  the 
pledged  readiness  of  the  members  to  engage  in  revolutionary 
work  for  Ireland  whenever  the  opportunity  should  arrive. 
This  society  was  the  herald,  if  not  the  foundation,  of  the  future 
Fenian  movement. 

Proposals  from  the  founders  of  this  society  were  submitted 
to  Stephens,  who  had  impressed  all  who  knew  liim  with  a  strong 
confidence  in  his  capacity.  He  was  asked  to  take  the  lead  in  a 
movement  for  Irish  independence,  through  the  media  of  a 
secret-society  preparation  for  an  armed  rebellion  in  Ireland. 
His  answer  was  to  dictate  such  terms  as  would  give  him  ab- 
solute control  of  the  proposed  movement,  and  upon  these  con- 
ditions being  assented  to  he  began  the  work  of  organizing  the 
"I.  R.  B.,"  or  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood. 

This  body  was  founded  in  Dublin,  chiefly  by  Stephens,  on 
March  17,  1858;  Mr.  Thomas  Clarke  Luby,  a  scholarly  ex- 
T.  C.  D.  man,  being,  next  to  Stephens,  the  most  prominent 
member  initiated  at  the  start. 

I  hope  one  day,  before  joining  the  majority,  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  Fenian  movement  as  I  know  it;  and  as  James 
Stephens  left  his  papers  to  a  personal  friend  of  mine,  who 
promises  me  the  fullest  use  of  them  whenever  required,  I 
shall  not  want  for  interesting  material  if  the  task  should  ever 
be  entered  upon. 

My  present  work  requires  only  a  passing  reference  to  the 
organization  which  I  joined  as  a  boy,  and  this  for  the  purpose 
of  emphasizing  two  important  lessons,  which  Stephens's  labors 
taught,  that  have  been  of  enormous  value  to  the  subsequent 
Land  League  movement.  His  sole  reliance  upon  what  are 
called  the  "common  people"  in  creating  the  I.  R.  B.  and  the 
pioneer  work  he  performed  in  organizing  the  exiled  Irish — in 
America  and  in  Great  Britain — as  active  auxiliaries  to  com- 

74 


ROMANCE    AND    REVOLUTION 

bative  movements  in  Ireland.  He  was  the  first  Irish  leader 
to  grasp  and  to  act  upon  the  idea  that  it  was  only  from  the 
masses  of  the  Irish  people,  in  Ireland  and  everywhere,  that 
power  enough  could  be  drawn  that  would  frighten,  or  force, 
England  either  to  mend  her  government  in  Ireland  or  to  clear 
out  of  it  with  her  rule. 

Stephens  had  a  very  small  and  possibly  an  unfair  opinion 
of  the  "rhetorical  revolutionists"  of  1848,  as  he  called  them. 
They  were,  in  reality,  only  eloquent  moral-force  and  middle- 
class  agitators,  in  the  temporary  disguise  of  insurgents,  who 
followed  Smith  O'Brien  chiefly  because  he  was  an  aristocrat 
and  a  leader  of  fine  and  courteous  qualities.  Mitchel  was, 
perhaps,  the  only  one  of  them  to  whom  this  view  of  Stephens's 
would  not  justly  apply;  but  the  author  of  the  immortal  Jail 
Journal  could  never  be  a  "revolutionist"  in  any  conspirator 
sense  of  the  term,  or  anything  else  than  what  he  really  was — a 
brilliant  and  scathing  scolder  of  English  rule  in  Ireland,  a 
fearless  and  remorseless  critic  of  every  one  and  everything 
not  conforming  to  his  ideals  of  what  should  be  done  for  Ire- 
land and  how  it  ought  to  be  accomplished. 

Men  with  estates  and  banking  accounts  are  not  the  most 
ready  or  most  reliable  leaders  of  movements  which  demand 
risks  and  sacrifices  in  a  cause  that  worldly  wisdom  condemns 
as  desperate  or  illegal.  With  this  knowledge  and  his  experi- 
ence of  what  the  sorry  business  at  Ballingarry  amounted  to  in 
1848,  James  Stephens  left  middle-class  men  out  of  "his  reckon- 
ing, and  relied  upon  the  peasants'  sons,  artisans,  and  labor- 
ers for  the  material  out  of  which  to  work  a  revolution.  Had 
he  been  ten  years  older  in  1846,  the  story  of  the  famine  years 
would  have  meant  a  glory  and  not  an  everlasting  shame  for 
his  race. 

He  travelled  through  most  parts  of  Ireland  organizing  his 
great  conspiracy  in  1858  and  1859,  winning  over  the  younger 
Ribbonmen  in  large  numbers  to  the  national  idea  of  indepen- 
dence. His  success  on  this  mission  being  very  marked,  he 
visited  the  United  States,  and  placed  the  Fenian  Brother- 
hood there  in  proper  auxiliary  relation  with  the  home  organi- 
zation, with  John  O'Mahony  as  transatlantic  head  centre. 
During  the  early  stages  of  the  civil  war  he  was  busy  among 
the  Irish-American  regiments  in  the  Northern  army,  recruiting 
men  for  his  revolutionary  purpose,  passes  being  provided  for 
him  which  gave  him  free  access  both  to  the  Federal  and  Con- 
federate forces.  Having  thus  enlisted  thousands  of  men  for 
his  purpose  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  he  returned  to 
Ireland. 

As  is  well  known,  he  did  what  an  Irish  conspirator  would 

75 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

alone  be  likely  to  think  of  doing — he  founded  a  newspaper  to 
be  a  mouth-piece  for  a  secret  organization.  This  was  his  first 
great  mistake,  and  led  not  onlv  to  his  own  arrest,  but  to  that 
of  almost  all  his  chief  lieutenants  in  1865. 

His  fine  presence,  handsome  bearing,  and  the  air  of  superb 
command  which  sat  naturally  upon  a  man  of  unlimited  arro- 
gance and  of  autocratic  disposition,  greatly  impressed  the 
court  before  which  he  and  his  companions  were  brought  for 
examination.  With  the  manner  of  an  actual  president  of  the 
Irish  republic,  he  scornfully  refused  to  recognize  in  any  way 
the  jurisdiction  of  any  English  court  in  Ireland,  and  declared 
he  would  take  no  part  in  such  proceedings. 

His  dramatic  escape  from  Richmond  prison  soon  after- 
wards by  the  aid  of  a  band  of  Fenians,  under  the  command 
of  Colonel  Thomas  Kelly  (the  Fenian  leader  subsequently 
rescued,  in  1867,  from  the  Manchester  prison  van),  the  res- 
cue being  due  almost  entirely  to  an  infirmary  warder,  the 
late  Mr.  John  Breslin,  and  an  assistant  warder  named  Byrne, 
gave  Dublin  Castle  and  English  society  the  greatest  fright 
they  had  received  in  and  from  Ireland  for  a  generation. 
Among  the  band  who  performed  this  daring  act  was  Mr. 
John  Devoy,  whose  name  will  figure  prominently  in  later 
chapters  of  this  story. 

Stephens  remained  concealed  in  a  house  opposite  the  chief 
loyalist  club  in  Dublin  for  months,  and  finally  made  his  way, 
accompanied  by  Colonel  Kelly  and  Mr.  John  Flood,  in  a  hooker 
sailing  from  near  Lusk,  on  the  coast  of  Dublin  County,  across 
to  Silloth,  in  Cumberland.  The  three  outlaws  journeyed  from 
Carlisle  to  London  as  first-class  passengers,  and  on  arriving 
at  Euston,  Flood  called  loudly  for  a  carriage  for  "the  Buck- 
ingham Palace  Hotel,"  and  drove  off  with  his  companions  to 
this  then  very  fashionable  West  End  hostelry. 

Despite  the  descriptions  of  Stephens  that  had  appeared 
in  the  press  for  months,  and  the  big  reward  offered  for  his 
capture,  he  was  not  recognized  when  stepping  on  board  the 
Calais  boat,  muffled  in  a  fashionable  overcoat,  on  a  cold 
spring  morning. 

At  ten  minutes  past  noon  of  March  12,  1866,  he  wired  to 
Mrs.  Stephens  from  Calais  as  follows: 

"All  is  well.  Address  Edmunds,  No.  8  Rue  Geoffroy  Marie, 
Paris." 

Stephens,  like  every  other  Irish  leader  before  and  after  his 
time,  had  been  in  prison,  but  he  has  the  unique  distinction 
of  having  flouted  English  law  in  its  own  courts,  walked  out 
of  its  custody,  escaped  beyond  its  reach  with  a  reward  upon 
his  head,  and,  though  having  planned  and  organized  the  most 

76 


ROMANCE    AND    REVOLUTION 

formidable  revolutionary  movement  in  Ireland  since  the 
days  of  Wolfe  Tone,  was  privileged  to  return  home  unmolested 
in  his  old  age,  to  live  quietly  among  his  friends,  and  to  end 
his  days  peaceably  in  a  country  for  whose  liberty  he  had  run 
all  the  possible  risks  and  devoted  all  the  energies  of  a  thorough 
revolutionist's  life. 

As  already  mentioned,  the  Irish  landlords  had  experienced 
a  decade  of  almost  uninterrupted  peace  from  agrarian  troubles 
while  Fenianism  was  educating  the  peasantry  and  working- 
classes  of  Ireland  in  the  principles  of  Wolfe  Tone  and  Emmet 
and  in  the  lessons  of  independence  taught  by  the  poetry  of 
Thomas  Davis.  The  movement  had  one  negative  virtue  to 
them:  it  was  not  an  agrarian  association.  This,  perhaps, 
accounts  for  the  fact  that  from  the  year  1858  to  that  of  1870 
these  same  landlords  succeeded  in  evicting  close  upon  fifteen 
thousand  families  from  home  and  holdings. 

Two  events  of  far-reaching  importance  to  the  cause  of 
land  reform  occurred  in  the  decade  of  greatest  Fenian  activity: 
one  was  the  Ballycohey  shooting  affray,  and  the  other,  the 
first  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  land  measures,  the  Act  of  1870. 
The  desperate  and  successful  action  of  Dwyer,  of  Bally- 
cohey, on  August  14,  1868,^  to  defend  his  home  from  the  doom 
of  eviction  started  the  public  once  again  to  the  living  reality 
of  the  land  question.  It  was  the  old  Whiteboy  spirit  in 
revolt  once  more  to  curb  the  vandal  insolence  of  the  rent 
power,  and  so  effectively  did  this  Tipperary  peasant  and  his 
brave  companions  strike  for  the  protection  of  others'  as  well 
as  of  their  own  homesteads  that  the  number  of  evictions  in 
Ireland  fell  during  the  ensuing  five  years  to  a  lower  figure 
than  in  any  similar  period  since  1849. 

The  Land  Act  of  1870  was  as  "much  a  concession  to  what 
Mr.  Gladstone  termed  "the  intensity  of  Fenianism"  as  was  the 
disestablishment  of  the  twin  feudal  institution  with  land- 
lordism, the  Irish  State  Church.  This  act  did  not  prevent 
evictions,  but  it  rendered  them  a  costly  legal  undertaking  to 
the  landlord,  while  it  likewise  laid  a  foundation  of  legal  pro- 

*  Scully,  the  evicting  landlord,  commanded  in  person  the  force  which 
was  to  dispossess  Dwyer.  Dwyer  and  a  few  friends  fired  from  the 
honse  upon  the  evicting  party,  killing  a  bailiff  and  a  policeman  and 
wounding  the  landlord  and  another  bailiff.  Scully  was  not  much  in- 
jured. He  wore  a  protection  of  chain  armor  under  his  coat.  The 
estate  of  Ballycohey  was  subsequently  bought  by  a  local  merchant 
named  Moore,  who  was  elected  member  of  Parliament  for  Tipperary 
along  with  John  Blake  Dillon,  a  few  years  after  the  firing  upon  Scully. 
No  parties  were  punished  for  this  affray.  No  information  could  be 
got  to  support  a  conviction.  Dwyer  died  in  1903,  having  enjoyed 
wide  celebrity  in  his  native  county  since  1868. 

77 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tection  for  tenants — a  tentative,  halting  protection — which 
was  to  point  the  way  to  the  great  charter  of  emancipation 
from  landlord  injustice  to  be  won  by  the  Land  League  in  the 
Land  Act  of  1881. 

What  more  the  great  organization  founded  by  James 
Stephens  did,  indirectly,  for  the  peasants  of  Ireland,  will  be 
told  more  appropriately  in  connection  with  the  events  which 
fall,  in  the  order  of  time,  within  the  purview  of  some  succeed- 
ing chapters. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
HOME    RULE    AND    LAND    REFORM:    ISAAC    BUTT 

"If  the  rights  of  property  are  to  be  exercised  for  the  extinction  of 
the  people,  we  must  not  wonder  if  the  people  begin  to  think  that  their 
only  hope  of  safety  lies  in  the  extinction  of  all  rights  of  property  in 
land." — Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race,  p.  65. 

If  James  Fintan  Lalor  was  the  prophet  of  Irish  revolution- 
ary land  reform,  Isaac  Butt  was  its  immediate  if  more 
moderate  precursor.  He  may  be  said  to  have  been  the 
reforming  link  between  Gavan  Duffy's  Tenant  League  and 
the  Land  League,  and  to  have  handed  on  the  endless  struggle 
of  the  Celtic  peasantry  for  the  soil  from  the  movement  de- 
stroyed by  Cardinal  Cullen  and  his  parliamentary  "Brass 
Band,"  in  the  fifties,  to  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Parnell  in  the 
agrarian  uprising  of  1879. 

He  was  an  Ulsterman  and  Protestant,  the  son  of  a  beneficed 
clergyman,  and  was  born  near  Stranorlar,  County  Donegal, 
in  1 813.  He  claimed  to  be  descended  from  a  noted  leader 
of  Rapparees,  a  fact  which  might  explain  his  championship 
of  the  cause  of  the  tillers  of  the  land  in  after  years.  His 
family  was  also  related  to  the  famous  Bishop  Berkeley,  the 
author  of  The  Querist.  He  entered  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  in 
1828,  and,  passing  through  the  usual  university  course,  left  a 
brilliant  record  of  scholastic  achievements  behind  him  when 
he  emerged  with  honors  and  degrees  to  join  the  legal  pro- 
fession. 

The  anti-national  atmosphere  and  associations  of  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  may  have  been  responsible  for  Mr.  Butt's 
early  Toryism.  In  this  the  chief  nursery  of  West  Britonism 
in  Ireland  would  be  only  true  to  its  mission  among  Irish 
educational  institutions.  It  has  always  been  the  university 
of  "the  Garrison,"  and  the  occasional  appearance  of  a  na- 
tionalist among  its  alumni  only  helps  to  emphasize  the  pro- 
English  spirit  of  its  atmosphere  and  the  un-Irish  tendencies 
of  its  teaching.  Underneath  the  conservatism  of  the  young 
orator  of  the  thirties  there  was  a  patriotic  love   of    Ireland 

79 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

which  offered  a  hopeful  promise  of  a  future  development  into 
ardent  nationalism.  His  address  as  President  of  the  College 
Historical  Society  in  1833,  on  the  subject  of  oratory,  indicated 
the  warmth  of  his  passion  for  liberty,  when  he  eulogized  the 
gift  and  weapon  of  human  eloquence  as  being  put  to  its  no- 
blest use,  next  following  the  sacred  service  of  religion,  when 
applied  to  the  vindication  of  a  country's  freedom  from 
tyranny  and  oppression. 

He  was  called  to  the  bar  in  1838.  Two  years  previously 
he  had  carried  off  the  prize  of  the  Whately  Professorship  of 
Political  Economy  in  Trinity  College  from  all  competitors,  and 
held  the  chair  with  much  distinction  for  several  years.  In 
1840  he  was  selected  by  the  Irish  ascendency  party  to  rep- 
resent the  then  exclusive  loyalist  Corporation  of  Dubhn  in 
opposition  to  the  Irish  Municipal  Bill  at  that  time  before 
Parliament.  He  appeared  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  delivered  a  speech  which  was  described  in  the  London 
press  as  a  masterpiece  of  able  pleading.  The  Standard  of 
May  6,  1840,  referred  to  its  effect  on  the  assembly  in  these 
terms : 

"The  learned  gentleman  was  loudly  cheered  in  the  progress 
of  his  address  and  still  more  enthusiastically  at  its  conclusion, 
a  great  number  of  peers  hurrying  to  the  bar  to  thank  him 
and  to  congratulate  him.  The  unusual  animation  of  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  was  perhaps  the  highest  compliment 
that  could  be  paid  to  the  speaker  in  the  House." 

Meanwhile  he  had  won  distinction  in  other  fields  of  effort. 
He  was  one  of  the  brilliant  band  of  contributors  to  the  Dub- 
lin University  Magazine  when  that  periodical  occupied  a 
foremost  position  among  the  literary  journals  of  the  day. 
Charles  Lever,  Carleton,  Ferguson,  and  other  celebrities  were 
contemporary  writers  in  an  organ  as  famed  for  the  high 
character  of  its  literary  output  as  for  the  narrow  bigotry  of  its 
sectarian  views.  In  a  number  of  anonymous  papers  under 
the  title  of  "Chapters  of  a  College  Romance,"  Mr.  Butt  con- 
tributed a  series  of  charming  sketches  of  scholastic  and  Irish 
life,  which  gave  promise  of  a  successful  reputation  as  a  novel- 
ist should  the  career  of  law  not  satisfy  the  desires  of  more  am- 
bitious aims.  The  Gap  of  Barnesmore,  a  historical  romance 
in  three  volumes,  was  published  anonymously  in  London  in 
1848.  It  dealt  with  the  feuds  arising  out  of  the  revolution  of 
1688,  and  enunciated  the  author's  views,  through  the  medium 
of  the  characters  of  his  story,  on  questions  social,  political,  and 
religious  as  these  affected  life  in  Ulster  in  that  period.  Trans- 
lations from  Virgil  and  Ovid  were  testimonies  to  his  love  of 
classical  studies,  and  are  proofs  of  his  wide  intellectual  culture. 

80 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

He  completed  a  History  of  Italy,  in  i860  (Chapman  &  Hall, 
London,  two  volumes),  and  was  engaged  on  another  historical 
work,  relating  to  Russia,  which  his  death,  in  1879,  left  un- 
finished. 

The  studies  and  labors  of  his  profession  gave  his  mind  its 
chief  bent  towards  law  and  political  economy,  and  it  was  on 
these  subjects  he  wrote  most  and  made  his  highest  mark. 
His  book.  The  Law  of  Compensation  to  Tenants,  was  a  standard 
work  after  the  Land  Act  of  1870  became  law.  His  works  on 
land  reform  came  forth  in  later  years  when  his  political  con- 
victions were  in  the  process  of  undergoing  a  radical  change, 
and  he  was  becoming  the  acknowledged  exponent  of  the  then 
moderate  land  reformers  of  Ireland.  His  Plea  for  the  Celtic 
Race,  published  in  1866,  and  The  Irish  People  and  the  Irish 
Land  (1887),  became  text-books  for  Land-League  speakers 
and  writers.  They  were  storehouses  of  historic  facts,  of  the 
doctrines  of  political  economy,  of  the  conclusions  and  findings 
of  commissions,  and  of  parliamentary  reports  relating  to  Ire- 
land, while  the  views  and  opinions  of  the  author  were  instinct 
with  Celtic  feeling  and  indignation  at  the  wrongs  and  injus- 
tices of  the  tillers  of  the  soil.  In  the  same  year  he  published 
The  Irish  Querist,  in  which,  after  the  style  of  Bishop  Berkeley's 
celebrated  work,  he  dissected  the  system  of  Irish  landlordism, 
and  mercilessly  exposed  the  neglect  and  failure  of  England's 
administration  as  shown  in  the  social  misery  of  Ireland.  His 
Problem  of  Irish  Education  (1875)  stamped  him  as  one  of  the 
highest  authorities  on  this  thorny  Irish  question.  He  was 
accepted  by  the  Catholic  hierarchy  as  the  parliamentary  ex- 
ponent of  the  Catholic  demands  on  Irish  university  education, 
and  he  received  the  united  thanks  of  the  Irish  archbishops 
and  bishops  for  the  labors  he  had  put  forth  in  behalf  of  the 
Catholics  of  the  country.  As  a  Protestant  he  always  felt 
proud  of  the  confidence  thus  reposed  in  him  by  the  heads  of 
the  Catholic  Church  in  Ireland. 

His  earliest  noted  appearance  in  the  political  arena  was  the 
part  he  took  in  the  famous  debate  on  Repeal  in  the  Corpora- 
tion of  Dublin,  of  which  he  was  an  alderman,  in  March,  1843. 
O'Connell  was  his  adversary,  Mr.  Butt  taking  the  Conserva- 
tive side,  as  defender  of  the  Act  of  Union.  He  displayed  ex- 
ceptional capacity  as  a  speaker  in  this  encounter  with  the 
greatest  popular  orator  of  the  day,  or  perhaps  of  all  days,  since 
those  of  Demosthenes.  In  the  diplomatic  moderation  of  his 
hostility  to  the  cause  he  was  opposing,  he  succeeded  in  con- 
veying the  impression  that  he  held  a  brief  as  a  barrister, 
rather  than  as  an  Irishman,  for  the  case  against  national  gov- 
ernment, while  behind  the  pleading  of  the  advocate  there  lay 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  half-avowed  sympathy  of  the  speaker  for  the  side  he  was 
assaiHng.  He  earned  the  high  eulogium  of  his  mighty  antago- 
nist for  this  effort.  O'Connell  discerned  in  his  young  oppo- 
nent, not  alone  the  promise  of  a  great  career,  but  the  future 
'  convert  to,  and  a  possible  leader  of,  the  claims  and  justice  of 
Irish  national  autonomy.  The  Liberator's  prediction  was  a 
remarkable  instance  of  verified  political  prophecy.  Thirty 
years  subsequent  to  these  references  to  Mr.  Butt  he  became 
the  chosen  leader  of  the  Irish  parliamentary  representation, 
and  the  successor  of  O'Connell  in  the  popular  leadership  of 
Ireland's  struggle  against  the  Act  of  Union. 

He  appeared  in  his  first  great  political  trial  in  1848.  He  de- 
fended Smith  O'Brien  and  Meagher  in  the  state  prosecution 
arising  out  of  the  Young  Ireland  movement,  and  was  leading 
counsel  for  John  Martin  and  Kevin  Izod  O'Doherty  when 
these  were  arraigned  in  the  same  year  for  alleged  treasonable 
writings  in  the  organs  of  the  revolutionary  movement.  These 
state  trials  brought  him  in  direct  contact  with  men  of  social 
position  and  education  who  were  prepared  to  risk  life  and  lib- 
erty in  a  struggle  against  a  system  of  rule  responsible  for  the 
horrors  of  the  great  famine.  The  chivalrous  character  of 
Smith  O'Brien,  the  soldier-patriotism  of  Meagher,  the  abso- 
lute purity  of  motive  of  Martin,  and  the  earnestness  of 
O'Doherty  and  Brennan  in  their  spirit  of  revolt  against  the 
cause  of  Ireland's  discontent  and  poverty  could  not  fail  to 
make  a  lasting  impression  upon  the  latent  sympathies  of  their 
able  advocate.  In  after  years  the  influence  of  this  impression 
was  felt  and  acknowledged. 

In  the  case  of  Martin,  James  Fintan  Lalor's  fiery  and  frankly 
revolutionary  writings  on  the  Irish  land  question  were  read 
in  court,  having  been  published  in  the  columns  of  TJie  Felon, 
the  paper  which  succeeded  John  Mitchel's  United  Irishman. 
These  writings  embodied  the  true  gospel  of  the  land  for  the 
people,  and  gave  expression  to  truths  and  facts  which  ought 
to  have  moulded  a  great  national  policy  two  years  previous- 
ly, and  should  have  precipitated  a  revolt  against  the  land 
system  which  made  a  great  famine  possible  in  a  land  where 
food  was  sold  for  rent  that  could  and  ought  to  have  been 
used  to  avert  starvation.  Lalor  saw  clearly,  and  said  boldly, 
that  landlordism  rather  than  English  rule  was  the  special 
scourge  of  the  Irish  people  in  the  famine  years,  and  against 
that  system  he  was  anxious  to  hurl  the  united  popular  might 
of  Ireland.  His  revolutionary  programme  was  unfortunately 
enunciated  after  the  famine.  The  drastic  remedy  he  proposed 
came  too  late  to  avert  or  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  that  awful 
calamity,  but  the  ideas  and  proposals  which  were  published 

82 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

by  Lalor  in  the  columns  of  The  Felon  were  seeds  sown  for  an- 
other generation  of  Irish  land  reformers,  and  the  man  who 
was  destined  to  be  himself  a  powerful  propagandist  of  more 
moderate  proposals  tending  towards  the  achievement  of  a 
similar  end  was  the  counsel  who  had  to  read,  explain,  and  ex- 
tenuate the  rebellious  agrarianism  of  Lalor's  manifestoes  dur- 
ing John  Martin's  trial. 

It  was  the  unique  preventable  iniquity  of  the  great  artificial 
famine  and  the  impotent  fury  of  the  people's  leaders  in  face 
of  so  gigantic  an  infamy  which  taught  lasting  lessons  to  Mr. 
Butt  on  the  Irish  land  question.  His  school  of  study  in  this 
connection  was  found  in  state  prosecutions,  and  the  facts 
thus  learned  went  home.  It  remained  for  another  genera- 
tion of  political  conflicts  to  complete  his  nationalist  educa- 
tion. 

Twenty  years  after  the  trials  of  the  Young  Irelanders 
those  of  the  leaders  of  the  Fenian  movement  took  place.  Mr. 
Butt  was  again  the  trusted  defender  of  Irish  rebels  against 
English  rule.  He  was  the  leading  counsel  in  almost  every 
prominent  prosecution  in  1865  and  1867.  Once  more  he  saw 
a  procession  of  men  in  the  prime  of  life  going  from  their  homes 
to  the  dock  and  thence  to  penal  servitude  in  protest  against 
the  insult  and  injuries  of  alien  government.  He  was  deeply 
and  irresistibly  impressed  by  the  character  for  sincerity 
and  the  spirit  of  sacrifice  which  stamped  the  personality 
of  the  Fenian  leaders.  He  believed  their  cause  to  be  hope- 
less, and  knew  their  plans  to  be  utterly  devoid  of  all  chances 
of  success.  But  this  knowledge  only  increased  his  admiration 
for  the  evidence  of  unselfish  patriotism  which  was  thus  given 
by  men  devoted  to  a  great  ideal,  and  who  preferred  to  face  an 
English  convict  prison,  as  confessors  of  Irish  liberty,  than  live 
contented  in  a  country  doubly  disgraced  and  humiliated  by 
Castle  rule  and  the  perfidious  conduct  of  those  public  men 
who  had  literally  sold  the  movement  of  Duffy  and  Lucas  to  an 
English  ministry  for  place  and  salary  with  the  sanction  and 
blessing  of  Irish  Catholic  bishops. 

What  history  will  be  concerned  with  in  this  connection  is 
the  undoubted  fact  that  both  the  Home-Rule  agitation,  ini- 
tiated by  Isaac  Butt  in  1870,  and  the  Land  League  organiza- 
tion which  came  into  existence  nine  years  subsequently,  de- 
rived their  inspiration  and  origin  from  the  Fenian  movement. 
What  had  failed  almost  as  disastrously  in  insurrectionary  ef- 
fort as  the  revolutionary  fiasco  of  Smith  O'Brien  in  1848  was 
destined  to  set  in  motion  other  forces  and  influences  which 
were  to  achieve  a  success  for  Ireland  that  would,  to  a  great 
extent,  redeem  the  failure  of  1867. 

83 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

Mr.  Butt's  testimony  to  the  permanent  work  done  for  Ire- 
land by  Fenianism  has  often  been  quoted,  but  it  merits  re- 
production again  for  its  historic  truth  and  as  a  tribute  to  the 
courage  of  him  who  obtained  for  it  such  an  acknowledgment 
at  the  time. 

Speaking  at  the  Home  Rule  conference,  Dublin,  in  Novem- 
ber,  1873,  Mr.  Butt  said: 

"Mr.  Gladstone  said  that  Fenianism  taught  him  the  in- 
tensity of  Irish  disaffection.  It  taught  me  more  and  better 
things.  It  taught  me  the  depth,  the  breadth,  the  sincerity  of 
that  love  of  fatherland  that  misgovemment  had  tortured  into 
disaffection  and  misgovemment,  driving  men  to  despair,  had 
exaggerated  into  revolt.  State  trials  were  not  new  to  me. 
Twenty  years  before,  I  stood  near  Smith  O'Brien  when  he 
braved  the  sentence  of  death  which  the  law  pronounced  upon 
him.  I  saw  Meagher  meet  the  same,  and  I  then  asked  myself 
this :  '  Surely  the  state  is  out  of  joint ;  surely  all  our  social  sys- 
tem is  unhinged,  when  O'Brien  and  Meagher  are  condemned 
by  their  country  to  a  traitor's  doom!' 

"Years  had  passed  away,  and  once  more  I  stood  by  men 
who  had  dared  this  desperate  enterprise  of  freeing  their  coun- 
try by  revolt.  They  were  men  who  were  run  down  by  ob- 
loquy— they  had  been  branded  as  the  enemies  of  religion  and 
social  order.  I  saw  them  manfully  bear  up  against  all.  I 
saw  the  unflinching  firmness  to  their  cause  by  which  they  tes- 
tified the  sincerity  of  their  faith  in  that  cause — their  deep  con- 
viction of  its  righteousness  and  truth.  I  saw  them  meet  their 
fate  with  a  manly  fanaticism  that  made  them  martyrs.  I 
heard  their  words  of  devotion  to  their  country,  as  with  firm 
step  and  unyielding  hearts  they  left  the  dock  and  went  down 
the  dark  passage  that  led  them  to  the  place  where  all  hope 
closed  upon  them,  and  I  asked  myself  again:  '  Is  there  no  way 
to  arrest  this?  Are  our  best  and  bravest  spirits  ever  to  be 
carried  away  under  this  system  of  constantly  resisted  oppres- 
sion and  constantly  defeated  revolt?  Can  we  find  no  means 
by  which  the  national  quarrel  which  has  led  to  all  these  terri- 
ble results  may  be  set  right?'  I  believe  in  my  conscience  we 
have  found  it.  I  believe  that  England  has  now  the  oppor- 
tunity of  adjusting  the  quarrel  of  centuries.  Let  me  say  it — 
I  do  so  proudly — that  I  was  one  of  those  who  did  something 
in  this  cause.  Over  a  torn  and  distracted  country — a  country 
agitated  by  dissension,  weakened  by  distrust — we  raised  the 
banner  on  which  we  emblazoned  the  magic  words,  '  Home 
Rule.'  We  raised  it  with  feeble  hand.  Tremblingly,  with 
hesitation,  almost  stealthily,  we  unfurled  that  banner  to  the 
breeze.     But  wherever  the  legend  we  had  emblazoned  on  its 

84 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

folds  was  seen  the  heart  of  the  people  moved  to  its  words,  and 
the  soul  of  the  nation  felt  their  power  and  their  spell.  Those 
words  were  passed  from  man  to  man  along  the  valley  and  the 
hill-side.  Everywhere  men,  even  those  who  had  been  despair- 
ing, turned  to  that  banner  with  confidence  and  hope.  Thus 
far  we  have  borne  it.  It  is  for  you  now  to  bear  it  on  with 
more  energy,  with  more  strength,  and  renewed  vigor.  We 
hand  it  over  to  you  in  this  gathering  of  the  nation.  But,  oh! 
let  no  unholy  hands  approach  it.  Let  no  one  come  to  the  help 
of  our  country, 

'  Or  dare  to  lay  a  hand  upon  the  Ark 
Of  her  magnificent  and  awful  cause,' 

who  is  not  prepared  never,  never  to  desert  that  banner  till  it 
flies  proudly  over  the  portals  of  that  '  Old  House  at  Home ' — 
that  old  house  which  is  associated  with  memories  of  great 
Irishmen  and  has  been  the  scene  of  many  great  triumphs. 
Even  while  the  blaze  of  those  glories  is  at  this  moment  throw- 
ing the  splendor  over  the  memory  of  us  all,  I  believe  in  my 
soul  that  the  Parliament  of  regenerated  Ireland  will  achieve 
triumphs  more  glorious,  more  lasting,  sanctified,  and  holy 
than  any  by  which  her  old  Parliament  illumined  the  annals  of 
our  country  and  our  race." 

The  genesis  of  the  Home-Rule  agitation  was  the  twofold 
influence  of  the  amnesty  movement,  led  by  Mr.  Butt,  for  the 
release  of  the  Fenian  prisoners,  and  the  resentment  of  a  sec- 
tion of  the  Irish  loyalists  against  the  imperial  Parliament  for  the 
disestablishment  of  the  Irish  State  Church.  It  was  an  instance 
of  two  extremes  being  encouraged  by  circumstances  to  create 
a  medium  party.  The  spirit  of  Fenianism,  acting  through 
the  agitation  for  amnesty,  and  the  revolt  of  Irish  Toryism, 
occasioned  by  an  act  of  English  justice,  selected,  as  it  were, 
in  the  person  of  Isaac  Butt,  a  compendium  of  honest  compro- 
mise, and  enabled  the  one-time  Irish  Conservative,  now  a  con- 
verted nationalist,  to  think  out  and  project  a  programme 
which  was  to  seek  a  solution  of  the  Anglo-Irish  question  by 
the  means  of  a  Federal  Home  Rule  Parliament  in  Dublin. 
Both  extremes  fell  away  from  this  middle  programme  in  a  few 
years.  The  imion  of  antagonizing  Irish  elements  was  too 
sudden  to  be  enduring.  A  new  force  was  soon  to  be  created 
which  was  to  carry  Home  Rule  forward  by  the  momentum  of 
a  land  war,  to  be  actively  renewed  more  upon  the  lines  of 
James  Fintan  Lalor's  principles  than  on  those  of  Duffy's 
Tenant  League  or  Butt's  programme  of  the  three  F's — fixity 
of  tenure,  fair  rents,  and  free  sale.  It  was  to  be  a  joint 
evolution  of  Fenianism  and  Home  Rule. 

85 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

Mr.  Butt  helped  powerfully  to  generate  this  new  force. 
Without  his  labors  of  preparatory  discussion  and  agitation  the 
Land  League  would  not  have  so  easily  rallied  the  whole  coun- 
try to  the  standard  of  "the  land  for  the  people."  Many  of 
the  Land  League  leaders,  notably  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  John 
Dillon,  took  service  for  Ireland  under  Isaac  Butt's  leadership, 
and  much  of  the  credit  of  what  has  been  done  to  free  the  Irish 
people  from  the  evil  incubus  of  landlordism,  and  to  weaken 
the  hold  of  Dublin  Castle  on  the  country,  is  due  to  the  man 
who  had  rallied  the  people  once  again  in  an  organized  resolve 
to  supplant  the  government  of  a  landlord  faction  by  the  rule 
of  Ireland  by  and  for  the  Irish  people. 

Mr.  Butt's  parliamentary  career  began  in  1852,  when  he  was 
elected  for  the  borough  of  Harwich,  and  terminated  in  his 
death  as  member  for  the  city  of  Limerick  in  1879.  He  held 
his  English  seat  for  the  brief  space  of  two  months  only,  as  a 
protectionist,  in  the  abortive  attempt  of  British  and  Irish 
Tory  landlordism  to  undo  the  free-trade  work  of  Peel.  The 
borough  of  Youghal  invited  his  candidature  after  he  had  en- 
tered the  House  of  Commons,  and  he  was  returned  unopposed 
for  this  small  constituency.  He  sat  as  an  Irish  Conservative, 
but  made  no  mark  in  Parliament,  in  the  fifties,  despite  his 
reputation  as  an  orator  and  his  many  other  equipments  for 
legislative  labors.  He  had  not  yet  received  the  "call"  which 
comes  to  all  men  destined  for  a  great  work.  His  Conservative 
entanglements  stood  between  him  and  that  duty  which  could 
alone  enkindle  his  latent  nationalist  sympathies  into  activity 
for  his  country's  cause.  The  time  and  circumstances  had  not 
yet  arrived,  and  he  retired  in  a  few  years  from  political  life  to 
attend  more  regularly  to  his  professional  duties. 

It  was  the  amnesty  agitation  following  the  state  prosecu- 
tions of  1867  that  offered  him  the  field  in  which  he  was  to  sow 
the  seed  of  Home  Rule.  Public  meetings  were  held  through- 
out the  country,  at  which  enormous  gatherings  assembled;  the 
aggregate  attendance  during  a  three  months'  series  of  demon- 
strations in  1869  being  estimated  at  over  a  million.  At  the 
Cabra,  Dublin,  meeting  on  October  loth,  two  hundred 
thousand  persons  were  present.  John  "Amnesty"  Nolan,  a 
prominent  Fenian  leader,  was  the  chief  organizer  of  the  am- 
nesty agitation.  Mr.  Butt  spoke  at  the  Cabra  meeting,  and 
received  an  ovation  that  recalled  the  popular  enthusiasm  with 
which  O'Connell  was  received  by  the  people  in  the  Repeal 
movement.  The  country  soon  began  to  look  to  Butt  for 
political  guidance  and  action,  and  when,  in  1870,  all  the 
prominent  political  prisoners  were  released  by  Mr.  Gladstone 
as  an  indirect  result  of  the  amnestv  agitation,  the  call  for 

86 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

duty  and  leadership  came  from  the  voice  of  Ireland,  and  the 
man  of  the  hour  was  elected  member  for  Limerick  City. 

How  he  brought  about  the  preliminary  conference  of  rep- 
resentative nationalists  in  1870,  in  conjunction  with  John 
Martin,  A.  M.  SulHvan,  Rev.  Joseph  A.  Galbraith,  of  Trinity 
College,  and  other  prominent  leaders,  and  the  steps  which 
led  from  the  formation  of  the  Home  Government  Association 
to  the  historical  conference  of  1873,  already  referred  to,  and 
the  founding  of  the  Home  Rule  League,  belong  to  the  domain 
of  history  and  not  to  this  work.  In  a  few  years'  time  he  found 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  largest  Irish  parliamentary  party  • 
which  had  ever  gone  to  Westminster  on  a  definite  popular 
programme  from  Ireland.  O'Connell's  prediction  of  1843 
was  fulfilled.  The  young  barrister  who  had  pleaded  with 
great  force  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Lords  against  an  exten- 
sion of  the  municipal  franchise  in  Ireland  was  the  leader  within 
the  House  of  Commons  of  a  party  of  sixty  Irish  representa- 
tives pledged  to  obtain  a  federal  constitution  and  parliament 
for  his  country. 

Professor  Galbraith,  of  Trinity  College,  was  the  author  of 
the  political  and  enduring  phrase,  "Home  Rule."  The  fed- 
eral form  of  national  government  for  which  it  stood  in  Mr. 
Butt's  programme  was  not,  however,  an  original  proposal. 
Sharman  Crawford  had  put  forward  such  a  solution  of  the 
Irish  question  as  a  substitute  for  Repeal,  in  the  thirties,  while 
the  Rev.  Thaddeus  O'Malley,  an  able  and  popular  clergyman, 
had  been  a  warm  advocate  of  federalism  inside  of  O'Connell's 
Repeal  Association.  Moreover,  the  Whig  leaders,  in  1844, 
were  charged  by  the  organ  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  the  Morning 
Herald,  with  having  offered  a  federal  constitution  to  O'Con- 
nell,  in  substitution  for  Repeal,  in  another  Lichfield  House 
compact. 

Federal  Home  Rule  did  not  enlist  the  active  co-operation  of 
advanced  nationalists  in  the  seventies,  though  Mr.  Butt  re- 
mained personally  popular  with  the  active  members  of  the  re- 
organized revolutionary  body  in  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  up 
to  the  rise  into  prominence  of  Mr.  C.  S.  Parnell.  Federalism 
broke  with  the  O'Connell  tradition,  and  proposed  to  substi- 
tute a  subordinate  assembly  in  Dublin  for  the  semi-national- 
ist constitution  associated  with  Grattan  and  the  Volunteers. 
In  fact,  Mr.  Butt's  Parliament  would  have  been  more  truly 
"national,"  in  the  sense  of  representing  all  Ireland,  and  in 
many  other  popular  respects,  than  the  alleged  "independent" 
legislature  which  Davis,  and  historians  equally  as  poetic  in 
their  treatment  of  sober  facts,  represented  that  "Parliament 
of  the  Pale"  to  be.     But  Home  Rule,  all  the  same,  failed  to 

87 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

enlist  popular  confidence.  The  mass  of  the  people  did  not 
comprehend  its  true  character  and  proposals,  while  the  "sho- 
neen  "  elements,  which  were  so  strongly  represented  among  Mr. 
Butt's  parliamentary  following,  tended  to  justify  this  public 
apathy  towards  a  party  numbering  in  its  ranks  so  many  prac- 
tically unknown  and  unreliable  personalities.  Half  of  the 
party  were  believed  to  be  nominal  Home-Rulers  only — men 
who  had  agreed  to  the  formula  of  Home  Rule  as  an  easy  pass- 
port to  a  membership  of  the  House  of  Commons.  When, 
therefore,  in  1877,  a  section  of  Mr.  Butt's  party,  led  by  Messrs. 
Biggar,  Parnell,  and  O'Connor  Power,  commenced  an  ener- 
getic policy  of  parliamentary  obstruction,  popular  favor  in 
Ireland  was  won  for  the  new  methods  of  independent  oppo- 
sition, and  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Parnell  began  to  appeal  for 
preferential  approval  to  Irish  national  opinions. 

Mr.  Butt  had  adopted  the  policy  of  independent  opposition 
on  assuming  the  leadership  of  the  first  Home  Rule  parlia- 
mentary party.  In  this  he  followed  the  lines  laid  down  by 
Gavan  Duffy  and  Frederick  Lucas  in  1852,  when  the  Tenant 
League  had  organized  a  popular  movement  and  a  parliamen- 
tary party  to  obtain  a  moderate  settlement  of  the  land  ques- 
tion. The  principle  of  independent  opposition,  as  a  parlia- 
mentary policy  for  Irish  members,  was  first  proclaimed,  in 
1847,  at  a  meeting  of  the  council  of  the  Irish  Federation,  fol- 
lowing the  split  between  Smith  O'Brien's  adherents  and  those 
of  O'Connell.  Gavan  Duffy  embodied  this  policy  in  a  report 
upon  the  best  means  for  achieving  the  Repeal  of  the  Union, 
which  was  adopted  by  the  supporters  of  O'Brien;  Mitchell  and 
Reilly  excepted,  who  declared  against  all  constitutional 
methods  as  useless,  and  urged,  instead,  a  resort  to  insurrection 
— the  programme  subsequently  adopted  by  O'Brien,  Dillon, 
and  the  "left"  of  the  Repeal  movement,  and  which  found 
practical  expression  in  the  pitiable  affair  at  Ballingarry. 
Gavan  Duffy  was  the  historic  founder  of  the  parliamentary 
policy  of  independent  opposition,  which  he,  with  Frederick 
Lucas,  George  Henry  Moore,  and  others,  put  in  operation  in 
1852,  but  which  the  Cullen-Keogh  combination  of  ultra- 
montaine  place-hunters  subsequently  betrayed. 

Mr.  Butt  adhered  to  the  policy  of  Duffy  and  Lucas  when 
his  parliamentary  following  was  duly  organized,  and  em- 
bodied it  in  a  resolution  drafted  by  him  and  adopted  at  a 
conference  of  Home  -  Rule  members  held  in  the  City  Hall, 
Dublin,  on  March  3,  1874.     The  resolution  declared: 

"That  in  the  opinion  of  this  conference  the  time  has  arrived 
when  the  Irish  members  who  have  been  elected  to  represent 
the  national  demand  for  Home  Rule  ought  to  form  a  sep- 

88 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

arate  and  distinct  party  in  the  House  of  Commons,  united  in 
the  principle  of  obtaining  self-government  for  Ireland,  as  de- 
fined in  the  resolution  of  the  conference  held  in  Dublin  in 
last  November.  That  while  our  future  action  must  depend 
upon  the  course  of  events  and  the  occasions  that  may  arise, 
it  is  essential  to  the  due  discharge  of  our  duties  to  our  con- 
stituents and  the  country  that  we  should  collectively  and 
individually  hold  ourselves  aloof  from  and  independent  of 
all  party  combinations,  whether  of  the  ministerialists  or  the 
opposition." 

Speaking  to  his  constituents  in  Limerick,  on  September  23, 
1875,  after  the  session  of  that  year,  Mr.  Butt,  referring  to  the 
constitution  of  his  party,  said: 

"The  men  so  elected  (as  Home-Rulers)  met  together  as  the 
Irish  party,  wholly  independent  of  English  parties.  That 
has  been  done  which  four  years  ago  both  friends  and  foes 
deemed  impossible.  An  independent  Irish  party  has  been 
formed  that  is  no  longer  a  miserable  and  despised  contingent 
of  an  English  party,  but  one  that  is  recognized  as  a  powerful, 
independent  force  in  Parliament.  A  majority  of  the  Irish 
members  in  favor  of  Home  Rule — an  independent  Irish  party 
in  the  House  of  Commons — these  are  accomplished  facts.  I 
am  sure  in  their  accomplishment  the  foundation  is  laid  for 
great  results,  if  we  wisely  and  at  the  same  time  boldly  use  the 
vantage-ground  we  have  gained." 

With  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  more  advanced  members  of  Mr. 
Butt's  party  independent  opposition  was  interpreted  as  "ob- 
struction," and  to  this  policy  the  leader  strongly  objected, 
on  the  ground  of  tactics  rather  than  on  principle.  He  was  of 
the  older  political  school,  of  the  Gladstone  and  Bright  order 
of  parliamentarians,  wedded  to  long-established  forms  of  de- 
bate and  of  traditional  reverence  for  the  House  of  Commons 
as  a  great  legislative  assembly.  Obstruction,  apart  from  oc- 
casion and  expediency,  was  too  revolutionary  a  policy  for  the 
whilom  Tory  member,  saturated  with  ideas  of  orderly  methods 
and  maxims,  and  he  openly  disavowed  some  of  the  proceed- 
ings of  his  refractory  lieutenants.  He  wished  to  win  the  sup- 
port of  the  House  of  Commons  and  of  England  for  Home  Rule 
by  reasoning  and  by  respect  for  the  "  Mother  of  Parliaments," 
and  by  a  due  regard  to  the  rules  of  parliamentary  procedure. 
He  would  be  independent  of  all  English  parties,  but  not  of  all 
parliamentary  respect  for  the  House  of  Commons.  His  plan 
was  to  conciliate  and  persuade,  not  to  brow-beat  and  antago- 
nize, the  centre  of  legislative  power  whence  he  desired  to 
obtain  by  recognized  party  media  the  satisfaction  of  the 
mandate  intrusted  to  him  by  Ireland.     Neither  O'Connell  nor 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

the  leaders  of  the  Irish  party  of  1852  had  adopted  a  systematic 
policy  of  defiance  to  all  ministerial  proposals,  to  standing 
orders,  and  to  Speaker's  rulings  as  a  means  of  winning  reforms 
for  the  Irish  people.  Moreover,  the  majority  of  his  party,  the 
nominal  Home-Rule  section,  were  more  strongly  hostile  to  the 
plans  of  Messrs.  Parnell  and  Biggar,  for  less  worthy  motives, 
than  was  the  leader  of  the  party.  Then  the  party  had  not 
been  in  existence  as  an  organized  political  force  for  more  than 
four  or  five  sessions.  Why  not,  therefore,  give  the  policy  of 
independent  opposition,  as  historically  handed  down  to  them, 
a  fair  trial?  Why  not  make  a  tactical  use  of  obstruction 
rather  than  to  be  committed  to  and  controlled  by  such  a 
dangerous  two-edged  weapon? 

Popular  feeling  in  Ireland  made  answer  to  all  this  reasoning 
by  transferring  its  approval  and  support  from  the  old  to  the 
rising  leader.  The  idea  of  a  militant  obstruction  was  pleasing 
to  the  Irish  imagination.  It  wore  the  appearance  of  combat, 
and  contrasted  favorably  on  that  account  with  the  tamer 
methods  of  conciliation.  The  English  press  savagely  de- 
nounced it.  Party  leaders  roundly  anathematized  it.  But  it 
made  the  reading  of  parliamentary  debates  interesting,  while 
it  compelled  the  world  of  politics  outside  Great  Britain  to 
listen  through  the  press  to  the  denunciation  by  Irish  members 
of  English  rule  in  Ireland,  South  Africa,  and  elsewhere.  Ob- 
struction was  for  these  reasons  triumphant  in  Irish  popular 
judgment,  and  Mr.  Butt  and  his  policy  fell  before  the  assault 
made  by  Mr.  Biggar  upon  the  sacred  traditions  of  the  Brit- 
ish Parliament  and  of  all  its  most  cherished  customs  and 
ceremonies.  These  could  make  no  appeal  of  any  kind  to  the 
little  hunchbacked  pork-butcher  of  Belfast,  who  had  launched 
against  all  House-of-Commons  precepts  and  rules  the  weapon 
of  rebellious  irreverence  and  contempt. 

It  is  not  as  a  parliamentarian,  but  as  the  founder  of  the 
Home  -  Rule  movement  and  as  a  land  reformer,  that  Isaac 
Butt  will  live  in  Irish  political  history.  His  land  bills  may 
have  been  too  moderate  in  their  proposals,  from  the  stand- 
point of  later  times,  but  they  were  violently  opposed  by  the 
landlords  and  their  adherents  as  "revolutionary"  in  his  day. 
His  policy  was  to  secure  the  tenant  in  the  soil,  to  safeguard  his 
property  in  his  farm,  and  to  minimize  evictions.  All  this  he 
tried  and  hoped  to  perform  by  methods  akin  to  his  parlia- 
mentary policy — by  persuasion,  reasonable  compromise,  and  by 
the  wise  use  of  party  contingencies  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  Gladstone  Land  Act  of  1870  was  primarily  due  to  the 
pressure  of  the  Fenian  movement,  but  in  a  secondary  sense  to 
Mr.   Butt's  effective  pleading  in  his  books,  pamphlets,  and 

90 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

speeches  on  the  Irish  land  question.  Such  tenant-farmer 
clubs  and  associations  as  existed  in  the  country  in  the  later 
sixties  and  seventies  looked  to  him  as  the  ablest  exponent  of 
their  claims  and  as  the  highest  authority  on  all  questions  and 
issues  relating  to  the  tenure  of  land  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Butt  frequently  put  the  lawyer  and  constitutionalist 
in  the  background  in  his  speeches  and  writings,  and  spoke 
as  the  descendant  of  a  Rapparee  enemy  of  landlordism  and 
as  a  Donegal  witness  of  the  horror  and  infamy  of  the  social 
crime  of  eviction. 

Dealing  with  the  record  of  evictions  which  had  been  carried 
out  in  his  own  time,  he  depicted  the  manifold  evils  of  this 
savage  warfare  against  peasants'  homes  in  the  follow- 
ing pregnant  and  burning  words,  which  were  often  quoted 
from  his  Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race  during  the  Land  League 
struggle : 

"Let  any  man  tell  me  the  difference  between  an  expulsion 
of  the  whole  population  of  the  highland  regions  of  Glenveigh 
by  a  squadron  of  Cromwell's  troopers  in  1650  and  an  ex- 
pulsion of  its  population  in  1850  by  the  man  who  has  inherited 
or  purchased  Cromwell's  patent.  The  very  'pomp  and 
circumstance'  are  the  same.  Military  force  ejects  the  people 
now  as  it  would  have  done  then.  The  bayonets  of  the 
soldiery  drive  now  as  they  did  then  the  old  population  from 
their  homes.  Cruel  men  come  now  as  they  would  have  done 
then,  and,  amid  the  wailing  of  women  and  the  cries  of  children, 
level  the  humble  habitations  that  have  given  shelter  to  the 
simple  dwellers  in  that  glen.  What,  I  ask,  is  the  difference? 
By  what  mockery  of  all  justice  and  truth  can  we  call  the  one 
the  act  of  inhuman  conquest,  the  other  the  legitimate  exercise 
of  the  sacred  rights  of  property  with  which  no  one  is  to  inter- 
fere ?  Where  is  the  difference  to  the  evicted  family  ?  Where  is 
the  difference  to  the  mother  that  leads  away  her  starving 
children  from  the  home  where  her  toil  had  found  them  bread .'' 
What  is  a  'clearance'  such  as  this  but  the  extermination  of 
military  conquest  put  in  force  under  the  forms  of  law?  Let 
us  consider  the  effect  of  the  evictions  upon  the  evicted  people. 
To  what  were  they  to  turn?  The  sentence  that  drives  them 
from  the  land,  to  what  doom  does  it  consign  them?  It  is  the 
deprivation  of  the  means  of  life.  Enough  to  say  that  if  in 
those  twenty  years  all  the  horrors  of  a  real  and  actual  war 
of  conquest — all  the  worse  horrors  of  a  civil  war  and  in- 
surrection— had  swept  over  Ireland,  fewer  hearths  had  been 
desolated  and  fewer  families  been  brought  to  beggary  and 
to  ruin.  An  actual  war  would  have  brought  with  it  its 
compensations.     Deeds    of    daring    would    have    left    some 

91 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

memories  to  become  traditions  of  the  historic  past.  Deeds 
of  generosity  and  charity  would  have  tempered  even  the 
atrocities  of  fierce  passion.  Heroism  and  self-devotion  would 
have  redeemed  the  crimes  and  the  bloodshed  of  the  battle- 
field. Discipline  and  self-denial  would  have  purified  and 
elevated  the  character  of  a  nation.  Ireland  has  endured  all 
that  constitutes  the  agony  of  the  conflict  and  more,  far  more, 
than  the  degradation  and  misery  of  defeat.  These  are  the 
things  which  almost  justify  the  reasoning  of  those  who  argue 
that  it  were  better  for  the  peasantry  of  Ireland  to  risk  all 
in  one  wild  and  mad  insurrection  than  wait  to  be  wasted 
away  by  the  slow  combustion  of  suppressed  civil  war;  that 
all  the  misery  which  even  an  unsuccessful  revolt  could  bring 
upon  them  were  better  and  lighter  than  these  which  a  tame 
submission  to  the  present  system  entails." 

Here  we  had  the  spirit  of  the  subsequent  agrarian  revolution 
of  the  Land  League  against  the  rent  tyranny  whose  ultima 
ratio  was  extortion  or  eviction. 

Mr.  Butt  was  an  Irishman  with  all  the  charm  of  wide 
culture  added  to  the  highest  social  qualities  of  the  Anglo- 
Celt  at  his  best.  He  was  absolutely  free  from  all  "side," 
and  loved  that  familiarity  of  association  with  his  fellows 
which  enabled  his  kindly  and  absolutely  unselfish  nature  to 
display  itself  in  all  its  genial  qualities.  He  was  open-handed 
to  a  fault,  and  never  permitted  his  all  but  chronic  combat 
with  monetary  troubles  to  interfere  with  his  borrowing 
powers  whenever  a  deserving  case  of  distress  or  an  appeal 
from  a  friend  more  embarrassed  than  himself  laid  his  generous 
disposition  under  contribution.  Frequently  this  well-known 
tendency  made  him  the  victim  of  impudent  importunity, 
but  nothing  of  that  kind  could  ever  sour  or  change  the 
consistent  kindness  of  his  heart  and  character. 

As  a  speaker  he  had  no  equal  in  Ireland  during  his  active 
public  career.  He  was  not  a  man  of  words  nor  a  polished 
orator  in  the  sense  of  bestowing  upon  a  careful  preparation 
of  his  speeches  the  labor  which  a  Grattan  or  an  Edmund 
Burke  is  believed  to  have  expended  upon  their  great  efforts. 
Isaac  Butt's  style  was  a  combination  of  Gladstone  and 
Bright;  he  had  the  ideas,  the  wide  information,  the  gift  of 
impromptu  reasoning  while  speaking,  and  much  of  the  re- 
sources of  expression  of  the  former,  with  the  power  of  lofty 
and  impassioned  delivery  which  distinguished  the  latter 
among  all  his  English  contemporaries.  He  also  possessed 
what  nature  denied  to  both  these  great  English  speakers — 
Irish  wit  and  humor.  His  manner,  too,  coupled  with  a  fine 
platform  appearance,  an  expressive  and  intellectual  if  not  a 

92 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

handsome  face,  along  with  a  rich  voice  mellowed  in  the  coax- 
ing music  of  a  cultured  brogue,  made  him  an  almost  ideal 
platform  Irish  orator,  and  explained  the  hold  which  he 
immediately  obtained  upon  any  audience  he  was  called 
upon  to  address  during  his  great  campaign  in  the  cause  of 
amnesty. 

One  little  incident  in  his  life,  one  instance  of  his  kindly 
nature,  will  always  link  his  name  in  chains  of  grateful  recol- 
lection to  my  memory.  In  1872  he  requested  a  friend  of  his 
to  "search  the  papers  for  the  record  of  the  trial  of  a  poor 
young  fellow  who  seems  to  have  been  forgotten  by  everybody. 
He  was  tried  and  sentenced  to  penal  servitude  the  year  the 
other  Fenians  were  liberated."  He  was  among  those  who 
welcomed  me  from  prison  six  years  subsequently. 

To  Mr.  Butt's  labors  for  Ireland,  in  almost  every  sphere 
of  effort,  as  patriot,  land  reformer,  legislator,  advocate, 
journalist,  and  litterateur,  must  be  added  his  sacrifices.  These 
were  by  no  means  casual  or  insignificant.  His  standing  at 
the  Irish  bar  was  one  of  acknowledged  preeminence.  He 
was  Ireland's  first  and  ablest  lawyer,  combining  in  his  con- 
spicuous abilities  a  profound  knowledge  of  criminal  and 
constitutional  law  with  a  forensic  eloquence  unequalled  by 
any  of  his  Irish  professional  rivals.  To  these  high  qualities 
were  added  a  great  reputation  and  popularity  gained  by 
many  brilliant  triumphs  in  state  and  other  trials.  Such  a 
man  had,  therefore,  a  unique  position  in  the  ranks  of  his 
calling.  He  could  have  easily  amassed  a  large  fortune  had 
he  exercised  his  abilities  and  opportunities  to  the  advance- 
ment of  his  self-interest.  All  these  invitations  temptingly 
held  out  to  him  by  the  friendly  hands  of  fortime  he  ig- 
nored. He  preferred  to  be  true  to  Ireland  rather  than  to  be 
selfishly  loyal  to  himself,  and  accepted  the  poverty  which  he 
knew  the  choice  must  inevitably  dictate.  But  this  patri- 
otic self-denial  was  only  half  the  measure  of  his  willing  sac- 
rifices. 

A  few  short  years  before  his  death  took  place  fortune  and 
title  were  put  within  his  reach  in  an  offer  of  the  chief-justice- 
ship of  Ireland.  A  one-time  more  pronounced  nationalist, 
Mr.  Thomas  O'Hagan,  had  reconciled  his  revolutionary  Young- 
Ireland  principles  with  the  position  of  Irish  lord  chancellor. 
He  had  also  the  examples  of  Plunkett  and  Philpot  Curran  to 
induce  him  to  exchange  his  continued  struggles  with  poverty 
for  a  munificent  salary  and  the  headship  of  the  Irish  judiciary. 
But  these  necessities  and  examples  appealed  in  vain  to  the 
old  man's  sterling  sense  of  duty  to  his  cause  and  to  the 
high  purpose  of  its  aim.     The  following  letter,  written  to  a 

93 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

friend,  was  his  answer  to  the  overtures  which  had  been  made 
to  confer  this  high  post  upon  him : 

"  Dublin,  December  i,  1876. 

"I  hasten  to  thank  you  for  your  letter  of  yesterday. 

"You  may  rest  perfectly  satisfied  that  the  occasion  to 
which  you  refer  will  never  arise.  Indeed,  those  who  have  the 
power  of  making  the  offer  must  know  perfectly  well  that,  if 
made,  it  would  be  declined. 

"To  say  that  it  would  be  so  is  to  forget  the  old  and  homely 
proverb  which  prescribes  the  propriety  of  'waiting  to  be 
asked,'  but  I  should  be  sorry  you  should  misunderstand  me. 

"If  it  were  possible  that  the  offer  should  be  made,  it  would 
be  impossible  for  me  to  accept  it.  The  position  I  have  taken 
towards  the  Home-Rule  cause  obliges  me  not  voluntarily  to 
abandon  it.  It  is  probable  I  may  not  be  able  long  to  continue 
to  take  the  part  I  have  done  in  public  affairs,  but  when  I  cease 
to  do  so  it  must  not  be  for  any  personal  advantage  to  myself. 

"  But  more  than  this;  my  acceptance  of  such  an  office  would 
by  many  of  our  countrymen  be,  justly  or  unjustly,  considered 
a  betrayal  of  the  national  cause.  It  would  throw  suspicion 
not  only  on  my  own  motives  but  on  the  motives  of  all  public 
life.  There  is,  perhaps,  no  greater  evil  in  our  social  state  than 
the  distrust  which  so  largely  prevails  in  all  public  men.  For 
me  to  increase  it  would  be  a  crime. 

"  It  is  almost  childish  to  discuss  the  action  I  would  take  in  a 
contingency  that  will  not  occur;  but  if  the  miracle  of  its  oc- 
currence were  to  be  assumed,  I  would  not  hesitate  one  mo- 
ment in  following  the  course  which  I  believe  to  be  the  only 
one  I  could  conscientiously  or  honorably  take. 

"Yours  very  sincerely, 

"Isaac  Butt." 

He  clearly  foresaw  the  coming  triumph  of  the  movement 
for  tenant  right  which  he  had  rescued  from  the  collapse  of 
Gavan  Duffy's  Tenant  League  to  direct  and  hand  on  to  his 
successors.  He  warned  the  landlords  against  the  certain 
penalties  which  a  continued  resistance  to  rational  reform 
would  exact,  and  tried  by  wise  and  friendly  admonition  to 
induce  them  to  grant,  in  a  voluntary  spirit,  such  concessions 
to  justice  and  reason  as  popular  combinations  would  other- 
wise wrench  from  them  by  force.  They  were  deaf  to  his  ap- 
peals. They  had  been  equally  so  to  those  of  Sharman  Craw- 
ford, and  to  others  who  saw  in  the  march  of  progress,  however 
slow  in  Ireland,  the  certain  doom  of  a  feudal  system  which 
force  alone  could  uphold  in  its  blind  resistance  to  progress  and 

94 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

to  change.     In  the  closing  words  of  his  Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race 
he  wrote: 

"  But,  come  as  it  may,  or  when  it  may,  the  enfranchisement 
of  the  Irish  serfs  will  surely  come.  It  is  something  to  feel 
that  I  have  not  written  altogether  in  vain — to  be  assured  that 
the  day  will  come  when  the  proposals  I  have  made  and  the 
words  I  have  written  will  be  accepted  as  those  of  moderation 
and  of  truth.  In  this  sure  and  unwavering  confidence  I  am 
even  content  that  they  should  be  harshly  judged  by  preju- 
dices which  may  be  all-powerful,  but  which  must  yield,  as 
many  old  and  venerable  prejudices  have  yielded,  to  the  in- 
evitable progress  of  opinions  and  events.  .  .  .  Does  any  man 
really  imagine  that,  if  not  by  peaceful  means,  by  some  des- 
perate struggle,  the  expatriation  of  the  Irish  people  will  not 
be  stayed  ?  Will  any  man  say  so  who  has  ever  counted  up  the 
elements  that  form  the  power  of  the  oppressed — the  strength 
of  human  passion,  the  influence  of  opinion,  the  terrible  might 
which  the  sense  of  injustice  gives  to  the  cause  in  which  a  whole 
people  struggle  against  oppression  and  wrong?" 

Mr.  Butt  died  in  May,  1879.  The  Irishtown  meeting  had 
been  held  a  month  previously,  and  the  Land  League  was  to  be 
duly  launched  in  a  planned  national  organization  in  the  fol- 
lowing October. 

Mr.  Butt's  demise,  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven,  was  acceler- 
ated by  his  deposition  from  the  political  leadership  of  the 
Irish  people.  He  died,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  broken-hearted,' 
a  by  no  means  uncommon  ending  to  a  sincere  and  unselfish 
life  service  in  Ireland's  behalf.  He  had  most  of  the  marked 
Celtic  qualities  in  his  fine,  warm-hearted  nature — a  deep-seated 
love  of  country,  a  pride  in  the  knowledge  that  he  had  labored 
not  in  vain  to  advance  its  cause  and  to  enfranchise  its  people. 
He  was  conscious,  therefore,  of  the  ingratitude  of  those  whom 
he  had  so  faithfully  served.  He  had  created  a  movement  of 
great  promise  for  Ireland's  future,  and  had  loyally  and  ably 
championed  the  claims  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil  to  justice  and 
protection.  In  the  darkest  hour  of  her  troubles  and  trials  he 
had  defended  the  confessors  of  Ireland's  liberty,  and  had  fear- 
lessly justified  the  purity  of  their  motives  and  the  personal 
sacrifices  they  freely  made.  Yet  he  saw  himself  thrown  one 
side,  without  recognition  or  popular  protest,  in  favor  of  a  new 
leader,  who  had,  as  yet,  no  record  or  special  abilities  to  recom- 
mend him,  but  who  was  to  succeed  to  the  headship  of  a 
movement  born  of  the  thought,  initiative,  labor,  and  sacri- 
fices of  the  old  man's  unrequited  devotion  to  a  great  cause. 

He  went  away  from  his  last  Home-Rule  League  meeting, 
in  the  Molesworth  Hall,  Dublin,  on  February  4,  1879,  a  fallen 

95 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  a  repudiated  leader.  On  reaching  his  home  he  found 
a  faithful  friend  awaiting  him  with  words  of  sympathy  and 
consolation,  but  he  could  for  the  moment  think  of  nothing 
except  the  attacks  that  had  been  made  upon  him  by  his  young 
opponents.  Sitting  down,  he  bowed  his  head  upon  a  table 
and  wept  tears  of  defeat  and  humiliation.  His  political  ca- 
reer was  ended.  He  could  strive  no  more  for  Ireland.  His 
honesty  and  sincerity  had  been  publicly  aspersed,  even  where 
the  testimony  of  his  work  and  sacrifices  was  present  to  the 
minds  of  his  bitterest  assailants.  He  spoke  no  more  for  so 
forgetful  a  people,  but  neither  did  he  utter  one  word  of  re- 
proach, of  bitterness,  or  of  rebellion.  Unjust  and  unfair 
though  the  act  of  his  deposition  was  at  the  time,  he  did  not 
question  its  authority  or  put  forward  any  personal  claim  or 
contention  for  factionist  ends.  His  nature  was  too  noble  and 
his  patriotism  too  sincere  for  the  contemplation  of  any  issue 
or  object  of  that  narrow  kind.  He  silently  acquiesced  even 
in  unmerited  defeat,  and  gave  no  place  in  his  mind  to  thoughts 
of  dissension  which  could  embitter  or  divide  the  Irish  people. 
With  a  dignity  worthy  of  his  one-time  position  as  the  leader 
of  a  nation,  he  allowed  neither  the  love  of  power  nor  the  little- 
ness of  jealousy  nor  the  promptings  of  human  resentment  to 
provoke  him  into  a  solitary  word  or  act  of  retaliation.  It  was 
the  tidings  of  his  death,  three  months  subsequently,  which 
alone  broke  to  the  world  the  silence  of  his  retirement  from 
public  life. 

He  was  the  last  of  Ireland's  famed  lawyers  and  tribunes. 
He  left  no  successor,  either  as  a  classic  speaker  in  the  forum 
of  public  life  or  as  a  great  barrister,  to  uphold  the  tradition  of 
the  Irish  bar  for  distinguished  and  historic  advocates.  At 
his  own  request  he  was  buried  in  his  native  village  in  Donegal. 
The  simplicity  of  the  last  duty  he  asked  from  his  countrymen 
on  May  7,  1879,  was  in  obedience  to  a  wish  he  had  expressed 
in  the  following  letter  addressed  to  a  friend: 

"  Dublin,  St.  Stephen's  Day,  1876. 

"I  write  to  you  in  fulfilment  of  an  intention  I  have  often 
expressed.  If  I  die  in  England,  I  think  it  better  I  should  be 
buried  in  Brompton  Cemetery,  in  the  grave  with  my  mother 
and  child. 

"If,  wherever  I  die,  the  expense  would  not  be  an  incon- 
venience, I  would  wish  to  be  buried  in  Stranorlar  church- 
yard, as  close  as  may  be  to  the  southeastern  angle.  The 
ground  is,  or  was,  a  good  deal  lower  than  the  rest  of  the  church- 
yard. A  very  shallow  grave  would  be  enough,  with  a  mound 
of  earth  or  tomb  raised  over  it.     Put  no  inscription  over  the 

96 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

grave  except  the  date  of  my  birth  and  death,  and,  wherever 
I  am  buried,  let  the  funeral  be  perfectly  private,  with  a  few 
persons  attending  and  as  little  show  and  expense  as  possible. 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"Isaac  Butt." 

Mr.  Butt's  most  powerful  ally  in  the  amnesty  agitation, 
which  had  helped  so  much  to  create  the  popular  conditions 
favorable  to  a  Home-Rule  movement,  was  an  extremist  leader 
named  John  Nolan.  Mr.  Nolan  was  a  young  man  of  remark- 
able organizing  ability,  who  wielded  immense  influence  in  Dub- 
lin in  the  later  sixties  and  early  seventies.  Mr.  Butt  was  in  no 
sense  ignorant  of  the  source  of  this  influence.  He  knew  of  the 
revolutionary  purposes  which  the  resourceful  secretary  of  the 
Amnesty  Association  sought  to  serve  under  the  shield  of  the 
open  labors  of  Mr.  Butt  and  others,  and  the  Home-Rule  leader 
availed  himself,  in  a  similar  spirit,  for  constitutional  objects, 
of  the  assistance  which  he  and  his  cause  derived  from  the  pop- 
ular forces  thus  marshalled  by  Nolan.  Mr.  Butt  looked  upon 
the  cause  of  an  Irish  republic  as  a  Utopian  dream,  while 
"Amnesty"  Nolan,  as  he  was  popularly  named,  considered  a 
federal  union  with  Great  Britain  as  a  degenerate  but  unattain- 
able form  of  national  government.  The  cause  of  amnesty 
united  both  leaders,  while  each  sought  to  further  his  own 
ulterior  purpose,  beyond  the  release  of  the  political  prisoners, 
in  an  informal  alliance  with  the  other's  forces. 

There  was  no  scheme  or  proposal  too  audacious  for  Nolan's 
daring  ingenuity  to  attempt  and  carry  through.  In  1869 
funds  were  badly  required  for  the  local  needs  of  the  revolu- 
tionary cause.  Members  of  circles  were  invariably  of  the 
artisan  and  laboring  class  whose  small  contributions  could 
barely  keep  the  organization  alive.  Splits  and  dissensions  in 
the  United  States  had  created  an  empty  exchequer,  and  the 
home  movement  was  consequently  thrown  upon  its  own  re- 
sources. Under  these  circumstances  "Amnesty"  Nolan  as- 
sembled his  lieutenants  and  laid  this  extraordinary  proposal 
before  them: 

"We  will  organize  a  grand  fete  in  the  Exhibition  Building, 
Earlsfort  Terrace,  under  the  auspices  of  the  new  Lord  Lieu- 
tenant, Earl  Spencer.  A  military  band  will  be  got,  and 
fashionable  Dublin  will  be  induced  to  come  to  meet  the 
viceregal  party.  The  musical  programme,  games,  and  other 
items  are  of  secondary  importance.  The  essential  thing  will 
be  to  exploit  the  new  Governor-General,  and  make  shoneen 
Dublin  come  to  the  assistance  of  our  funds." 

And  this  was  done.  A  benevolent  organization  of  English 
7  97 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    iRELAxXD 

origin  existed  in  Dublin  at  the  time.  The  fete  was,  ostensibly, 
to  be  in  furtherance  of  the  highly  laudable  objects  of  this  body, 
the  local  branch  being  entirely  under  Nolan's  control.  He  used 
the  official  note-paper  of  this  order  for  his  correspondence  with 
Earl  Spencer,  and  conducted  the  negotiations  so  adroitly  that 
permission  to  announce  the  patronage  of  the  Lord  and  Lady 
Lieutenant  was  readily  obtained,  and  the  plans  for  the  fete 
were  successfully  launched.  On  the  day  of  the  sports  and 
entertainment  all  Dublin  wended  its  way  to  the  Exhibition 
Building.  Thousands  were  unable  to  purchase  admission. 
At  four  in  the  afternoon  the  viceregal  party  arrived  and  were 
received  by  Nolan,  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  and  other  local  Fenian 
leaders,  the  bands  playing  "God  Save  the  Queen,"  as  in  duty 
bound  on  such  an  occasion.  "The  Red  Earl,"  as  he  was 
then  called,  was  delighted  with  his  reception,  and  expressed 
to  Mr.  Nolan  his  appreciation  of  the  warmth  of  the  welcome 
extended  to  Lady  Spencer  and  himself.  Everything  passed 
off  without  a  hitch,  and  the  proceeds  over  all  expenses  added 
some  ;(^5oo  to  the  funds  of  the  revolutionary  movement  in 
DubHn. 

Nor  was  Nolan  less  wanting  in  finesse  when  called  upon  to 
deal  with  troublesome  members  of  the  organization  of  which 
he  was  the  brains  and  personified  energy  at  the  time.  One 
of  these  meddlesome  persons  was  a  curate  from  a  Midland 
county  who  had  found  his  way  into  the  secret  movement. 
He  was  a  constant  fault-finder  and  letter-writing  "con- 
spirator," who  claimed  to  possess  the  only  practical  plan 
and  secret  capable  of  overturning  English  rule  in  Ireland. 
This  plan  was  constantly  in  evidence,  at  meetings  and  con- 
ventions, with  the  eternal  curate  as  its  obstructionist  author. 
The  precious  plan  was  this :  On  a  given  night,  at  twelve  o'clock, 
twelve  men  armed  with  revolvers  would  conceal  themselves 
behind  a  wall  opposite  each  constabulary  barracks  in  Ireland. 
Two  of  these  would  go  out  upon  the  road  and  commence  to 
quarrel.  The  police  would  rush  out  to  arrest  them,  whereupon 
the  ten  armed  men  would  dash  into  the  barracks,  seize  the 
rifles,  capture  the  police,  and  proclaim  the  republic.  All 
previous  leaders  had  failed,  according  to  Father  Blank,  be- 
cause they  had  not  the  brains  or  the  revolutionary  capacity 
to  think  out  a  real  scheme  of  successful  insurrection.  Here 
was  one  stamped  with  the  approval  of  common-sense,  the 
fruits  of  years  of  thought  and  toil,  and  yet  it  was  neither 
adopted  nor  its  author  appreciated,  etc. 

Nolan  undertook  to  deal  with  the  crank  curate  as  follows: 
He  wrote  to  him  asking  for  a  copy  of  the  plan,  which  was  to 
be  printed  and  circulated  in  order  that  due  preparations 

g8 


HOME  RULE  AND  LAND  REFORM 

might  be  made  for  translating  Father  Blank's  proposals  into 
action.  The  insurrectionary  scheme  came  along  in  the 
curate's  handwriting  in  due  course.  It  was  put  in  type  in 
a  printing  establishment  in  Dublin,  where  documents  of  a 
"secret"  character  were  usually  "published,"  and  which  was 
located  next  door  to  a  police  station,  and  on  that  account 
never  suspected.  Nolan  gave  orders  that  the  form  should 
be  broken  up  after  one  impression  had  been  taken,  and  in 
the  event  of  Father  Blank  calling  for  information  as  to  what 
had  become  of  the  only  possible  plan,  he  was  to  be  told  that 
an  officer  from  next  door  had  called  and  had  taken  away  the 
form  and  the  original  copy  of  the  revolutionary  scheme. 

Father  Blank's  anxiety  about  his  plan  obtained  neither  a 
letter  of  acknowledgment  from  nor  an  interview  with  Nolan. 
He  called  at  the  printing-office  in  question,  and  was  told  the 
message  which  the  person  in  charge  was  instructed  to  deliver, 
whereupon  the  conspiring  curate  returned  hastily  to  his 
spiritual  charges,  and  was  never  heard  of  again  at  any  rev- 
olutionary gathering. 

"  Amnesty  "  Nolan  left  Dublin  for  New  York  in  1872,  and 
died  in  St.  Vincent's  Hospital,  in  that  city,  in  1882.  His  was 
a  brave,  generous,  and  kindly  nature,  and  his  memory  will 
linger  affectionately  in  the  recollections  of  those  of  his  old 
friends  who  are  nearing  the  bourne  which  he  and  others 
who  have  carried  forward  the  cause  of  Ireland  in  their  day 
have  passed  into  peace  and  eternity. 


CHAPTER  IX 
I.— HOME    DESTRUCTION 

Parliamentary  return  of  the  number  of  evictions  carried 
out  in  Ireland  from  1849  to  1882  inclusive,  compiled  from  offi- 
cial reports  made  by  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  to  Dublin 
Castle : ' 


EVICTED         1 

EVICTED 

YEAR 

FAMILIES 

PERSONS 

FAMILIES 

PERSONS 

1849 

16,686 

90,440 

1867 

549 

2,489 

1850 

19,949 

104,163 

1868 

637 

3,002 

1851 

13.197 

68,023 

1869 

374 

1,741 

1852 

8,591 

43.494 

1870 

548 

2,616 

1853 

4,833 

24,589 

1871 

482 

2,357 

1854 

2,156 

10,794 

1872 

526 

2,476 

1855 

1,849 

9.338 

1873 

671 

3,078 

1856 

1,108 

5. 114 

1874 

726 

3,571 

1857 

1,161 

5,475 

1875 

667 

3,323 

1858 

957 

4.643 

1876 

553 

2,550 

1859 

837 

3.872 

1877 

463 

2,177 

i860 

636 

2,98s 

1878 

980 

4.679 

1861 

1,092 

5,288 

1879 

1,238 

6,239 

1862 

1,136 

5.617 

1880 

2,1 10 

10,457 

1863 

1,734 

8,695 

1881 

3,415 

17.341 

1864 
1865 

1,924 
942 

9,201 

1882 

5,201 

26.836 

4.513 

1866 

795 

3.571 

Total 

98,723 

504,747 

Families 
evicted 

>  1849-52 263,000 

1852-60 110,000 

1861-70 47,000 

1871-80 41,000 

1881-82 21,000 

Total,  33  years 482,000 


Readmitted 

as  caretakers 

73,000 

28,000 

8,000 

6,000 

4,000 

119,000 


— Mulhall's  Dictionary  of  Statistics. 


II.— MORE    ENGLISH    TESTIMONY 

Professor  Cairnes 

"Most  frequently,  then,  the  evicted  tenant  has  for  himself 
and  those  dependent  upon  him  absolutely  no  means  of  sup- 

100 


HOME    DESTRUCTION 

port  or  place  of  shelter  outside  his  farm.  The  evictions, 
moreover,  having  almost  invariably  taken  place  for  the 
purpose  of  consolidating  farms,  even  where  non-payment  has 
been  the  legal  ground,  the  pulling  down  of  the  tenant's  house 
has  been  an  almost  constant  incident  in  the  scene — an 
incident  too  generally  performed  in  the  sight,  if  not  over  the 
very  heads,  of  the  retiring  family,  who  are  thrust  forth,  it 
may  be  in  mid-winter,  frequently  half  naked  and  starving. 
In  the  rare  instances  in  which  they  have  saved  enough  to 
procure  them  a  passage  to  New  York,  they  will  probably 
emigrate  at  once;  where  this  is  not  the  case,  they  will  cower, 
often  for  days  and  weeks  together,  in  ditches  by  the  road- 
sides, depending  for  their  support  upon  casual  charity.  .  .  . 
This  being  what  is  meant  by  an  eviction  in  Ireland,  the 
question  might  be  raised  whether  the  strict  enforcement  of 
contracts  for  rent  by  such  means,  in  such  times  as  Ireland 
has  lately  passed  through,  be  altogether  reconcilable  with  that 
Christian  charity  of  which  we  all  make  such  loud  profession; 
whether,  when  a  great  national  convulsion  has  made  the 
performance  of  contracts  impossible,  the  exaction  by  landlords 
of  the  tenant's  pound  of  flesh  is  the  precise  duty  which  in 
that  crisis  they  owe  their  country;  in  a  word,  whether  the 
bare  plea  that  rent  is  written  in  the  bond  ought  under  all 
circumstances  to  be  taken  as  a  complete  discharge  from 
responsibility  for  any  amount  of  misery  inflicted  in  enforcing 
it — this,  I  say,  is  a  question  which  might  be  raised;  but  for 
the  present  I  have  no  need  to  entertain  it.  It  will  suffice 
to  call  attention  to  the  admitted  fact  that  for  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  evictions  there  did  not  exist  even  this  technical 
justification." — Political  Essays,  pp.  193-195. 

John  Bright  (1849) 

"The  first  thing  that  ever  called  my  attention  to  the  state 
of  Ireland  was  the  reading  an  account  of  one  of  these  out- 
rages. I  thought  of  it  for  a  moment,  but  the  truth  struck 
me  at  once,  and  all  I  have  ever  seen  since  confirms  it.  When 
law  refuses  its  duty;  when  government  denies  the  right  of 
the  people;  when  competition  is  so  fierce  for  the  little  land 
which  the  monopolists  grant  to  cultivation  in  Ireland;  when, 
in  fact,  millions  are  scrambling  for  the  potato — these  people 
are  driven  back  from  law,  and  from  the  usages  of  civilization, 
to  that  which  is  termed  the  law  of  nature,  and  if  not  the 
strongest,  the  laws  of  the  vindictive;  and  in  this  case  the 
people  of  Ireland  believe,  to  my  certain  knowledge,  that  it 
is  only  by  these  acts  of  vengeance,  periodically  committed, 

lOI 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

that  they  can  hold  in  suspense  the  arm  of  the  proprietor,  of 
the  landlord,  and  the  agent,  who,  in  too  many  cases,  would, 
if  he  dared,  exterminate  them.  Don't  let  us  disguise  it  from 
ourselves,  there  is  a  war  between  landlord  and  tenant — a  war 
as  fierce  and  relentless  as  though  it  were  carried  on  by  force 
of  arms." 


III.— WHAT     IRELAND    ASKED    FROM    THE 
BRITISH     PARLIAMENT 

Summarized  chronologically,  the  failure  of  parliamentary 
efforts  to  obtain  legal  protection  for  the  rights  of  Irish  tenants 
stands  recorded  as  follows  from  1829  to  the  period  of  the 
Land  League; 

1829.  Brownlow's  Bill Dropped  in  Lords. 

1830.  Grattan's  Waste  Land  Bill Refused. 

1 83 1.  Smith's  Bill  for  Relief  of  the  Aged Dropped. 

1835.  Sharman  Crawford's  Bill 

1836.  Sharman  Crawford's  Bill 

1836.  Lynch's   Reclamation   Bill 

1845.  Lord  Stanley's  Bill        

1845.  Sharman  Crawford's  Bill 

1846.  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford Abortive. 

1846.  Lord  Lincoln,  Secretary  for  Ireland  ....  " 

1847.  Mr.   Sharman   Crawford " 

1848.  Sir  W.   Somerville 

1848.  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford " 

1849.  Mr.   Pusey *' 

1850.  Sir  W.  Somerville " 

1850.  Mr.  Sharman   Crawford " 

1 85 1.  Mr.  Sharman   Crawford " 

1852.  Mr.  Sharman  Crawford " 

1853.  Mr.  Napier " 

1853.   Mr.  Serjeant  Shee " 

1855.  Mr.   Serjeant  Shee " 

1856-57.  Mr.  Moore        " 

1858.   Mr.   Maguire " 

i860.  Deasy's  Bill  (legislating  plunder  of  tenants'  im- 
provements)         Passed. 

1 87 1.  Landed  Property  Act,   1847,  Amendment,  Ser- 

jeant Sherlock Withdrawn. 

1872.  Ulster  Tenant  Right,   Mr.   Butt Dropped. 

1873.  Ulster  Tenant  Right,  Mr.   Butt 

1873.  Land  Act,   1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Butt      .     . 

1873.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment  No.  2,  Mr.  Heron 

1874.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Butt    . 
1874.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment  No.  2,  Sir  J.  Gray  . 
1874.  Ulster  Tenant  Right,  Mr.   Butt 

1874.  Irish  Land  Act  Extension,  The  O'Donoghue  . 

1875.  Landed  Proprietors',  Mr.  Smyth 

1875.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Crawford  .     .     Rejected. 

1876.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Crawford  .     .     Withdrawn. 

102 


HOME    DESTRUCTION 


1876.  Tenant  Right  on  Expiration  of  Leases,  Mr.  Mul- 
hoUand      

1876.  Land  Tenure,   Ireland,  Mr.  Butt    .     .     . 

1877.  Land  Tenure,  Ireland,  Mr.  Butt    .     .     . 

1877.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr  Crawford 

1878.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Herbert 
1878.  Tenant  Right,  Lord  A.  Hill       .     .     . 
1878.  Tenant  Right,  Ulster,  Mr.  Macartney 
1878.  Tenants'   Improvements,  Mr.  Martin 

1878.  Tenants'   Protection,  Mr.  Moore      .     . 

1879.  Ulster  Tenant  Right,  Mr.  Macartney    . 
1879.   Ulster  Tenant  Right,  No.  2,  Lord  A.  Hill 
1879.   Landlord  and  Tenant,  Mr.  Herbert  .      . 
1879.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment,  Mr.  Taylor 
1879.  Land  Act,  1870,  Amendment  No.  2,  Mr.  Downing 


Dropped. 
Rejected. 

Withdrawn. 

Dropped. 

R'j'ct'd  Lords 

Withdrawn. 

Rejected. 

Dropped. 

Rejected. 

Withdrawn. 

Dropped. 

Rejected. 


IV.— WHAT    SHE    RECEIVED    FROM    IT 


The  following  record  of  successful  efforts  to  give  Ireland 
coercion  acts  instead  of  land  bills  is  a  fitting  historical  com- 
plement to  the  above  list : 


1830.  Importation  of  Arms  Act.  1848. 

1831.  Whiteboy  Act.  1848. 

1 83 1.  Stanley's  Arms  Act.  1849. 

1832.  Arms  and  Gtmpowder  Act.  1850. 

1833.  Suppression  of  Disturbance.  185 1. 

1833.  Change  of  Venue  Act.  1853. 

1834.  Disturbances  Amendment  1854. 

and  Continuance.  1855. 

1834.  Arms  and  Gunpowder  Act.  1856. 

1S35.   Public  Peace  Act.  1858. 

1836.  Another  Arms  Act.  i860. 

1838.  Another  Arms  Act.  1862. 

1839.  Unlawful  Oaths  Act.  1862. 

1840.  Another  Arms  Act.  1865. 

1841.  Outrages  Act.  1866. 
1 84 1.  Another  Arms  Act. 

1843.  Another  Arms  Act.  1866. 

1843.  Act  Consolidating  all  Pre-  1867. 

vious  Coercion  Acts.  1868. 

1844.  Unlawful  Oaths  Act.  1870. 
1,845.  Additional  Constables  near  1871 

Public  Works  Act. 

1845.  Unlawful  Oaths  Act.  187 1. 

1846.  Constabulary  Enlargernent.  1873, 

1847.  Crime  and  Outrage  Act.  1875. 

1848.  Treason  Amendment  Act.  1875. 
1848.  Removal  of  Arms  Act. 


Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

Another  Oaths  Act. 

Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

Crime  and  Outrage  Act. 

Unlawful  Oaths  Act. 

Crime  and  Outrage  Act. 

Crime  and  Outrage  Act. 

Crime  and  Outrage  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Unlawful  Oaths  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  (August). 

Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

Suspension  of  Habeas  Corpus. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Protection  of  Life  and  Prop- 
erty. 

Peace  Preservation  Con. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Peace  Preservation  Act. 

Unlawful  Oaths  Act  (lasting 
until   1879). 


CHAPTER  X 
CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

A  YEOMAN  from  Cheshire,  England,  who  was  an  adherent  of 
OHver  Cromwell,  and  who  removed  to  Ireland  after  the  Resto- 
ration of  the  Stuarts,  was  the  founder  of  the  Pamell  family. 
His  name  was  Thomas,  the  son  of  a  respectable  draper,  and 
from  this  English  republican  was  destined  to  spring  a  leader 
who  was  to  be  the  head  of  a  movement  for  the  undoing  of  the 
greatest  of  England's  many  wrongs  in  the  country  into  which 
she  had  poured  every  evil  that  has  ever  been  associated  with 
conquest,  without  the  accompaniment  of  a  single  redeeming 
benefit  from  her  rule.  Thomas  Pamell  fixed  his  residence  in 
Dublin,  and  appears  to  have  bought  an  estate  in  Queen's 
County  out  of  the  reconfiscated  lands  of  Leinster. 

The  eldest  son  of  the  Cromwellian  land-owner  was  the  friend 
of  Pope,  Goldsmith,  and  Samuel  Johnson,  the  poet  Dr.  Thomas 
Parnell.  He  was  lauded  by  all  the  celebrated  authors  of  his 
time  for  the  grace  and  culture  of  his  contributions  to  English 
literature.  He  had  also  won  the  firm  and  lasting  friendship 
of  Dean  Swift,  a  fact  which  must  be  taken  as  an  uncommon 
testimony  to  his  high  and  lovable  qualities.  In  this  connec- 
tion it  is  a  coincidence  calling  for  mention  that  one  in  whom 
some  of  the  blood  of  the  famous  dean  of  St.  Patrick's  flows, 
Professor  Swift  McNeill,  M.P.,  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  the 
greatest  of  the  Parnells,  and  was  invited  by  the  late  Irish 
leader  in  the  eighties  to  become  a  member  of  his  party. 

The  poet  Parnell  died,  leaving  to  his  younger  brother  John 
the  right  of  succession  to  the  father's  estates.  This  John 
Parnell  was  a  Dublin  barrister,  and  had  already  entered  the 
Irish  House  of  Commons.  He  graduated  in  the  legal  pro- 
fession to  the  post  of  judge  of  the  King's  Bench,  but  died  a 
few  years  afterwards,  leaving  his  property  to  an  infant  son, 
also  called  John.  This  John  likewise  chose  the  law  as  a  call- 
ing, after  completing  his  collegiate  studies,  and  in  due  course 
became  a  member  of  Parliament  for  Maryborough,  Queen's 
County.  He  was  created  a  baronet,  after  a  few  years  in  public 
life,  for  services  to  the  state,  and  died  in  1782,  being  succeeded 

104 


CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

in  the  title  and  in  a  large  fortune  by  his  son,  Sir  John  Parnell* 
who  became  chancellor  of  the  exchequer  in  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment in  1788,  in  succession  to  Mr.  Speaker  Foster.  He  held 
this  important  post  for  the  lengthy  period  of  twelve  years,  a 
very  strong  testimony  to  his  character  and  capacity,  and  was 
dismissed  from  it  by  the  authors  of  the  Act  of  Union  on  ac- 
count of  his  warm  support  of  Grattan  in  his  opposition  to  that 
measure  of  unique  infamy.  He  was  a  statesman  of  the  highest 
probity  and  cleanest  reputation,  in  days  of  almost  universal 
suspicion  and  corruption,  and  left  the  record  of  a  spotless 
political  career  in  the  history  of  the  closing  years  of  the  Irish 
Parliament. 

After  the  Union  he  continued  to  represent  Queen's  County, 
and  entered  Westminster  with  most  of  the  members,  honest 
and  corrupt,  who  had  been  his  colleagues  in  the  Irish  House 
of  Commons.  He  died,  however,  after  a  year's  experience  of 
London  life,  legislative  and  social,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
second  son  Henry,  the  eldest  child,  who  was  afflicted  with 
incurable  maladies,  having  during  the  father's  lifetime  been 
legally  set  aside  as  heir  to  the  baronetcy  and  estates.  Sir 
Henry  Parnell  became  a  prominent  figure  in  the  Whig  party, 
and  took  a  leading  part  in  the  overthrow  of  the  Wellington- 
Peel  ministry,  for  which  services  he  was  made  secretary  for 
war  by  Lord  Grey.  He  was  again  intrusted  with  a  portfolio  in 
a  Whig  ministry,  and  was  promoted  to  the  peerage  by  Lord 
Melbourne  in  1841,  and  took  the  title  of  Lord  Congleton,  after 
the  name  of  the  Cheshire  village  whence  his  Cromwelhan  an- 
cestor, Thomas  Parnell,  had  emigrated  to  Ireland. 

It  was  from  T/Ord  Congleton 's  younger  brother  William, 
the  third  son  of  the  Irish  chancellor,  that  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell  was  descended  in  direct  line.  The  estate  of  Avondale, 
near  Rathdrum,  County  Wicklow,  had  been  given  to  Sir  John 
Parnell  as  a  mark  of  esteem  by  a  friend,  a  Dublin  barrister 
named  Samuel  Hayes,  and  this  property  was  bestowed  upon 
the  chancellor's  younger  son  William.  This  head  of  the  Avon- 
dale  branch  of  the  Parnells  was  educated  in  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity, and  inherited  much  of  the  literary  gifts  of  Swift's 
friend.  He  held,  as  all  his  family  consistently  did,  very  broad 
and  liberal  views,  and  was  a  warm  and  able  advocate  of  jus- 
tice to  the  Catholics  of  Ireland.  His  work,  A  Historical  Apology 
for  the  Irish  CatJiolics,  was  an  unanswerable  indictment  of  all 
the  causes  that  were  responsible  for  the  disloyalty  of  the 
proscribed  Celtic  race,  and  a  powerful  plea  for  a  just  and  en- 
lightened toleration  in  all  religious  beliefs  and  worships.  The 
cause  of  popular  education  in  Ireland  deeply  interested  him, 
and  enlisted  his  advocacy  for  such  measures  as  might  to  some 

105 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

extent  relieve  the  intellectual  starvation  purposely  inflicted 
upon  the  Celtic  people  in  the  atrocious  measures  of  the  penal 
laws.  Beyond  this  domain  of  controversial  literary  labors 
for  religious  liberty  and  popular  instruction,  he  took  no  part 
in  public  life. 

William  Pamell's  only  son,  John  Henry,  was  the  first  trav- 
eller of  the  family,  and  visited  the  United  States  after  attain- 
ing manhood.  He  met  a  Miss  Stewart  in  society  in  Boston, 
in  1834,  was  captivated  by  her,  and  brought  her  home  to 
Avondale  as  his  wife. 

Miss  Stewart  was  descended  from  an  Ulster  tenant-farmer 
of  that  name,  who  emigrated  in  1768,  along  with  large  numbers 
of  other  Protestant  farmers  from  that  province  who  were 
rack-rented  and  otherwise  oppressed  by  Ulster  landlordism, 
as  already  described.  A  son  was  born  to  this  Stewart  in  his 
new  home  near  Philadelphia,  who  joined  the  United  States 
navy  at  the  age  of  twenty.  His  name  was  Charles  Stewart. 
He  gained  much  experience  in  the  West-Indian  seas  in  encoun- 
ters with  European  privateers,  and  rose  rapidly  in  the  esteem 
of  his  superiors  by  his  ability  and  bravery.  He  led  the  United 
States  forces  in  the  first  "war"  waged  by  the  republic  in 
Europe,  in  the  naval  attack  upon  Tripoli  in  1804,  and  held 
the  place  under  the  guns  of  his  small  fleet  until  ample 
reparation  had  been  done  to  the  offended  honor  of  the  re- 
public. 

The  history  of  "Old  Ironsides"  is  too  well  known  to  Ameri- 
can and  Irish  readers  to  need  even  the  briefest  of  summaries 
here.  Like  his  fellow-countryman,  Commodore  John  Barry, 
he  beat  his  English  adversaries  on  the  seas  wherever  he  en- 
countered them.  His  brilliant  feats  with  the  Constitution  are 
the  theme  of  every  American  school-boy's  first  lessons  in 
America's  naval  history. 

Admiral  Stewart  married  Miss  Delia  Tudor,  of  Boston,  and 
the  daughter  of  this  union  was  the  Boston  belle  who  captured 
John  Henry  Parnell,  the  son  of  the  Wicklow  squire,  and  be- 
came the  mother  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  at  Avondale,  in 
the  month  of  June,  1846. 

Unlike  most  men  who  have  achieved  greatness,  there  was 
little  or  nothing  in  Mr.  Pamell's  youthful  years  that  gave 
an  indication  of  his  future  fame.  Beyond  a  fondness  for 
cricket,  which  is  common  to  most  boys,  and  one  or  two  re- 
corded instances  of  obstinate  self-will,  the  boy  showed  no 
other  promise  to  be  the  father  of  the  man  who  was  to  make 
most  history  for  the  name  of  Parnell.  In  his  examination 
at  the  special  commission  in  1888  by  Mr.  Asquith,  he  re- 
lated that   he   had  been   educated  in   England;   first  at  two 

106 


CHARLES  STEWART  PARNELL 

private  schools,  then  by  a  private  tutor  at  Chipping  Nor- 
ton, in  Oxfordshire,  and  lastly  at  Magdalen  College,  Cam- 
bridge. 

Like  his  boyhood  life,  his  college  career  seems  to  have  been 
uneventful.  His  studies  would  appear,  from  subsequent  ten- 
dencies, to  have  leaned  more  to  mechanics  and  scientific  sub- 
jects than  towards  any  specific  mental  or  classical  attainments; 
possibly  due  to  the  fact  that  he  was  to  succeed  to  his  father's 
Wicklow  and  Kildare  estates,  and  that  a  practical  education 
was  that  most  suited  to  the  calling  of  a  landlord.  One  inter- 
esting incident  only  relating  to  his  studentship  at  Cambridge 
is  on  record — namely,  his  being  rusticated.  The  facts  are,  I 
believe,  as  follows: 

Coming  home  late  from  a  social  gathering  one  night,  he  was 
jostled  off  the  foot-path  by  a  pair  of  drunken  drovers.  They 
had,  however,  not  bargained  for  what  followed.  Parnell 
turned  on  his  assailants  and  knocked  both  of  them  down. 
The  row  brought  a  policeman  on  the  scene,  and  he  demanded 
Parnell's  name,  on  the  complaint  of  the  battered  drovers. 
Following  the  example  of  students  everywhere,  the  accused, 
with  the  fear  of  the  college  authorities  before  his  mind,  put 
his  hand  in  his  pocket  and  handed  the  guardian  of  the  peace 
what  he  believed  to  be  a  sovereign.  A  glance  at  the  coin 
at  the  nearest  lamp-post  revealed  it  to  be  a  shilling,  where- 
upon the  offended  representative  of  the  majesty  of  the  law 
took  insult,  rearrested  Parnell,  invited  him  to  the  police 
station,  and  obtained  his  name.  It  is  within  the  bounds  of 
possibility  that  the  shilling  in  question  determined  the  future 
fate  and  career  of  him  who  mistook  it  for  a  sovereign  by 
securing  his  retirement  from  Cambridge  University,  and  in 
thus  sending  him  back  to  Ireland  to  fall  in  with  a  train  of 
circumstances  and  events  which  ultimately  led  to  his  active 
entry  into  Irish  public  life. 

He  made  a  lengthened  tour  in  the  United  States  in  1872-73, 
and  on  returning  home  he  entered  into  the  local  duties  of  a 
land-owner  by  serving  in  the  honorary  magistracy  and 
filling  a  term  as  high  sheriff"  of  Wicklow.  Mr.  Butt's  Home 
Rule  agitation  attracted  his  sympathetic  attention  shortly 
after  the  Dublin  conference  of  1873,  and  he  was  welcomed  soon 
after  to  the  ranks  of  the  movement  by  its  founder.  He 
contested  the  county  of  Dublin  against  the  Tories  in  the 
general  election  of  1874,  but  was  badly  beaten  by  Colonel 
Taylor.  Mr.  Parnell's  speaking  abilities  were  of  the  poorest 
order  during  this  election  contest,  and  did  not  earn  for  him 
the  promise  or  prophecy  of  future  distinction.  Like  Disraeli, 
however,  he  commenced  badly  to  end  powerfully,   and  to 

107 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

command  the  fame  which  modesty  rather  than  demerit  had 
at  first  turned  away. 

His  interrupted  mechanical  studies  in  Cambridge,  joined 
to  his  obstinate  character  and  indomitable  will-power,  stood 
him  well  in  his  apprenticeship  to  the  legislative  labors  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  They  shaped  his  policy  in  that  assembly, 
and  largely  moulded  his  parliamentary  career.  Unlike  his 
leader,  Mr.  Butt,  who  was  a  veteran  of  another  political 
school,  Mr.  Parnell  saw  nothing  to  admire  but  much  to  mock 
in  the  absurd  rules  and  customs  of  a  House  of  Commons, 
boasting  to  be  the  greatest  of  modern  legislatures,  which 
could  still  adhere  to  ceremonies  and  forms  and  methods 
of  procedure  borrowed  almost  without  change  from  the  time 
of  King  Charles  I.  These  anachronisms,  which  appealed  for 
admiration  to  English  minds,  only  excited  ridicule  in  that 
of  a  man  who  was  disposed  to  measure  instruments  as  well 
as  men  to  the  purpose  he  had  in  hand  for  them;  a  man,  too, 
in  whose  mental  composition  nature  had  provided  no  room 
for  reverence  of  any  kind.  He  saw  how  ridiculously  unfitted 
these  methods  of  procedure  were  for  the  practical  ends  of 
Parliament,  and  consequently  how  perfunctorily  the  real 
work  of  legislation  was  attended  to  by  those  who  would 
sacrifice  fifty  useful  bills  rather  than  permit  a  single  silly 
custom  or  precedent  or  rule  of  the  time  of  the  Stuarts  to  be 
reformed  or  modernized.  And  it  was  an  assembly  thus 
dominated  by  ancient  formalities  which  was  expected  to 
legislate  for  a  vast  empire  as  well  as  to  attend  to  the  wants 
and  demands  of  the  Irish  people.  There  was  only  one  remedy 
for  this  state  of  things,  and  that  was  to  turn  the  machinery 
of  the  House  of  Commons  against  itself  and  thus  render  it 
unworkable,  and  to  do  this  as  a  means  of  focussing  the  atten- 
tion of  public  opinion  everywhere  upon  the  cause,  the  case, 
and  the  neglect  of  Ireland. 

This  policy  of  combining  the  use  and  abuse  of  English 
parliamentary  institutions  for  Irish  purposes  was  not  al- 
together Mr.  Parnell's  invention.  His  was  a  mind  which 
readily  accepted  any  practical  plan  that  appealed  strongly 
in  its  manner  of  application  to  those  qualities  which  were 
strongest  in  his  own  mental  and  personal  equipment.  He 
was  altogether  wanting  in  the  wide  constitutional  education, 
political  information,  and  debating  powers  of  Mr.  Butt,  and 
was,  consequently,  and  for  other  reasons,  opposed  to  his 
leader's  method  of  furthering  the. Irish  cause  in  the  House 
of  Commons.  In  such  a  field  of  effort  the  necessary  imple- 
ments of  knowledge,  culture,  and  capacity  would  be  largely 
wanting  in  Mr.  Parnell's  case.     Not  so,  however,  in  the  line  of 

ic8 


CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

action  which  Mr.  Joseph  Biggar  had  marked  out  for  himself 
as  a  necessary  medium  for  the  expression  of  his  hostiUty  and 
contempt  for  the  parHamentary  sancimn  sanctorum  of  the 
British  Empire.  Obstruction  was  something  more  than  in- 
dependent opposition  to  him.  It  was  a  parliamentary  in- 
surrection against  the  undue  authority  of  ministers ;  a  defiant 
assertion  of  the  rights  of  a  minority  where  elaborate  means 
had  been  provided  in  other  days  for  the  protection  of  the 
English  taxpayer  and  the  rights  of  the  English  people,  with 
never  a  dream  in  the  thoughts  of  the  stoutest  sticklers  for 
"Commons  privileges"  that  these  would  some  day  be  made 
to  subserve  the  sacrilegious  purpose  of  subordinating  the 
palladium  of  British  liberties  to  the  ends  of  Irish  discontent. 
This  policy  was  suited  in  every  way  to  the  temperament  and 
personality  of  Mr.  Parnell.  It  called  for  just  those  elements 
of  strength  which  made  his  individuality — great  courage,  self- 
confidence,  staying  power,  and  a  fearless  assertion  of  a  right 
or  a  claim  which  he  believed  he  was  justified  or  called  upon 
to  make. 

Parliamentary  obstruction  had  captured  the  popular  im- 
agination in  Ireland.  Biggar  and  Parnell,  with  the  able 
assistance  of  Messrs.  O'Connor  Power  and  O'Donnell,  had 
bearded  John  Bull  within  his  legislative  citadel.  They  had 
exhibited  both  pluck  and  resource  in  vastly  unequal  contests 
with  enraged  opponents,  and  had  scored  in  several  encounters 
by  debating  savage  punishments  inflicted  on  soldiers  and 
marines  in  the  strong  light  of  parliamentary  criticism, 
winning  a  recognition  from  even  their  enemies  of  the  reason- 
ableness of  their  exposure  of  a  degrading  brutality  in  the 
English  army  and  navy.  Obstruction  did  even  better  work 
than  this.  Mr.  Parnell's  little  party,  led  in  this  instance  by 
Mr.  F.  H.  O'Donnell,  had  laid  bare  the  dishonest  policy 
by  which  Shepstone  and  Sir  Bartle  Frere  had  conspired 
to  destroy  the  independence  of  the  Transvaal.  The  cause 
of  the  Boers  was  pleaded  in  the  British  House  of  Commons 
by  Irish  members  with  an  earnestness,  ability,  and  courage 
which  impressed  even  hostile  public  opinion,  while  the  ex- 
posures which  were  made  of  the  duplicity  with  which  England's 
representatives  in  South  Africa  had  cheated  the  Transvaal 
of  its  liberty  and  deceived  the  people  of  Great  Britain 
had  no  little  part  in  shaping  Mr.  Gladstone's  subsequent 
policy,  which  led  to  the  ultimate  adoption  of  a  course  con- 
sistent alike  with  reason  and  justice  after  the  stern  lesson  of 
Majuba  Hill. 

This  work  of  Mr.  Parnell's  small  following  gave  intense 
satisfaction  to  the  Irish  people.     The  leader  who  was  thus 

109 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

gradually  displacing  Butt  had,  on  the  other  hand,  earned  the 
frenzied  hostility  of  the  British  press.  He  was  denounced, 
maligned,  threatened;  so  much  so  that  numerous  London 
Irishmen,  including  extreme  nationalists,  were  ready  to  form 
a  body-guard  for  the  obstructionist  leader  to  protect  him 
going  to  and  coming  from  the  House  of  Commons,  against 
the  open  threats  of  certain  papers.  All  this  tended  to 
strengthen  his  popularity  and  to  increase  his  power  in  Ireland. 
He  had  successfully  defied  the  House  of  Commons,  with  the 
newspaper  world  as  an  audience,  and  had  trampled  upon 
its  dignity.  Ministers  and  politicians  assailed  him  and  his 
tactics.  English  editors  howled  at  him  and  English  mobs 
menaced  him,  while  the  American  press,  remeinbering  his 
blood-relationship  with  the  republic,  hailed  him  as  an  Irish 
member  who  had  at  last  found  a  means  of  making  John 
Bull  "sit  up  "  even  within  his  own  parliamentary  household; 
and  this  was  the  young  leader  who  made  his  appearance  in  the 
arena  of  the  Anglo-Irish  struggle  at  the  time  when  a  new 
departure  was  to  be  evolved  from  the  policy  and  party  of 
Isaac  Butt. 

I  met  Mr.  Parnell  for  the  first  time  shortly  after  my  release 
from  Dartmoor,  in  December,  1877.  What  I  had  learned  of 
the  obstructionist  labors  of  his  small  following  in  Parliament 
and  about  himself  (since  talking  of  persons  and  politics  had 
ceased  to  be  a  breach  of  prison  rules)  made  me  curious  to  see 
what  manner  of  man  the  coming  leader  was  in  the  flesh. 

Possibly  one  is  very  impressionable  when  he  comes  out  of 
prison  in  his  thirty-first  year,  with  every  other  year  since  his 
twenty-third  a  hateful  memory  of  an  intimate  daily  acquaint- 
ance with  cells,  criminals,  and  warders  during  all  those  ninety 
long  months  and  more.  It  is  like  coming  into  the  sunshine  and 
among  the  flowers  after  a  lifetime  in  the  depths  of  a  coal-pit. 
Making  due  allowance  for  this  exceptional  state  of  mind, 
Mr.  Parnell  appeared  to  be  much  superior  to  his  recommenda- 
tions. He  struck  me  at  once  with  the  power  and  directness 
of  his  personality.  There  was  the  proud,  resolute  bearing 
of  a  man  of  conscious  strength,  with  a  mission,  wearing  no 
affectation,  but  without  a  hint  of  Celtic  character  or  a  trait  of 
its  racial  enthusiasm.  "An  Englishman  of  the  strongest 
type,  moulded  for  an  Irish  purpose,"  was  my  thought,  as  he 
spoke  of  imprisonment,  of  the  prevailing  state  of  affairs  in  the 
Home-Rule  movement,  and  of  the  work  which  "a  few  of  us" 
were  carrying  on  in  the  House  of  Commons.  There  was  not  a 
suspicion  of  boastfulness  in  anything  he  said  nor  of  confident 
promise  for  the  future.  He  expressed,  as  I  am  sure  he  felt,  a 
genuine  sympathy  for  those  who  had  undergone  the  ordeal  of 


CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

penal  servitude,  with  its  nameless  indignities  and  privations. 
"I  would  not  face  it,"  I  recollect  him  saying.  "  It  would  drive 
me  mad.  Solitude  and  silence  are  too  horrible  to  think  of. 
I  would  kill  a  warder  and  get  hanged  rather  than  have  to  en- 
dure years  of  such  agony  and  of  possible  insanity." 

Of  Mr.  Butt  he  spoke  fairly  and  generously,  while  he  ap- 
peared desirous  of  creating  a  most  favorable  estimate  of  Big- 
gar,  O'Connor  Power,  and  O'Donnell,  in  relation  to  the  repu- 
tation acquired  by  his  small  following  in  the  obstructionist 
plan  of  action.  Not  a  syllable  did  he  utter  about  himself 
beyond  the  introspective  allusions  which  the  talk  about  Dart- 
moof  called  forth.  He  spoke  of  no  plans  for  the  future,  but 
was  kindly  curious  about  what  I  intended  doing.  "I  shall 
rejoin  the  revolutionary  movement,  of  course,"  was  my  reply, 
and  this  answer  elicted  no  comment  either  of  approval  or 
otherwise. 

I  saw  him  a  few  times  again  before  my  departure  for  Amer- 
ica in  July,  1878.  We  were  travelling  from  London  to  a  town 
in  Lancashire,  where  an  amnesty  meeting  was  to  be  held.  It 
was  in  the  month  of  May.  I  asked  him  to  join  the  revolution- 
ary organization;  not,  however,  to  subscribe  to  the  silly  oath 
of  secrecy  or  to  become  a  mere  figure-head  in  a  do-nothing 
conspiracy.  These  were  the  chief  features  of  the  Irish  revolu- 
tionary movement  which  had  appeared  weak  and  absurd  to 
me  after  several  years'  thought  upon  the  problem  of  how  best 
to  rid  Ireland  of  English  rule.  Irishmen  were  poor  conspira- 
tors, at  best,  as  Celtic  qualities  did  not  lend  themselves  very 
successfully  to  self  -  suppression  or  to  the  silent  agencies  of 
occult  action.  Men  who  would  break  a  pledge  of  loyalty  to  a 
cause  would  not  be  bound  to  fealty  by  a  hundred  oaths. 
What  was  essential  in  order  to  create  a  really  effective  revo- 
lutionary movement  in  the  Irish  race  was  to  have  an  organi- 
zation of  selection — relatively  small  in  numbers,  but  strong  in 
reliable  and  representative  membership  and  in  the  negative 
safeguards  of  less  "conspirators"  with  more  character.  In 
illegal  organizations  relying  for  safety  mainly  upon  the  loyalty 
of  its  members,  the  larger  the  number  in  the  ranks  the  weaker 
become  the  links  which  hold  it  safely  against  the  intrusion 
of  informers  and  the  cognizance  of  Dublin  Castle.  Hereto- 
fore the  plan  had  been  to  recruit  members  anyhow  and  any- 
where, and  then,  v/ith  the  boast  of  a  "very  strong"  body 
numerically,  to  think  of  obtaining  weapons  with  which  to  arm 
the  members.  Better  to  make  the  accumulation  of  arms  a 
prior  consideration  to  the  swearing-in  of  men  under  conditions 
which  scarcely  suggested  a  common-sense  protection  against 
unsteady  or  disreputable  elements,  out  of  which  danger  or  the 


y 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

hope  of  reward  would  easily  enlist  the  treachery  of  an  unfaith- 
ful member. 

Conspiracy  and  arms  should  not  be  the  sole  work  of  such  a 
reorganized  society,  with  only  the  eternal  expectation  of  a 
Russian  or  American  war  with  England  as  the  forlorn  hope 
of  an  Irish  republic.  The  first  line  of  defence  ought  to  be  an 
open  movement  on  constitutional  lines.  This  should  be  made 
to  invite  all  men  of  separatist  principles,  and  not  to  exclude 
honest  moral-force  advocates.  Such  a  movement  should  em- 
brace similar  parliamentary  action  to  that  which  the  obstruc- 
tionists were  pursuing,  but  there  must  be  more  immediate 
issues  put  before  the  people,  such  as  a  war  against  landlord- 
ism for  a  root  settlement  of  the  land  question,  the  better 
housing  of  laborers,  doing  away  with  the  need  for  work- 
houses, and  capturing  the  municipalities  for  nationalism; 
the  parliamentary  representation  to  be,  as  far  as  possible, 
recruited  from  men  of  separatist  convictions,  but  who  had 
not  been  openly  identified  with  the  Fenian  Brotherhood. 
An  Irish  party  of  this  caliber,  at  an  opportune  time — that  is, 
when  the  country  was  sufficiently  organized  —  to  make  a 
reasoned  demand  in  Parliament  for  a  repeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union,  and  in  the  event  of  the  ultimatum  being  refused  to 
leave  the  House  of  Commons  in  a  body,  return  to  Ireland, 
summon  a  national  convention,  and  let  the  members  of  the 
party  go  into  session  as  an  informal  legislative  assembly. 

Not  a  word  had  my  auditor  spoken  during  the  talk  of  which 
this  is  a  summary,  from  notes  made  at  the  time,  but  on  my 
concluding  he  quietly  but  instantly  said,  "And  what  next?" 
There  was  a  note  of  friendly  scepticism  in  the  question  which 
my  answer  did  not  modify.  He  then  said,  slowly  but  clearly: 
"  No,  I  will  never  join  any  political  secret  society,  oath-bound 
or  otherwise.  It  would  hinder  and  not  assist  me  in  my  work 
for  Ireland.  Others  can  act  as  seems  best  for  themselves. 
My  belief  is  that  useful  things  for  our  cause  can  be  done  in  the 
British  Parliament  in  proportion  as  we  can  get  reliable  men 
to  join  us  and  follow  a  resolute  policy  of  party  independence. 
We  must  endeavor  to  re-establish  faith  in  parliamentary  work 
of  an  earnest  and  honest  kind,  and  try  in  this  way  to  secure 
the  good-will  of  men  like  yourself  who  are  justified  in  doubt- 
ing from  past  experience  whether  any  real  service  can  be  ren- 
dered to  the  Irish  people  by  electing  representatives  to  go  to 
Westminster.  I  agree  with  a  good  deal  of  what  you  suggest 
about  putting- a  stronger  programme  before  the  public,  espe- 
cially in  relation  to  the  land  question,  and  I  see  no  reason  why 
men  who  take  opposing  views  as  to  the  best  way  of  liberating 
Ireland  cannot  work  in  harmony  for  minor  reforms.     Possibly 

112 


CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

the  result  of  our  present  line  of  conduct  in  Parliament  will  be 
that  we  will  be  turned  out  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  which 
event  we  could  then  give  your  informal  Irish  Parliament  a 
chance." 

In  his  speech  that  evening  in  St.  Helens,  Mr.  Pamell  made 
use  of  these  arguments: 

"I  know  there  are  many  present  here  to-day  who  have  no 
confidence  whatever  in  the  constitutional  action  of  Parlia- 
ment, and  I  am  willing  to  admit  that  they  were  fully  justified 
in  displaying  that  want  of  confidence.  But  how  were  they 
going  to  prevent  the  Irish  constituencies  from  using  the  ad- 
vantage given  them  in  the  Act  of  Union  of  having  themselves 
represented  or  misrepresented  in  the  House  of  Commons  ?  So, 
since  they  were  face  to  face  with  this  problem,  that  there  must 
be  an  Irish  representation  in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  rather 
think  we  ought  to  study  how  that  representation  should  be 
made  as  little  demoralizing  to  the  Irish  people  as  possible,  and 
how  they  might  extract  some  little  good  from  it.  ...  If  we  see 
much  more  of  the  present  intolerance  of  this  British  Parlia- 
ment and  of  the  English  people,  then  matters  will  be  very 
much  accelerated,  and  one  or  two  things  must  result  from  it: 
either  they  will  turn  the  Irish  members  as  a  body  out  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  disfranchise  the  constituencies  which 
sent  them  there,  which  would  be  equivalent  to  sending  them 
all  back  to  Ireland,  and  holding  their  own  Parliament  in  Ire- 
land, and  thus  they  would  be  themselves  repealing  the  Union. 
The  other  alternative  was  to  make  it  the  interest  of  the  Irish 
members  to  facilitate  things  better  in  the  House  of  Commons 
by  passing  useful  measures  for  Ireland."^ 

A  few  months  later  we  spent  an  evening  in  a  club  which 
then  existed  in  Nassau  Street,  Dublin.  We  were  a  mixed 
gathering  of  revolutionists  and  parliamentarians,  in  social 
intercourse  only.  It  was  the  first  and  only  time  I  ever  saw 
Mr.  Pamell  drink  champagne.  He  only  drank  moderately, 
and  what  he  said  could  not  justly  be  attributed  to  that 
indulgence.  The  subject  of  the  invasion  of  Cromwell  came 
up  in  an  informal  discussion.  He  joined  in  it  with  much 
warmth  of  feeling  and  expression,  and  showed  a  most  intimate 
acquaintance  with  all  the  facts  of  that  period  of  Irish  history. 
He  dwelt  upon  the  relative  smallness  of  the  invading  forces, 
and  on  the  ease  with  which  a  resisting  army  of  even  less 
dimensions  might  have  harassed  the  enemy,  if  there  had  been 
in  the  field  or  in  the  country  a  native  force  capable  of  any 
real    fighting.     "There    was    not.     Leaders    and    men    who 

'  St.  Helens  Newspaper  and  Advertiser,  May  i8,  1878. 

8  113 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

shut  themselves  up  in  towns  did  not  know  how  to  fight  such 
an  enemy,  even  in  a  country  familiar  to  themselves  and 
strange  to  the  intruding  forces.  There  was  no  real  fighting 
spirit  in  Ireland  at  the  time,  and  what  passed  for  such  was 
concerned  more  about  the  cause  of  the  Stuarts  than  over 
that  of  Ireland.  The  kind  of  resistance  offered  to  Cromwell's 
handful  of  men,  and  the  results  of  it,  were  a  lasting  disgrace 
to  Ireland,  and  he  doubted  very  much  whether  we  could 
get  the  people  ever  to  fight  equal  to  the  real  combative 
qualities  of  the  race,  except  outside  their  own  country,  where 
they,  somehow,  became  the  bravest  soldiers  any  general 
could  wish  to  command." 

Those  who  have  described  Mr.  Parnell  as  being  ignorant 
of  Irish  history  have  repeated  an  opinion  expressed  by  some 
one  who  possibly  never  heard  him  on  any  subject  which  made 
a  wide  demand  upon  historic  reading.  Moreover,  he  was  not 
afflicted  with  rhetorical  tendencies,  and  seldom  spoke  upon 
any  phase  of  the  Irish  question  except  with  the  object  of 
making  his  meaning  and  argument  clear  and  unambiguous. 
No  speaker  I  have  ever  heard  excelled  him  in  this,  the  first 
essential  of  effective  public  oratory.  With  the  ancient  or 
Celtic  history  of  the  country  he  was  probably  unacquainted. 
Racial  influences  might  explain  this.  Anglo-Irishmen  of  the 
Pale  were  consistently  English  in  their  tastes  and  ten- 
dencies. Probably  not  a  single  family  among  the  many  of 
them  who  have  been  distinguished  for  their  support  of  the 
movement  against  England's  rule  in  Ireland  ever  christened 
a  single  child  in  a  Celtic  name.  Racial  prejudices  and 
predilections  are  not  readily  changed,  and  it  is  perhaps  best 
so.  The  circumstances  of  new  environment  may  modify 
them,  but  in  their  inherent  traits  they  are  better  left  as 
indications  of  ethnological  origin.  The  Ipsis  Hibernis 
Hibcrnioriim  legend  associated  with  Anglo-Irishmen  is  a 
mere  poetic  fiction,  or  if  there  be  a  few  exceptions,  like  Tone, 
Emmet,  and  Fitzgerald,  it  only  establishes  the  fact  that  very 
few  of  the  Normans  or  English  who  took  part  in  Irish  rebellions 
had  any  true  nationalist  instinct  or  purpose  in  so  doing. 
They  aspired  to  rule  Ireland  by  the  Anglo-Irish  for  the 
aggrandizement  of  themselves  and,  in  a  secondary  sense,  for 
the  good  of  the  country,  but  not  in  any  sense  to  have  Ireland 
made  an  independent  Celtic  nation  in  absolute  separation 
from  England.  Where  one  of  the  Norman  or  Anglo-Irish 
fought  for  Ireland's  complete  freedom,  fifty  opposed  Eng- 
land's forces  either  in  the  Stuart  cause  or  purely  on  religious 
grounds.  Grattan's  Parliament,  in  1782,  was  the  true  and 
utmost  measure  of  Anglo-Norman-Irish  patriotism.     Ireland's 

114 


CHARLES    STEWART    PARNELL 

liberty  was  absolutely  within  reach  then;  it  only  needed  a 
mere  declaration  of  independence  to  become  a  reality,  but 
when  the  more  or  less  histrionic  Volunteers  secured  what 
appeared  to  be  a  further  lease  of  legislative  power  for  the 
landlords  of  the  country  any  thought  of  carrying  national 
freedom  to  its  just  and  logical  goal  was  as  repugnant  and  as 
treasonable  to  Henry  Grattan  as  to  any  member  of  the 
ruling  pro-EngHsh  party. 

Mr.  Parnell  never  went  in  thought  or  in  act  a  revolutionary 
inch,  as  an  Irish  nationalist,  further  than  Henry  Grattan. 
He  had,  however,  read  and  digested  well  the  history  of  Ireland 
from  the  Norman  invasion  to  the  '48  period,  and  had  lived 
in  both  the  Tenant-League  and  Fenian  times,  an  observer 
of  events  which  marked  the  progress  of  the  seven-century 
struggle  for  land  and  liberty.  His  reputed  ignorance  of  the 
history  of  this  contest  was  only  one  of  the  many  legends 
which  newspaper  gossip  has  woven  round  a  name  and  per- 
sonality of  fascinating  contemporary  interest. 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

"  I  have  thought,  if  I  could  be  in  all  other  things  the  same,  but  by 
birth  an  Irishman,  there  is  not  a  town  in  this  island  I  would  not  visit 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  great  Irish  question  and  of  rousing 
my  countrymen  to  some  great  and  united  action.  I  do  not  believe 
in'the  necessity  of  wide-spread  and  perpetual  misery.  I  do  not  believe 
that  we  are  placed  on  this  island  and  on  this  earth  that  one  man 
may  be  great  and  wealthy,  and  revel  in  every  profuse  indulgence,  and 
five,  six,  nine,  or  ten  men  shall  suffer  the  abject  misery  which  we 
see  so  commonly  in  the  world.  With  your  soil,  your  climate,  and 
your  active  and  spirited  race,  I  know  not  what  you  might  not  do." — 
John  Bright,  speaking  in  Dublin,  November  2,  1866. 

The  feeling  within  the  Home -Rule  League  and  in  Mr. 
Butt's  party  in  1878  in  favor  of  a  more  vigorous  policy,  en- 
couraged by  what  were  believed  to  be  the  results  of  obstruc- 
tion, was  coincident  with  a  similar  movement  inside  revolution- 
ary circles.  Both  were  protests  against  stereotyped  negative 
methods  of  hoping  to  free  Ireland  from  English  rule.  Both 
these  progressive  tendencies  were  due  to  the  growing  inter- 
course between  our  people  in  Ireland  and  their  race  in  Amer- 
ica. The  Irish  in  the  United  States  were  steadily  climbing 
upward  socially  and  politically.  They  were  being  inoculated 
with  practical  ideas  and  schooled  in  democratic  thought  and 
action.  American  party  organizations  were  training  them 
for  an  active  participation  in  public  life,  and  in  proportion  as 
they  lifted  themselves  up  from  the  status  of  mere  laborers  to 
that  of  business  pursuits  and  of  professional  callings  did  they 
find  the  opportunities  and  means  of  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  government  of  cities  and  States.  These  experiences  and 
advantages  reacted  upon  opinion  in  Ireland,  through  the 
increasing  number  of  visitors,  letters,  and  newspapers  crossing 
the  Atlantic,  and  in  this  manner  cultivated  the  growth 
of  more  practical  thought  and  purpose  in  our  political  move- 
ments at  home. 

There  were  both  a  need  and  an  opportunity  for  a  new 
departure  if  we  were  not  to  see  all  our  energies  dissipated  in 
academic  discussions  upon  Home  Rule  once  or  twice  annually 

116 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

in  the  House  of  Commons  and  in  periodical  state  trials  of  the 
victims  of  informers  in  Ireland.  Both  these  prevailing 
policies  combined  could  make  no  practical  headway  for  want 
of  a  definite  and  an  agreed  objective,  while  the  still  latent 
antagonism  between  the  Fenian  organization  and  the  con- 
stitutional movement  neutralized  the  potential  capacity  of 
each  and  was  calculated  to  make  both  ridiculous.  Mere 
conspiracy  had  nothing  to  ofifer  to  the  mass  of  the  Irish 
people  except  the  experiences  of  penal  servitude  and  the 
records  of  the  abortive  rising  of  1867.  It  did  not  lessen  the 
hold  of  England  upon  Ireland  in  any  material  way,  though 
the  spirit  of  patriotic  sacrifice  shown  by  numbers  of  young 
men  who  cheerfully  went  to  prison  in  the  cause  of  free- 
dom gave  a  valuable  lesson  of  fidelity  to  the  ideal  of  Irish 
nationhood.  Beyond  this  no  more  tangible  results  fol- 
lowed or  could  proceed  from  principles  tied  down  to  a  policy 
of  hopeless  impotency;  principles  which,  if  only  put  in  ac- 
tion in  a  wider  field  of  public  effort,  would  exercise  a  far 
greater  revolutionary  influence  and  power  in  the  contest 
of  nationalism  against  the  forces  of  English  domination  in 
Ireland. 

Fenianism  in  1878  took  little  or  no  note  in  its  ideas  or  aims  of 
Irish  landlordism.  Its  only  hope  lay  in  the  advent  of  some 
great  danger  and  difficulty  for  England.  Many  of  its  mem- 
bers believed  that  the  sons  of  landlords  would,  in  such  an 
event,  possibly  be  won  over  to  nationality  by  learning 
Davis's  poems  or  reading  Meagher's  speeches.  These  con- 
victions were  honestly  held  by  some  of  the  leaders,  for  in 
revolutionary  as  in  other  creeds  no  belief  has  a  stronger  hold 
on  a  certain  class  of  mind  than  a  faith  in  what  is  impossible 
of  comprehension  to  the  limited  cognizance  of  the  human 
understanding.  An  Irish  republic  to  be  won  by  the  swords 
of  Irish  landlords'  sons  was  as  Utopian  a  dream  as  to  look 
for  the  advent  of  a  prosperous  Ireland  through  the  kindly 
concern  of  an  altruistic  England.  (_This  absurd  credulity  did 
not  extend  to  extreme  circles  in  the  United  States.  It  was 
dropped  in  the  passage  over  the  Atlantic  by  those  who  had 
to  thank  landlordism  for  being  the  cause  of  their  exile.  ,''  Facts, 
not  fancies,  were  then  as  now  the  dominant  feature  of  Amer- 
ican life,  and  the  men  who  were  prepared  to  organize  a  re- 
volt against  the  British  Empire  in  Ireland  in  1865,  and  who 
settled  subsequently  on  the  American  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
grew  to  look  upon  the  chance  of  rescuing  Ireland  from  Eng- 
lish rule  in  a  far  more  serious  light  and  spirit  than  hereto- 
fore. 

They  began  to  consider  the  magnitude  of  the  task  by  the 

117 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

measure  of  available  means,  by  the  active  manifestation  of  a 
nationalist  public  spirit  in  Ireland,  and  how  best  to  evoke  an 
external  sympathy  for  a  cause  so  intrinsically  just  and  worthy 
of  the  moral  support  of  American  opinion.  Conspiracy  and 
sporadic  insurrection  had  failed.  Other  and  more  effective, 
if  less  heroic,  plans  were  imperatively  required  if  the  Irish 
cause  was  not  to  die  of  an  atrophy  begotten  of  a  dreamy  do- 
nothingism,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  a  spiritless,  unaggressive 
constitutionalism  on  the  other. 

So  late  as  1878  there  was  a  preposterous  objection  in  Irish 
extreme  circles  even  to  participation  in  municipal  elections. 
To  take  part  in  such  contests  was  as  unorthodox  as  to  be 
identified  with  parliamentary  parties.  Both  were  a  violation 
of  advanced  nationalist  principles  and  a  "recognition"  of 
English  rule.  Any  such  action  spelled  moral  force,  and  moral 
force  stood  for  conciliation,  compromise,  and  surrender.  All 
this,  again,  was  the  outcome  of  a  sincere  but  a  hopelessly  nar- 
row conception  of  what  should  be  the  media  of  a  rational 
revolutionary  purpose,  under  conditions  and  circumstances 
which  offered  no  reasonable  hope  of  the  possibility  of  any  con- 
flict in  the  field  of  actual  warfare.  It  was,  moreover,  a  line  of 
inaction  most  conducive  to  the  continuance  of  the  existing 
state  of  things.  Corporations  and  rural  public  bodies  were 
either  anti-national  in  their  complexion  or  colorless  in  political 
composition.  They  were,  in  addition,  tame,  stagnant,  and 
unprogressive.  True,  the  municipal  franchise  was  restricted 
to  a  property  qualification,  and  popular  opinion  in  a  poor 
country  could  only  exert  its  influence  indirectly.  But  these 
obstacles  were  not  insuperable  where  opinion  was  so  uniformly 
national  as  in  three  out  of  four  provinces.  'JM\.  that  was  needed 
to  assert  its  active  preponderance  in  these  counties  was  to 
render  such  opinion  a  militant  force  through  systematic  or- 
ganization, directed  to  practical  purposes,  for  the  immediate 
benefit  of  the  whole  community  in  national,  economic,  and 
municipal  activitie§T7 

On  the  other  harrd/the  constitutional  movement,  which  had 
Home  Rule,  land  reform,  and  the  franchise  for  its  programme, 
lacked  both  popularity  and  combativeness.  It  was  mainly 
Mr.  Butt's  movement.  His  great  qualities  had  given  it  form 
and  life  out  of  the  debris  of  the  previous  moral-force  agitation, 
which  DufTy,  Lucas,  Moore,  and  others  had,  in  turn,  rescued 
from  the  shipwreck  of  O'Connell's  Repeal  failure.  Possibly 
the  father  of  Home  Rule  was  too  old  to  lead  his  offspring  in 
the  field  of  more  vigorous  action.  In  any  case,  his  party  was 
not  in  any  real  sense  a  fighting  force.  He  was  not  to  blame 
for  this.     The  country  had  been  appealed  to  by  him  for  a  re- 

118 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

liable  parliamentary  delegation,  and  those  whom  it  elected  to 
his  standard  shared  with  him  the  right  and  authority  of  de- 
ciding upon  the  plans  and  policies  to  be  put  into  operation. 
He  was  held  in  constraint  between  his  right  and  left  wings — 
between  the  more  numerous  nominal  Home-Rulers  and  the 
small  Parnell-Biggar  contingent — compelled  to  recognize  the 
paramount  claims  and  influence  of  numbers  where  his  own 
views  and  predilections  might  incline  him  to  the  side  of  the 
more  militant  section.  Had  the  membership  of  his  party 
been  in  an  inverse  proportion  to  such  composition,  it  is  more 
than  probable  that  Mr.  Butt  would  have  reconciled  his 
views  of  parliamentary  tactics  to  the  exigencies  of  a  more 
combative  Irish  representation  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
backed  by  an  organized,  semi  -  revolutionary  agitation  in 
Ireland. 

Such  was  the  political  situation  in  Ireland  when  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Home-Rule  movement  was  passing  from  Mr.  Butt 
to  Mr.  Parnell  in  1878.  It  was  a  movement  in  no  way  pow- 
erful, either  in  actual  strength  or  in  cohesive  purpose.  It  was 
strong  in  its  mission  and  opportunities  only,  and,  fortunately, 
popular  feeling  ripened  so  rapidly  in  a  demand  for  an  aggres- 
sive organization  of  national  forces  that  the  need  for  an  all- 
round  new  departure  in  policy,  means,  and  objects  soon  found 
satisfaction  in  the  required  combination  of  a  revolutionary 
impulse  infused  into  a  moral-force  campaign. 

There  were  also  in  the  general  condition  of  Irish  public  life 
at  this  period  both  an  opportunity  for  and  an  urgent  need  of 
a  programme  or  policy  that  would  rally  the  whole  people  to  the 
standard  of  the  national  cause.  Existing  movements,  open 
or  secret,  had  but  a  very  small  hold  upon  the  active  support 
of  the  race  on  either  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  vast  mass  of 
our  population  had  grown  politically  indifferent  or  apathetic. 
They  were  stirred  only  or  mainly  into  the  semblance  of  active 
public  Hfe  by  the  release  of  a  pohtical  prisoner  one  day  or  by 
his  funeral  demonstration  the  next.  There  were  factions  and 
frictions  in  both  constitutional  and  revolutionary  circles :  fol- 
lowers of  Mr.  Butt  and  supporters  of  Mr.  Parnell;  adherents 
of  "skirmishing"  warfare  and  advocates  of  consistent  physi- 
cal-force doctrines  who  were  opposed  to  all  such  schemes,  and 
who  relied  alone  upon  the  faith  and  hope  of  total  separation 
from  England  through  the  force  or  favor  of  an  imaginary  pro- 
Irish  political  Providence. 

There  has  always  been  an  erroneous  impression  in  English 
and  often  in  some  Irish  minds  as  to  the  actual  extent  to  which 
the  total  separation  sentiment  prevailed  among  Irishmen. 
The  numerical  strength  of  the  strongest  revolutionary  organ- 

119 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ization  by  no  means  measured  the  strength  of  the  feeling  for 
complete  independence.  Millions  of  Irishmen  were  and  are 
separatists  in  conviction  and  aspiration  who  would  on  no  ac- 
count become  members  of  a  secret  society — nationalists  who 
could  see  a  perfectly  consistent  course  in  supporting  a  strong 
moral-force  policy  like  Mr.  Parnell's  where  the  immediate  ob- 
ject might  be  some  subordinate  issue  or  question.  This  would 
apply  far  more  forcibly  to  the  Irish  in  America  than  to  those 
in  Ireland.  Except  during  the  excitement  caused  by  the  raid 
of  General  O'Neill  into  Canada,  in  1867,  so  soon  after  the  ter- 
mination of  the  American  civil  war,  the  membership  of  Irish 
revolutionary  bodies  would  be  comparatively  small.  At  the 
period  mentioned,  when  large  numbers  of  discharged  Union 
soldiers  were  anxious  for  a  war  with  England,  there  may  have 
been  from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  two  hundred  thousand 
Fenians  organized  in  America.  At  no  time  since  1870  would 
the  number  amount  to  fifty  thousand.  But  probably  nine- 
teen out  of  every  twenty  men  of  Irish  blood  among  the  many 
millions  of  our  race  on  the  American  continent  would  ardently 
desire  to  see  Ireland  a  free  and  independent  nation.  In  Ire- 
land the  proportion  might  not  be  so  great,  perhaps,  allowing 
for  the  Anglo-Irish  and  moderate  nationalists;  but  it  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  in  1878  over  seventy  per  cent,  of  the 
adults  among  the  Celtic  section  of  our  population  would  be 
separatists  at  heart,  though  comparatively  few  of  them  would 
be  found  inside  an  oath-bound,  illegal  society. 

A  greater  proportion  than  this  would  be  inimical  to  land- 
lordism, because  the  social  and  personal  as  well  as  (or  rather 
than)  the  national  sentiment  would  tend  to  create  a  wider 
feeling  of  hostility  to  a  system  upheld  by  England's  power 
which  touched  the  d^-ily  lives  of  more  than  half  the  entire 
people  of  Ireland. TXandlordism,  in  its  effects  and  record, 
was  to  tenants  and  others  the  symbol  and  expression  of  social 
injustice  resting  upon  foreign  rule .3  It  stood  for  the  menace 
of  eviction,  the  dark,  dread  shadow  which  almost  always 
loomed  over  three  or  four  hundred  thousand  households. 
The  landlord's  right  meant  eviction  or  emigration  to  the 
tenant  when  it  did  not  stand  for  rack-rent  and  poverty. 
Hatred  of  this  system  was  all  but  universal  at  home,  while 
among  the  exiled  Irish  across  the  Atlantic  there  was  per- 
haps a  more  relentless  feeling  still  against  Irish  landlordism, 

;  owing  to  the  memories  of  "the  crowbar  brigade"  being  as- 

isociated  with  those  of  exile,  and  of  the  sufferings  which  both 
entailed  in  times  when  ocean  travelling  was  not  what  it  is 
to-day,  and  before  the   emigrant  who  landed  in  New  York 

jpossessed  the  chances  which  welcome  him  or  her  in  the  better 

\-  120 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

prospects  of  later  years.  All  this  social  discontent,  and  the 
potential  power  it  stood  for,  was,  as  already  mentioned, 
ignored  by  extreme  nationalists,  while  Home-Rulers  dealt 
with  it  on  cautious  and  conservative  lines  only.  It  was  a 
vast,  untilled  field  of  popular  force,  if  its  resources  could 
only  be  drawn  upon  for  the  purposes  of  a  national  movement 
through  a  suitable  programme  or  policy. 

What  was  wanted  was  to  link  the  land  or  social  question  toi 
that  of  Home  Rule,  by  making  the  ownership  of  the  soil  the  \ 
basis  of  the  fight  for  self-government.     Tactically  it  would  1 
mean  an  attack  upon  the  weakest  point  in  the  English  hold   j 
on  Ireland,  in  the  form  of  a  national  crusade  against  land- 
lordism, while  such  a  movement  would  possess  the  additional  1 
advantage  of  being  calculated  to  win  a  maximum  of  auxiliary  j^y 
help  from  those  whom  the  system  had  driven  out  of  the  I 
country.     An  organized  agitation  of  this  character  and  pur-  | 
pose,  aiming  at  a  unity  of  combative  forces  in  Ireland  in  a 
combined  attack  upon  landlordism    and    English   rule,  and  ( 
directly  inviting  the  active  aid  of  Irishmen  abroad,  needed  a  ' 
leader  of  aggressive  qualities,  and  such  a  man  had  at  this 
opportune  juncture  appeared  in  the  person  of  Mr.  Parnell. 

The  origin  of  movements  that  have  made  history  is  neces- 
sarily a  matter  of  public  and  national  interest.  It  has  its 
lessons  of  guidance  and  value  for  students  of  reform,  especially 
when  such  agitations  or  revolutions  have  been  more  or  less 
successful  in  achieving  their  ends.  In  any  case,  it  is  essential 
to  know  what  were  the  causes  or  agencies  that  gave  them 
birth  the  better  to  appreciate  the  worth  or  work  of  the  mission 
for  the  accomplishment  of  which  they  were  called  into  exist- 
ence. 

Movements  of  national  importance  against  English  power 
in  Ireland  have  had  this  special  peculiarity :  they  have  reg- 
ularly alternated  between  attempts  at  insurrection  and 
moral  -  force  agitations.  One  has  succeeded  the  other  in 
uniform  sequence  for  the  past  one  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
The  result  has  been  that  a  claim  for  constitutional  reform  by 
the  argument  of  a  previous  attempt  at  rebellion  has  always 
possessed  the  convincing  force  of  actuality.  This,  in  turn, 
enabled  the  advocates  of  extreme  measures  to  palliate  re- 
bellion by  pointing  to  the  concessions  which  were  made 
through  its  agency  to  the  demands  of  moral-force  agitation. 
The  landlord  Parliament  of  the  Pale  threatened  England  with 
the  Volunteers,  and  won  from  fear  what  would  not  be  granted 
to  prayer  or  debate.  The  '98  rebellion  was  precipitated  by 
government  agency  the  better  to  crush  the  Parliament  and 
leaders  who  might  possibly  call  an  armed  body  of  Irishmen 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

into  existence  in  a  darker  hour  of  England's  periL  But  the 
attempts  of  Tone  and  Fitzgerald,  and  later  of  Emmet,  to 
overthrow  English  rule  were  powerful  arguments  in  favor 
of  granting  emancipation  to  the  Catholics;  and  John  Keogh 
and  O'Connell  reaped  to  some  extent  the  fruits  of  Emmet's, 
Fitzgerald's,  and  Tone's  sacrifices. 

Next,  the  organized  policy  of  violence  by  which  the  odious 
tithe  system  was  attacked  and  put  down  gave  point  and 
force  to  the  Liberator's  claims  for  Repeal.  Though  a  hater 
of  revolutions,  O'Connell  was  aware  of  the  potency  of  reason- 
ing which  lay  in  the  existence  of  extremer  men  and  move- 
ments than  those  he  controlled,  and  the  "Litchfield  House 
plot"  was  within  an  ace  of  registering  on  the  page  of  history 
the  concession  of  a  federal  form  of  self-government  for  Ireland 
that  would  have  forestalled  Home  Rule  by  more  than  the 
length  of  Mr.  Parnell's  lifetime. 

On  the  collapse  of  Repeal  the  revolutionists  of  '48,  as  al- 
ready related,  who  had  decried  the  methods  of  O'Connell  as 
worse  than  useless,  put  their  own  panacea  in  evidence,  and 
produced  Ballingarry  and  state  trials.  Moral  force  follows 
physical  force  again  in  the  movement  of  the  Tenant-League 
and  independent  opposition,  only  to  fail  because  the  '48 
"rebellion"  had  frightened  nobody,  while  treachery  and 
Archbishop  Cullen  had  killed  the  hopes  of  Duffy  and  Lucas 
in  the  fifties.  Next  Fenianism  emerges,  and  the  failure  of 
the  insurrectionary  attempt  of  1867  called  for  a  recourse  once 
more  to  the  alternative  of  action  within  the  law.  Mr.  Butt's 
Home-Rule  agitation  had,  however,  grown  out  of  the  amnesty 
organization,  and  this  fact,  together  with  the  labors  of  the 
Home-Rule  leader  on  the  land  question,  offered  a  field  and  an 
opportunity  for  calling  for  a  new  departure,  in  a  movement 
that  might  enlist  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  revolution,  in 
co-operation  with  open  agitation,  and  possibly  equalize  alike 
the  fruits  of  concession  or  the  penalties  of  failure. 

Heretofore  the  extreme  nationalists  had  only  been  able  to 
serve  the  ends  of  the  constitutionalists  in  efforts  at  revolution 
which  purchased  penal  servitude  for  tliemselves.  Their  part 
in  the  struggle  of  Ireland  was  to  fail  and  to  face  punishment, 
in  order  that  moral-force  leaders  should  find  strong  arguments 
in  their  dangerous  undertakings  and  look  for  concessions  as 
the  certain  fruits  of  their  sufferings  and  sacrifices.  The 
division  of  penalty  and  of  concession  was  too  one-sided  to  be 
always  encouraging  to  the  men  of  action,  and  the  time  had 
come  when  greater  gains  might  hopefully  be  counted  upon 
from  a  rational  policy  of  making  the  open  movement  more 
revolutionary  in  aim  and  purpose,  if  not  in  method,  and 

12? 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

without  antagonizing  the  most  earnest  and  reliable  of  the 
believers  in  parliamentary  action.  It  would  also  be  worth 
while  trying  to  interrupt  the  order  which  had  hitherto  ob- 
tained in  alternate  Irish  movements  by  combining  both, 
as  far  as  practicable,  and  for  such  a  common-sense  plan  of 
semi -revolutionary  action  to  enlist  the  active  help  of  the 
fifteen  or  twenty  millions  of  Irish  located  beyond  the  seas. 

Mr.  Barry  O'Brien,  in  his  popular  work,^  says:  "Mr.  Davitt 
has  sometimes  been  credited  with  the  invention  of  what  came 
to  be  called  'The  New  Departure,'  the  combined  action  of 
constitutionalists  and  revolutionists  for  the  common  purpose 
of  national  independence.  But  the  fact  is,  '  the  new  departure ' 
was  in  the  air  before  Davitt  arrived  in  America.  James 
O'Kelly,  John  Devoy,  and  others  had  been  thinking  it  out 
while  Davitt  was  in  jail.  'Had  Davitt  come  to  America  in 
the  beginning  of  1877,'  said  a  member  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  to 
me,  'he  would  have  found  a  few  men  ready  to  discuss  the 
new  departure  and  to  favor  it.  But  neither  he  nor  we  could 
have  dared  broach  it  at  a  public  meeting  of  the  Clan.  But  a 
change  had  taken  place  in  a  twelvemonth.  Parnell's  action 
in  Parliament  had  made  people  think  that  something  might 
be  done  with  the  parliamentarians,  after  all.  Parliamen- 
tarianism  was  apparently  becoming  a  respectable  thing.  It 
might  be  possible  to  touch  it  without  becoming  contaminated. 
Parnell  had,  in  fact,  made  the  running  for  Davitt,  and  Davitt 
arrived  in  New  York  just  in  the  nick  of  time.  Many  in- 
fluential members  of  the  Clan  were  full  of  the  notion  of  an 
alliance  with  the  constitutional  party,  and  were  now  ready  to 
co-operate  with  Davitt  in  bringing  it  about.'" 

The  point  is  not  of  any  historic  value  as  to  who  first  sug- 
gested the  particular  proposal  to  which  Mr.  Barry  O'Brien 
refers.  It  is,  however,  of  some  importance  to  correct  the 
statement  that  an  "alliance"  between  the  revolutionary  and 
constitutional  parties  was  proposed  by  me,  and  that  it- 
eventuated.  This  was  the  charge  made  by  The  Times  against 
Mr.  Parnell.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  made  no  such  proposal, 
nor  did  any  alliance  or  compact  such  as  that  described  ever 
take  place.  Mr.  Parnell  said  so,  on  his  oath,  before  the 
special  commission. 

My  knowledge  of  the  state  of  feeling  referred  to,  and  which 
prevailed  in  the  circles  indicated  in  1877,  is  only  of  a  secondary 
value,  owing  to  the  circumstances  of  being  in  prison  at  that 
time.  I  have  already  dwelt  upon  the  change  which  the  in- 
fluences of  American  citizenship  had  worked  in  the  minds  of 

*  The  Life  of  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  vol.  i.,  p.  165. 
123 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

extreme  Irishmen  in  the  direction  of  wider  and  wiser  methods 
of  revolutionary  action.  It  was  a  change  of  view  akin  to  a 
corresponding  tendency  among  many  moral-force  men,  who 
had  promoted  Mr.  Parnell's  leadership  through  the  machinery 
of  the  Home  -  Rule  Confederation  of  Great  Britain  —  an 
auxiliary  branch  of  the  Home-Rule  League  of  Ireland.  Some 
of  the  prominent  men  in  this  confederation  were  Fenians. 
They,  too,  were  anxious  to  move  on  other  lines  more  con- 
formable to  a  rational  conception  of  what  the  work  should 
be  that  could  promise  a  hope  of  better  things  for  Ireland. 
These  moderate  Fenians  were  active  partisans  of  Mr.  Parnell's, 
and  this  is  how  Mr.  John  Devoy  alluded  to  them  and  their 
anticipation  of  a  "new  departure  "  in  the  very  year  of  1877 
referred  to  in  Mr.  Barry  O'Brien's  book.  Writing  to  Tlie 
Irishman,  of  Dublin,  under  date  of  December  i8th  of  that 
year,  he  said:  "Meetings  of  pseudo-' nationalists'  are  held  in 
private  to  dictate  a  policy  to  be  pursued  by  a  few  members 
of  Parliament  in  the  House  of  Commons,  for  an  object  that  is 
neither  desirable  in  itself  nor  likely  to  help  the  Irish  cause 
indirectly.  It  is  an  undeniable  fact  that  the  foolish  and 
ridiculous  policy  of  'obstruction'  was  decided  on,  not  by  a 
meeting  of  Home -Rule  members  of  Parliament,  but  by  a 
meeting  of  professed  nationalists  in  England.  These  men  who 
scoff  at  the  played-out  policy  of  saying  what  you  mean  and 
of  standing  by  your  principles  are  to  be  new  saviors  of  the 
country,  and  to  regenerate  it  with  thirty  clubs  of  the  Home- 
Rule  Confederation  of  Great  Britain.  This  is  the  new  state- 
craft that  is  to  unite  the  Irish  people  and  lead  them  with 
their  eyes  blindfolded  to  freedom.  Why,  the  very  existence 
of  this  Home-Rule  Confederation  of  Great  Britain  is  a  fraud 
and  a  hypocrisy." 

Mr.  Parnell  was  president  of  this  branch  of  the  Home-Rule 
movement  in  Great  Britain  and  was  the  leader  of  the  ob- 
structionist policy.  The  ruling  spirits  of  the  confederation 
were  his  stanchest  supporters,  and  it  was  their  election  of 
him  in  place  of  Mr.  Butt  as  president  of  this  body,  at  a 
convention  in  Liverpool,  which  virtually  placed  Mr.  Parnell 
at  the  head  of  the  Home-Rule  movement.  But  Mr.  Barry 
O'Brien  has  been  misled  into  the  belief  that  the  few  Fenians 
who  helped  to  do  this,  through  the  machinery  of  the  Home- 
Rule  Confederation,  were  in  some  bond  of  purpose  or  sym- 
pathy with  the  writer  of  the  letter  from  which  I  have  quoted 
the  foregoing  attack  upon  both  Mr.  Parnell's  then  parlia- 
mentary policy  and  the  advanced  nationalists  of  the  con- 
federation, who  were  moving  in  line  with  the  ideas  subse- 
quently set  forth  in  the  new  departure. 

124 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

The  programme  and  policy  which  were  advocated  by  me 
in  a  series  of  meetings  held  in  Philadelphia,  New  Haven,  New 
London,  New  York,  Brooklyn,  and  some  Western  cities,  and 
in  a  final  meeting  at  Boston,  in  1878,  were  not  what  Mr.  Barry 
O'Brien  has  been  misled  into  stating.  An  "  alHance  "  between 
the  revolutionary  or  Fenian  organization  and  Mr.  Parnell  was 
neither  directly  nor  indirectly  urged  or  advised  in  any  way, 
at  any  of  such  meetings,  or  otherwise  by  me.  What  was 
proposed  was  an  open  participation  in  public  movements  in 
Ireland  by  extreme  men,  not  in  opposition  to  Mr.  Parnell  or 
moral-force  supporters,  but  with  the  view  of  bringing  an  ad- 
vanced nationalist  spirit  and  revolutionary  purpose  into  Irish 
public  life,  in  a  friendly  rivalry  with  moderate  nationalists, 
in  the  work  of  making  English  rule  more  difficult  or  impossi- 
ble, and  for  such  a  line  of  action  I  appealed  both  for  Clan-na- 
Gael  and  general  Irish-American  approval  and  support. 

A  tentative  programme  put  forward  at  these  meetings  em- 
braced :  ( I )  A  declaration  that  the  want  of  national  government 
was  the  chief  want  of  Ireland;  (2)  a  policy  of  independent  ac- 
tion by  an  Irish  party  in  Parliament;  (3)  an  agitation  for  the 
settlement  of  the  land  question,  with  planks  for  the  better- 
ment of  laborers'  dwellings,  the  nationalizing  of  education  and 
of  public  bodies,  and  the  right  of  Irishmen  to  carry  arms.  At 
one  of  these  meetings,  held  in  the  Park  Theatre,  Brooklyn,  on 
October  13,  1878,  Mr.  John  Devoy  made  an  impromptu  speech, 
having  been  called  for  by  the  audience.  It  was  the  speech  of 
the  evening,  and  dealt  almost  entirely  with  my  proposal  to 
turn  nationalist  energies  upon  a  solution  of  the  land  ques- 
tion. In  the  Irish  World  of  October  26th  Mr.  Devoy 's  speech 
was  fully  reported,  and  his  opening  sentences  contained  this 
statement : 

"I  will  say  that  I  endorse  the  views  set  forth  in  the  able 
lecture  you  have  just  heard  from  Mr.  Davitt,  and  that  I  fully 
approve  of  the  public  policy  he  proposes  for  the  national — 
that  is,  the  revolutionary -party." 

On  November  7th,  nearly  a  month  subsequently,  Mr.  De- 
voy, in  his  own  and  in  the  names  of  four  other  well-known 
revolutionists,  cabled  the  following  message  to  the  late  Charles 
Kickham,  to  be  forwarded  or  handed  by  him  to  Mr.  Parnell: 

"The  nationalists  (Fenians)  here  will  support  you  on  the 
following  conditions: 

1.  "  Abandonment  of  the  federal  demand  and  substitution 
of  a  general  declaration  in  favor  of  self-government. 

2.  "  Vigorous  agitation  of  the  land  question  on  the  basis  of  a 
peasant  proprietary,  while  accepting  concessions  tending  to 
abolish  arbitrary  evictions. 

125 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

3.  "  Exclusion  of  all  sectarian  issues  from  the  platform. 

4.  "  Irish  members  to  vote  together  on  all  imperial  and  home 
questions,  adopt  an  aggressive  policy,  and  energetically  resist 
coercive  legislation. 

5.  "  Advocacy  of  all  struggling  nationalities  in  the  British 
Empire  and  elsewhere." 

With  the  cabling  of  these  proposals  I  had  nothing  whatever 
to  do.  I  was  av/ay  in  the  Western  States  at  the  time,  and  was 
not  consulted.  No  meeting  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  executive  had 
authorized  the  making  of  any  such  offer  in  behalf  of  the  Amer- 
ican revolutionary  organization.  Apart  from  this,  it  was  a 
most  imprudent  proceeding,  amounting  as  it  did  to  an  open 
proposal,  through  the  public  press,  for  an  alliance  between 
men  avowedly  revolutionist  (three  of  them  being  trustees  of 
the  "skirmishing"  fund  at  the  time)  and  the  leader  of  a  con- 
stitutionalist party  in  the  British  House  of  Commons.  It  was 
an  illustration  of  Irish  "conspiracy  as  she  was  made,"  and 
Mr.  Parnell  treated  it  as  such  by  neither  noticing  it  nor  taking 
any  action  of  any  kind  with  reference  to  it. 

In  his  evidence  before  the  special  commission,  on  May  i, 
1889,  he  was  closely  questioned  about  the  alleged  "alliance," 
and  he  replied  as  follows: 

"I  have  never  gone  further,  either  in  my  thought  or  my 
action,  than  the  restitution  of  the  legislative  independence 
of  Ireland;  it  is  absolutely  false  that  anything  like  a  com- 
bination between  the  two  parties  (extremists  and  constitu- 
tionalists) ever  existed  either  in  Ireland,  England,  or  Amer- 
ica, as  far  as  I  know.  I  believe  to  this  day  the  physical- 
force  organization  has  been  constantly  hostile  to  us  since 
1880." 1 

Again,  at  p.  92  of  the  same  Report,  he  answers  questions 
put  by  the  attorney-general  relating  to  the  cable  proposals 
of  November,  1878,  as  follows: 

Attorney-General.  "Do  you  remember  Mr.  Davitt  sending 
home  any  telegraph  or  communication  to  you  in  November, 
1878?" 

Mr.  Parnell.  "No.  I  do  not  recollect  such  a  communica- 
tion." 

Attorney-General.  "  Do  you  remember  the  resolutions  which 
began  with  the  words  '  the  nationalists  here  will  support  you 
on  the  following  conditions'?" 

Mr.  Parnell.  "No,  I  do  not  recollect  that  cable.  I  recol- 
lect that  such  a  cable  was  published  some  time  afterwards. 
I  think  that  was  not  a  cable  from  Mr.  Davitt." 

•  Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  vii.,  p.  88. 
126 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

Attorney-General.  "  Who  do  you  think  it  was  a  cable  from?" 

Mr.  Parncll.  "I  think  it  was  a  cable  from  Mr.  Devoy." 

A  ttorney -General.  ' '  Who  to  ? " 

Mr.  Parnell.  "It  is  a  cable  supposed  to  be  to  me,  or  for 
me. 

Attorney-General.  "Did  you  receive  it?" 

Mr.  Parnell.  "I  never  received  it." 

Attorney-General.  "Of  that  you  are  sure?" 

Mr.  Parnell.  "I  am  as  sure  as  I  can  be  of  anything." 

Attorney-General.  "I  have  a  reason  for  asking  you — you 
did  not  receive  any  communication  in  1878  from  either  Davitt 
or  Devoy?" 

Mr.  Parnell.  "  No.  I  think  the  history  of  that  cable  is 
that  it  was  sent  to  some  person  in  Dublin  for  submission  to 
mej  and  to  be  published  as  having  been  sent  to  me  if  the  per- 
son to  whom  it  was  sent  in  Dublin  thought  proper,  and  that 
they  did  not  think  it  proper  to  submit  it  to  me,  and  it  never 
Was." 

This  proposal,  thus  cabled,  not  having  elicited  any  response 
from  Mr.  Parnell,  it  was  published  in  the  New  York  Herald 
by  Mr.  Devoy,  who  was  then  on  the  editorial  staff  of  that 
paper,  and  in  this  manner  it  became  the  "origin"  of  the  new- 
departure  legend  about  which  Mr.  Barry  O'Brien  writes  so 
entertainingly  in  his  Life  of  Parnell. 

The  agent  from  the  Clan-na-Gael  whom  he  describes  as  vis- 
iting London  in  1877  did  not  come  to  Europe  to  interview  Mr. 
Parnell  on  any  revolutionary  plan  or  purpose.  He  saw  Mr. 
Parnell,  it  is  true,  and  many  others,  in  a  social  way,  but  the 
meetings  were  of  no  importance  and  had  no  results.  At  that 
time  Mr.  Parnell's  closest  political  friends  were  the  promi- 
nent men  of  the  Home-Rule  Confederation — men  of  the  stamp 
and  standing  of  Mr.  John  Barry,  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  Mr. 
Joseph  Biggar,  Mr.  Frank  Hugh  O'Donnell,  and  Mr.  T.  M. 
Healy,  then  a  young  and  promising  member  of  the  Parnellite 
group.  With  these  men  of  advanced  views  on  obstruction 
and  other  questions  Mr.  John  Devoy  and  his  friends  would 
have  no  dealings  whatever. 

These  somewhat  detailed  particulars  are  called  for  only  to 
correct  the  error  into  which  Mr.  Barry  O'Brien  not  unnatu- 
rally fell  owing  to  the  want  of  accurate  information  which  mem- 
bership of  the  Clan  organization  or  of  Mr.  Parnell's  following 
at  the  time  could  have  imparted.  I  have  no  wish  to  belittle 
in  any  way  the  part  played  by  Mr.  Devoy  at  this  most  critical 
time  in  what  became  the  Land-League  movement.  He  en- 
tered loyally  into  the  most  difficult  task  of  inducing  men 
who  had  hitherto  opposed  all  moral-force  politics  to  give  sup- 

127 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

port  to  the  new  line  of  action.  He  employed  his  efforts  and 
influence  to  further  in  every  way  the  work  of  rescuing  the 
revolutionary  body  in  America  from  a  grotesque  harlequinade 
of  saloon  "conspiracy"  which  was  rapidly  killing  with  the 
deadly  weapon  of  public  ridicule  what  was  left  of  the  force  and 
hope  which  had  once  centred  in  the  name  of  Fenianism.  He 
brought  most  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Clan-na-Gael 
round  to  his  views,  and  the  work  done  by  him  in  this  way,  and 
in  line  with  a  corresponding  labor  by  Patrick  Ford  of  the  Irish 
World  and  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  of  the  Boston  Pilot,  in  their 
respective  papers  and  widely  influential  entourage,  paved  the 
way  for  the  success  of  Mr.  Parnell's  and  Mr.  Dillon's  tour  a 
year  subsequently,  and  to  the  starting  of  the  auxiliary  Land 
League  of  America  in  1880. 

Mr.  James  O'Kelly's  name  must  be  honorably  associated 
with  those  mentioned  in  connection  with  this  early  and  val- 
uable labor.  He  has  always  been  a  broad-minded  thinker 
and  worker  in  national  movements.  Narrow  views  or  petty 
prejudices  were  never  peculiar  to  Mr.  O'Kelly.  He  favored 
every  kind  of  useful  action  that  could  advance  a  cause  in  the 
service  of  which  he  has  given  the  best  years  of  his  life,  and 
throughout  his  varied  and  romantic  career  he  has  preferred 
the  part  of  a  silent  worker  to  that  which  earns  most  distinction 
by  inviting  most  public  notice.* 

'  "Mr.  John  Devoy  has  been  interviewed  by  an  American  reporter. 
He  said;  'The  cause  of  my  despatch  was  originally  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Forster  in  introducing  the  Coercion  Act,  in  which  he  said,  speaking  of 
the  Irish  nationalists:  "These  people  are  all  united  on  this  question, 
and  our  only  remedy  is  to  strike  terror  into  them."  In  reply  to  this, 
I  made  a  speech  in  the  city  (New"  York) ,  which  was,  I  think,  incorrectly 
reported.  In  time  it  reached  London,  and  Sir  William  Harcourt,  in 
commenting  upon  it,  said  it  was  the  duty  of  the  English  people  to 
stamp  out  such  people  as  Davitt  and  Devoy  and  their  many  allies  in 
England  and  Ireland.  Next  day  I  cabled  this  despatch  in  reply:  "Sir 
William  Vernon  Harcourt,  London, — Two  can  play  at  stamping;  the 
greatest  sufiferers  are  those  who  have  most  to  lose.  The  day  when  you 
can  stamp  with  impunity  has  passed  forever. — John  Devoy."  I  deny 
this  was  a  threat.  It  was  only  a  warning.'  Mr.  Devoy  was  subse- 
quently interviewed  in  reference  to  a  statement  in  one  of  the  London 
papers  that  Michael  Davitt,  and  not  Mr.  Parnell,  was  the  organizer  of 
the  Land  League  movement,  and  that  in  its  formation  he  had  the  as- 
sistance of  Mr.  Devoy.  He  said  this  statement  was  correct,  but  he 
objected  to  the  assertion  that  when  Davitt  returned  to  Ireland  he  set 
to  work  to  gather  up  the  threads  of  the  old  Fenian  conspiracy.  Mr. 
Devoy  denied  that  the  Fenian  cause,  or  more  correctly  the  Irish  Re- 
publican Brotherhood,  was  ever  disorganized.  Mr.  Davitt  came  to 
America,  and  in  conversation  with  him  (Devoy)  and  Mr.  John  Breslin 
gave  the  outline  of  a  plan  of  action  in  Irish  affairs  which  not  only  in- 
cluded the  land  question  but  the  national  question.  It  was  not 
until  about  a  year  ago  that  the  Land  League  proper  was  formed,  and 

128 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

The  "new-departure"  campaign  in  the  United  States  ter- 
minated in  a  meeting  at  Boston  on  December  8,  1878.  It  was 
held  under  the  auspices  of  the  revolutionary  bodies  of  that 
city,  with  Major  Logan  in  the  chair.  The  late  Mr.  John 
Boyle  O'Reilly  was  the  chief  inspiration  of  the  meeting. 
It  was  on  his  suggestion  it  had  been  organized.  Like  Devoy 
and  myself,  he  had  been  in  penal  servitude  for  Fenianism, 
and  had  experienced  the  feeling  common  to  all  thinking  men 
who  find  themselves  thus  contemptuously  disposed  of  by  the 
enemy — the  feeling  of  bitter  chagrin  that  you  are  suffering 
more  for  an  intention  than  for  action.  We  had  "conspired," 
and  were  informed  upon,  imprisoned,  and  punished  —  that 
was  all.  There  was  no  satisfaction  to  be  found  in  a  consoling 
thought  or  knowledge  that  we  had  displaced  a  solitary  brick 
in  the  edifice  of  English  rule  in  Ireland,  or  had  otherwise 
advanced  our  cause  one  single  step  forward.  Here  is  where 
the  chief  sting  of  imprisonment  lay,  and  as  we  had  personal 
as  well  as  political  accounts  to  settle  with  our  late  jailer,  we 
could  not,  as  human  nature  goes,  be  expected  to  consider 
England's  interests  or  peace  of  mind  overmuch  in  respect 
to  future  plans  of  action.  A  new  movement  was  essential  if 
Irish  revolutionists  were  ever  to  accomplish  anything  beyond 
wasting  themselves  in  barren  conspiracy  and  in  English  convict 
cells,  and  the  need  for  such  a  step  was  a  growing  conviction  in 
every  earnest  Irishman's  mind  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean. 

No  one  entered  more  heartily  into  the  idea  of  the  new 
policy  than  O'Reilly,  who  was  then  on  the  threshold  of  his 
literary  fame  in  the  United  States.  He  was  probably  as 
lovable  a  character  as  nature  in  her  happiest  moods  ever 
moulded  out  of  Celtic  materials:  handsome  and  brave,  gifted 
in  rarest  qualities  of  mind  and  heart,  broad-minded  and  in- 
tensely sympathetic,  progressive  and  independent  in  thought, 
with  an  enlightened  and  tolerant  disposition,  in  religion 
and  politics,  more  in  keeping  with  a  poetic  soul  than  with 
an  ordinary  human  temperament.  He  was  a  personification 
of  all  the  manly  virtues.  No  one  could  know  him  without 
becoming  his  friend,  and  it  was  impossible  to  be  his  enemy 
once  you  experienced  the  spell  of  his  affectionate  personality. 

then  Mr.  Parnell  was  put  at  the  head  of  it  by  Mr.  Davitt.  '  We  have 
no  fault  to  find,'  continued  Mr.  Devoy,  '  with  Mr.  Parnell,  but  he  is 
connected  with  the  Land  League  only,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
national — i.e.,  the  revolutionary  party.  .  .  .  Mr.  Davitt's  idea  was 
greater  than  the  land  question.  When  he  first  organized  the  league 
he  believed  in  separation,  and  the  Land  League  was  only  a  stepping- 
stone  to  that.'  " — The  Flag  of  Ireland,  February,  1881,  copied  from  the 
New  York  press. 

9  129 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

The  night  before  the  meeting  the  future  movement  was 
fully  discussed  at  the  home  of  the  late  Dr.  Joyce,  author  of 
Deirdre.  O'Reilly,  Devoy,  Joyce,  and  the  writer  v>rere  present. 
The  progress  made  in  the  propaganda  of  the  new  policy  was 
considered  most  encouraging,  and  big  hopes  were  entertained 
in  the  possibility  of  organizing  a  race  struggle  for  the  rule  of 
Ireland  by  Irishmen.  It  was  agreed  that  the  land  should 
be  made  the  basis  of  the  national  fight,  and  that  all  na- 
tionalist energies  should  be  enlisted  in  a  contest  with  the 
English  landlord  and  political  garrison  for  the  ownership 
of  the  land  and  the  control  of  the  public  bodies  in  the  country. 
"Let  us  do  this,"  said  O'Reilly,  "and  a  new  era  will  dawn 
for  the  old  land.  Throw  down  the  gage  of  battle  to  land- 
lordism, as  the  source  of  Irish  poverty,  eviction,  and  emigra.- 
tion,  and  a  mighty  power  will  be  enlisted  in  the  fight  against 
English  rule.  America's  moral  support  would  be  won  for  a 
practical  Irish  proposal  that  would  link  a  solution  of  the 
social  problem  with  the  national  question,  while  the  financial 
help  of  the  Irish  in  the  States  would  be  forthcoming  in  a 
land-for-the-people  struggle  in  Ireland.  I  am  confident  this 
is  going  to  become  the  greatest  of  Irish  revolutionary  move- 
ments." And  this  confidence  continued  in  O'Reilly  until  his 
death. 

The  resolutions  put  before  the  meeting  in  the  Mechanics' 
Hall,  Boston,  were  as  follows: 

"  I.  National  self-government  as  the  chief  want  of  Ire- 
land. 

"2.  Irish  representatives  in  Westminster  to  be  thoroughly 
nationalist  in  conviction  and  declaration,  and  opposed  to 
all  coercive  measures. 

"3.  A  demand  for  the  immediate  improvement  of  the  Irish 
land  system  by  such  a  thorough  change  as  would  prevent  the 
peasantry  from  being  further  victimized  by  landlordism. 
This  change  to  lead  up  to  a  system  of  small  proprietorship 
similar  to  what  at  present  obtains  in  France,  Belgium,  and 
Prussia.  Such  land  to  be  purchased  or  held  directly  from 
the  state.  The  state  to  buy  out  the  landlords  and  to  fix 
the  cultivators  in  the  soil. 

"4.  Legislation  for  the  encouragement  of  Irish  industries; 
the  development  of  Ireland's  natural  resources;  substitution 
as  much  as  possible  of  cultivation  for  grazing;  reclamation 
of  waste  lands;  protection  of  Irish  fisheries,  and  improvement 
of  peasant  dwellings. 

"5.  Assimilation  of  the  county  to  the  borough  franchise, 
and  reform  of  the  grand-jury  laws,  and  also  those  affecting 
(penalizing)  the  right  of  convention  in  Ireland. 

130 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

"6.  Vigorous  efforts  to  improve  and  nationalize  popular 
education;  and, 

"  7.  The  right  of  the  Irish  people  to  carry  arms." 

In  support  of  such  a  programme  the  meeting  cordially 
endorsed  these  views: 

"Why  is  the  Irish  tenant-farmer  not  an  active  nationalist? 
To  answer  this  question,  I  will  crave  permission  to  place 
myself  in  the  position  of  a  tiller  of  the  soil  in  Ireland,  say 
one  of  the  victims  of  a  landlord  on  the  barren  slopes  of  the 
Galtee  Mountains.  I  will  assume  that  I  have  just  reached 
the  level  of  my  mud-walled  cabin  on  the  mountain-side, 
carrying  a  load  of  manure  on  my  back  from  the  plain  below. 
I  have  seen  the  short-horn  sheep  from  England  and  Scotland 
grazing  upon  the  rich  land  in  the  valley — the  land  which 
formerly  belonged  to  my  ancestors,  and  the  produce  of  which 
is  now  fattening  brute  beasts  while  my  six  children  are 
starving  with  hunger.  I  might  be  supposed  to  say  to  myself : 
'  How  is  it  that  I  who  have  done  no  wrong  to  God,  my  country, 
or  society  should  be  doomed  to  a  penal  existence  like  this? 
Who  are  they  that  stand  by  and  see  the  beasts  of  the  field 
preferred  before  me  and  my  family?  I  am  powerless  to  do 
anything  but  to  provide  for  the  cravings  of  those  whom  God 
has  sent  to  my  care,  and  to  relax  my  labor  for  a  day  might  be 
a  day's  hunger  for  my  little  ones.  If  I  go  down  to  the  castle 
and  avenge  my  wrongs  upon  the  head  of  the  landlord,  I  am 
but  injuring  him,  and  not  the  system  that  enables  him  to 
plunder  me.  I  must,  therefore,  refrain  from  an  act  which 
might  cause  me  to  die  on  a  scaffold  and  my  children  to  enter 
the  workhouse.  If  no  one  else  will  assist  me  I  am  con- 
demned to  this  miserable  existence  for  the  remainder  of  my 
life.  Who  are  they  that,  having  time  and  energy  to  take 
part  in  the  political  strife  of  the  day,  say  they  are  working 
for  Ireland  and  for  people  like  me?  The  nationalist  (rev- 
olutionary) party  tells  me  that  when  independence  is  won 
I  will  no  longer  be  at  the  mercy  of  an  English  landlord.  That 
is  like  feeding  my  children  with  a  mind's-eye  view  of  the 
dinner  that  will  be  served  in  the  landlord's  castle  to-day. 
Yellow-meal  porridge  is  a  more  substantial  meal  than  vision- 
ary plenty.  If  the  nationalists  want  me  to  believe  in  and 
labor  a  little  for  independence,  they  must  first  show  them- 
selves willing  and  strong  enough  to  stand  between  me  and  the 
power  which  a  single  Englishman,  a  landlord,  wields  over 
me.  Let  them  show  that  the  social  well-being  of  our  people 
is  a  motive  in  their  actions  and  the  aim  of  their  endeavors, 
while  striving  for  the  grand  object  ahead,  and  the  farming- 
classes  in  Ireland  will  rally  round  them  to  assist  in  reaching 

131 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

that  object.  But  me  and  the  Hkes  of  me  are  told  that  we 
have  friends  in  all  parties,  while  we  are  never  made  to  feel 
anything  but  the  power  and  influence  of  our  enemies — the 
landlords.  I  must  bring  another  creel  of  manure  from  the 
bottom  of  the  mountain  before  mid-day,  and  then  share 
my  bowl  of  stirabout  with  my  little  ones.  God's  will  be  done! 
but  it  is  a  hard  life  to  lead  in  Ireland  in  the  nineteenth 
century.' 

"This  is  no  exaggeration  of  the  thoughts  or  attitude  of  the 
class  who  are  compelled  to  stand  aloof  from  political  strife  in 
Ireland;  and  this  vast  class,  recruited  alike  from  the  one 
instanced  as  well  as  from  all  those  whose  avocations  and 
actions  have  their  root  in  the  virtue  of  the  honest,  selfish 
cares  of  social  life,  are  within  reach  of  the  party  of  action 
if  the  necessary  steps  are  taken  to  enlist  their  zeal  and  co- 
operation in  the  struggle.  .  .  .  No  party  has  the  right  to  call 
itself  a  national  party  which  neglects  resorting  to  all  and 
every  justifiable  means  to  end  the  frightful  misery  under 
which  our  people  suffer.  It  is  exhibiting  a  callous  indif- 
ference to  the  state  of  social  degradation  to  which  the  power  of 
the  landlords  of  Ireland  has  sunk  our  peasantry  to  ask  them 
to  plod  on  in  sluggish  misery  from  sire  to  son,  from  age  to 
age,  until  we  by  force  of  party  power  may  free  the  country. 
In  the  name  of  the  common  good  of  Ireland,  its  social  and 
political  interests,  let  the  two  Irish  parties  agree  to  differ  on 
party  principles,  while  emulating  each  other  in  service  to  an 
impoverished  people.  Let  each  endeavor  to  find  points 
upon  which  they  can  agree  instead  of  trying  to  discover 
quibbles  whereon  to  differ.  Let  a  centre-platform  be  adopt- 
ed, resting  on  a  broad,  generous,  and  comprehensive  nation- 
alism, which  will  invite  every  earnest  Irishman  upon  it.  The 
manhood-strength  of  Ireland  would  then  become  an  irresist- 
ible power,  standing  ready  at  its  post,  while  the  whole  Irish 
race,  rallying  to  the  support  of  such  a  platform,  would  cry: 

"We  want  the  land  that  bore  lis! 
We'll  make  that  cry  our  chorus — 
And  we'll  have  it  yet,  though  hard  to  get, 
By  the  heavens  bending  o'er  us! 

"...  Apart  from  the  material  good  which  would  assuredly 
follow  from  such  a  platform  being  adopted,  how  inestimable 
would  be  the  collateral  advantages  that  would  accrue  from 
Irishmen  acting  together,  at  last,  for  some  tangible  common 
benefit  to  be  conferred  upon  themselves  and  their  country? 
The  gradual  but  certain  sweeping  away  of  West  British 
ideas  before  the  advance  of  a  united  national  sentiment ;  the 

132 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

harmonizing  of  the  hitherto  conflicting  elements  in  poUtical 
parties;  the  development  of  our  people's  political  education; 
the  creation  of  a  healthy  and  vigorous  public  spirit,  which 
would  at  once  attract  the  attention  of  foreign  opinion,  and 
concentrate  upon  Ireland  an  international  interest  in  a 
renascent  people  who  can  exert  a  powerful  influence  over  the 
destiny  of  a  declining  empire,  the  prestige  and  power  of 
which  are  obnoxious  to  rival  nations.  Then  the  immense 
impetus  that  would  be  given  to  the  national  cause  in  the 
active  support  of  such  a  practical  policy  by  the  Irish-American 
element  in  this  country,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  whom  have 
heretofore  stood  aloof  from  Ireland's  struggles  because  no 
feasible  plan  had  been  put  before  them  whereby  their  assist- 
ance and  influence  could  be  profitably  employed  in  the  same. 
.  .  .  The  national  party  in  Ireland  has  a  right  to  participate 
in  everything  concerning  the  social  and  political  condition 
of  the  country,  to  compete  with  the  constitutionalist  and 
other  parties  who  cater  for  public  support,  and  to  stamp  in 
this  manner  its  nationalist  convictions  and  principles  on 
everything  Irish  from  a  local  board  of  guardians  to  a  repre- 
sentation in  an  alien  Parliament."^ 

Meanwhile  the  report  of  the  Brooklyn  meeting  on  October 
13th,  and  the  publication  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  the 
message  cabled  by  Mr.  Devoy  and  his  friends  to  Mr.  Parnell, 
had  reached  the  press  in  Ireland,  and  had  occasioned  con- 
siderable public  interest.  The  moderate  nationalist  organs 
criticised,  in  a  friendly  manner,  this  change  of  policy  on  the 
part  of  leading  extremists  in  Irish  America.  It  was  wel- 
comed as  some  indication  that  an  attitude  of  hostile  aloofness 
from  the  constitutional  movement  hitherto  followed  by  ad- 
vanced Irishmen  would  be  changed  into  one  of  friendly 
rivalry  in  common  endeavors  for  the  popular  weal. 

A  contrary  tone  was  adopted  by  two  weekly  papers  which 
were  more  or  less  the  exponents  of  Fenian  sentiment  at  the 
time.  These  were  TJic  Irishman  and  The  Flag  of  Ireland,  both 
owned  by  Richard  Pigott,  of  subsequent  forgery  fame.  They 
were  not  "organs"  of  the  extreme  nationalists,  in  any  official 
sense,  Pigott  never  having  been  a  Fenian  nor  having  any 
authority  to  represent  his  papers  as  the  accredited  mouth- 
piece of  the  revolutionary  party.  He  catered  alike  for 
the  support  of  physical-force  and  moral-force  nationalists, 
but  as  men  of  advanced  opinions  made  his  papers  a  vehicle 
for  the  propaganda  of  their  views,  these  journals  were  con- 
sidered by  the  public  to  be  more  or  less  representative  of 

•Speech  by  Mr.  Davitt;  the  Boston  Pilot,  December  21,  1878. 

^33 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the    principles    which    found    frequent    expression    in    their 
columns. 

Among  those  who  thus  occasionally  utilized  The  IrisJiman 
was  the  late  Mr.  Charles  J.  Kickham.  He  was  very  popular 
among  extreme  men,  and  universally  esteemed  among  all 
classes  of  Irishmen  for  his  fine  character,  literary  and  poetic 
gifts,  and  owing  to  his  imprisonment  as  one  of  James  Stephens's 
lieutenants  in  the  Fenian  movement  in  1865.  It  was  to  Mr. 
Kickham  Devoy  had  cabled  his  proposals  to  Pamell  early 
in  November,  and  in  The  Trishman  for  the  9th  of  that  month 
Mr.  Kickham  attacked  the  whole  proposal  and  the  policy 
which  it  suggested.  He  did  this  in  an  (unsigned)  editorial. 
He  took  the  John  Mitchel  view  that  no  good  but  probably 
harm  could  come  to  Ireland  from  parliamentarianism,  and 
scouted  the  proposed  new  departure  as  contrary  to  advanced 
nationalist  principles,  mischievous,  and  demoralizing.  This 
line  of  opposition  was  followed  week  after  week  by  other  but 
less  influential  extremists  and  many  anonymous  critics,  who 
strongly  assailed  Devoy  and  myself  for  weakness  or  treachery, 
or  both,  in  suggesting  that  nationalists  who  favored  total 
separation  should  identify  themselves  actively  with  moral- 
force  agitators.  It  was  the  attitude  already  alluded  to  as 
that  of  honest  but  narrow-minded  men  who  were  held  in  the 
grip  of  a  strong  prejudice,  which  begat  an  equally  stubborn 
antipathy  to  methods  of  advancing  the  general  national 
cause  which  did  not  harmonize  with  the  media  of  conspiracy. 
Mr.  Kickham  was  well  qualified  to  take  a  much  broader 
view  than  other  opponents  of  the  new  policy,  while  his 
hostility  was  in  no  sense  due  to  any  want  of  sympathy  with 
the  cause  of  the  tenant  -  farmers.  He  convinced  himself, 
however,  that  any  co-operation  between  extreme  and  mod- 
erate nationalists,  in  any  line  of  public  action,  would  work 
injury  to  the  revolutionary  cause  without  winning  any  sub- 
stantial advantage  for  the  country,  and  this  stand,  honestly 
taken  by  a  man  of  singular  earnestness  and  sincerity,  de- 
termined the  policy  of  other  revolutionary  leaders,  and  secured 
the  rejection  by  them  of  the  proposed  new  departure. 

This  discussion  in  the  columns  of  Pigott's  papers  was 
calculated  to  do  much  harm,  and  Mr.  Devoy  addressed  a 
long  and  ably  written  letter  to  the  Freeman'' s  Journal  in 
reply  to  his  critics.  It  appeared  on  December  27th,  and  made 
a  most  favorable  impression  by  the  sound  sense  and  strong 
reasoning  in  which  he  defended  his  proposals,  and  the  broad- 
minded,  progressive  views  in  which  he  supported  the  new 
policy  as  against  what  he  termed  "the  rat-hole  methods  of 
conspiracy." 

134 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

In  this  and  in  a  subsequent  press  discussion  arising  out  of 
the  same  proposals  Pigott  took  the  side  of  the  opposition. 
He  virtuously  assailed  the  unprincipled  promoters  of  such 
an  anti-national  scheme,  and  finally,  in  a  letter  to  the  Free- 
man, disposed  of  them  and  of  their  plans  in  the  following 
words:  "Mr.  Davitt  being  successful  to  a  limited  extent  in 
the  United  States,  he  considered  there  was  nothing  further 
to  be  done  than  to  foist  the  shapeless  abortion  on  Ireland. 
But, unhappily,  despite  the  able  aid  of  his  assistant  accoucheur, 
Mr.  Devoy,  it  was  stillborn.  Tremendous  preparations  were 
made  to  usher  it  into  the  world  of  Irish  politics,  but,  alas!  it 
did  not  survive.  The  light  of  day  was  too  much  for  it ;  it  was 
only  born  to  expire.  Hardly  a  voice  of  the  least  influence 
has  been  heard  in  Ireland  to  sustain  'the  new  departure,' 
and  now  it  has  passed  into  the  region  of  things  forgotten ;  its 
name  is  hardly  ever  mentioned.  This  result  has  been  created 
by  The  Irishman,  and  hence  the  rage  of  Messrs.  Davitt  and 
Devoy." 

Within  three  years  the  miserable  writer  of  this  attack  had 
vanished  from  The  Irishman;  a  year  later  he  was  offering 
information  to  Dublin  Castle;  in  1886  he  forged  Mr.  Parnell's 
name,  and  in  1888  he  committed  suicide  in  Madrid  to 
escape  imprisonment  for  his  crime. 

The  opposition  given  to  the  new  policy  in  his  papers  by 
better  men  had,  however,  done  its  work,  and  the  revolution- 
ary part)^  became  antagonistic  both  to  the  proposed  widening 
of  the  sphere  of  action  of  advanced  nationalists  and  Mr. 
Devoy's  suggested  union  between  the  physical-force  body  in 
America  and  Mr.  Parnell's  wing  of  the  moral-force  movement. 
All  the  then  recognized  Fenian  leaders  in  Ireland  repudiated 
the  policy,  in  the  transparently  honest  belief  that  while  it 
might  in  some  way  serve  the  purpose  of  open  agitation,  it 
could  only  in  their  belief  result  in  seducing  men  from  the 
extreme  to  the  constitutional  movement.  Mr.  Devoy  crossed 
from  America  to  defend  the  position  he  had  taken  up,  but 
after  a  long  consideration  of  the  matter  before  the  elected 
council  of  the  Fenian  organization,  he  and  the  writer  were 
found  to  be  the  only  advocates  of  the  new  policy  within 
that  body.  This  was  keenly  discouraging.  It  upset  a  long- 
cherished  hope  of  rendering  the  revolutionary  movement 
the  real,  active  force  in  Irish  public  life,  and  for  bringing  all 
nationalist  elements  into  a  struggle  against  the  pro-British 
faction  of  landlords  and  office-seekers  who  owned  and  govern- 
ed Ireland.  The  fault  of  the  scheme  really  lay  in  the  fact  that 
it  was  too  truly  revolutionary  to  recommend  itself  to  the 
political  thought  and  intelligence  of  men  who  could  only 

135 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

reconcile  the  word  with  the  methods  and  object  of  a  secret 
society,  and  whose  conception  of  the  work  for  which  the  term 
stood  was  restricted  in  meaning  to  an  armed  uprising  under 
some  favoring  circumstance  against  Enghsh  rule. 

But,  as  already  pointed  out,  the  majority  of  separatists 
really  lay  outside  the  ranks  of  the  revolutionary  body,  while 
members  who  suffered  in  common  with  other  fellow-country- 
men from  the  evils  of  the  landlord  system  could  be  reckoned 
upon  also  for  encouragement  and  support.  There  were,  like- 
wise, men  like  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan  and  Mr.  Patrick  Egan, 
of  Dublin,  ex-Fenian  leaders  and  associates  with  Mr.  John 
Nolan  in  the  Amnesty  Association,  who  wielded  much  influ- 
ence in  nationalist  circles,  and  who  had  already  promised 
adhesion  to  the  new  departure.  The  guiding  spirits  of  the 
Home-Rule  Confederation  of  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Parnell's  ex- 
tremist supporters,  were  also  of  the  new  revolutionary  way 
of  thinking.  With,  therefore,  a  promised  and  potential  back- 
ing of  this  kind,  and  the  hope  that  the  working-classes,  espe- 
cially the  agricultural  laborers,  would  join  in  the  proposed 
solution  of  a  great  economic  and  social  problem,  the  loss  of 
official  revolutionary  help,  though  deeply  regretted,  was  in  no 
way  fatal  to  the  chances  of  the  projected  movement. 

Looking  back  at  this  circumstance  through  the  light  of  the 
past  twenty-four  years'  experience,  it  is,  perhaps,  fortunate 
that  the  direction  of  the  agitation  which  has  dethroned  land- 
lordism and  shaken  Dublin-Castle  rule  to  its  foundations  was 
not  taken  in  hand  by  those  under  whose  guidance  it  would 
have  fallen.  Neither  by  temperament  nor  capacity  were 
they  men  capable  of  controlling  such  a  revolutionary  spirit  as 
was  evoked  by  the  legal  and  illegal  insurrection  of  the  Land 
League.  They  were  not  "  built "  that  way,  to  use  an  expressive 
American  word.  Still,  on  the  other  hand,  the  intense  earnest- 
ness of  purpose,  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  utter  unselfish- 
ness, which  have  been  the  qualities  conspicuous  in  the  great 
majority  of  active  Fenians,  would  have  been  a  source  of  much 
strength  and  prestige  to  the  league.  An  active  exercise  of 
these  qualities  in  the  work  of  the  land  movement  would 
have  prevented  the  friction  and  casual  opposition  which  sub- 
sequently occurred  to  the  injury  alike  of  the  league  and  the 
extremist  organization. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Parnell  was  rapidly  gaining  ground  in  his 
progress  towards  the  leadership  of  the  Home-Rule  agitation. 
According  to  his  evidence  before  the  special  commission  of 
1887,  he  paid  very  little  attention  to  the  "new-departure" 
controversy  in  the  Dublin  press  at  the  time.  Up  to  the  date 
of  the  Irishtown  meeting  there  had  been  no  real  development 

136 


THE    NEW    DEPARTURE 

which  promised  any  practical  results  or  made  any  direct  ap- 
peal to  him  for  recognition.  He  had,  however,  commenced 
to  give  more  attention  to  the  land  question  in  his  speeches. 
He  appeared  to  hesitate  between  the  "Three  F's"  programme 
of  Mr.  Butt  (embodied  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  the  Land  Act  of 
1881)  and  the  radical  solution  of  complete  landlord  expro- 
priation. Speaking  in  Tralee,  on  November  15,  1878,  he  put 
forward  both  these  plans  of  settlement  in  a  manner  so  cautious 
that  it  would  leave  him  free  to  support  consistently  whichever 
scheme  the  country  might  make  up  its  mind  to  prefer.  He 
said: 

"At  the  same  time  they  had  this  landlord  system  existing 
in  Ireland  and  in  England — about  the  only  two  countries  in 
the  world  where  it  did  exist,  and  he  thought  they  were  bound 
to  make  the  best  of  it.  The  law  gave  those  landlords  exten- 
sive power  at  the  present  time,  and  unless  they  went  in  for  a 
revolution  he  confessed  he  did  not  see  how  they  were  going  to 
bring  about  a  radical  reform  of  the  system  of  land  tenure  in 
this  country.  For  his  own  part,  therefore,  he  was  disposed 
to  devote  his  energies  to  endeavoring  to  obtain  a  settlement 
on  the  basis  laid  down  by  Mr.  Butt's  Fixity  of  Tenure  Bill  as 
introduced  in  1876.  If  after  a  time  they  found  that  by  the 
extension  of  the  principles  of  the  Bright  clauses  of  the  Land 
Act  (and  he  might  tell  them  that  he  hoped  for  very  important 
results  from  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  which 
sat  last  session  upon  this  question  of  the  Bright  clauses) — 
if  after  a  time  by  extending  that  principle  they  found  they 
could  enable  all  the  tenants  of  properties  which  came  for  sale 
into  the  Landed  Estates  Court  to  purchase  their  holdings,  they 
might  be  preparing  the  way  perhaps  some  day  for  a  radical 
alteration  of  the  land  system,  and  for  the  establishment  of 
what  he  believed  to  be  the  true  system  of  land  tenure — the 
proprietorship  of  the  soil  by  the  people  who  cultivated  it. 
But  until  that  time  came,  if  it  ever  did  come — and  there  was 
no  reason  why  they  should  not  all  work  to  bring  it  about — 
until  then  it  was  their  bounden  duty  to  amend  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's Land  Act,  either  by  bringing  in  a  supplementary  bill 
such  as  Mr.  Butt's,  or  by  an  amendment  of  the  act  itself;  and 
he  confessed  he  doubted  that  it  could  ever  be  amended  in  such 
a  way  as  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  fixity  of  tenure  at  fair 
rents  until  the  time  came  when  perhaps  a  radical  change 
might  be  made."  ^ 

'  Freeman's  Journal,  Dublin,  November  16,  1878. 
137 


PART     III 

THE  LAND  LEAGUE  TO  THE  SPECIAL 
COMMISSION 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE     IRISHTOWN     MEETING 

Mr.  Butt  had  framed  and  introduced  a  land  bill  in  the 
session  of  1876  on  the  lines  of  fixity  of  tenure  and  fair  rents, 
with  the  Ulster  custom  of  free  sale  for  tenant  right  to  be  ex- 
tended to  all  farmers.  It  was  a  moderate  bill,  intended  to 
amend  the  defects  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  Land  Act  (1870) 
on  points  which  the  Irish  land  reformers  of  the  time  believed 
would  solve  the  agrarian  problem.  The  bill  was  rejected,  but 
the  discussion  upon  it  was  re-echoed  at  meetings  of  tenants' 
defence  associations  in  Dublin,  Limerick,  and  Cork;  small 
bodies  of  farmers  who  met  occasionally  and  passed  resolutions, 
under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Butt,  for  a  redress  of  the  griev- 
ances of  their  class. 

In  this  year  an  attempt  was  made  to  shoot  the  land  agent 
of  an  English  landlord  who  had  bought  a  property  that  had 
been  a  portion  of  the  Kingston  estate.  The  outrage  occurred 
near  Mitchelstown,  County  Cork,  and  created  a  sensation, 
mainly  from  the  fact  that  the  shot  intended  for  the  agent  had 
killed  the  driver  of  his  car.  The  London  Standard,  in  referring 
to  the  crime,  called  it  an  instance  of  "  infamous  bad  shooting," 
a  comment  which  may  possibly  have  suggested  to  the  inno- 
cently logical  mind  of  Mr.  Joseph  Biggar  the  remark,  made  by 
him  some  time  subsequently,  that  he  disapproved  of  the  prac- 
tice of  firing  at  landlords,  because  the  driver,  a  perfectly  inno- 
cent person,  was  sometimes  shot  by  accident. 

A  libel  case  arose  during  the  following  year  out  of  this 
outrage,  a  local  Fenian  leader,  Mr.  Sarsfield  Casey,  having 
written  letters  to  the  press  accusing  the  fortunate  agent  of 
the  Buckly  property  of  being  guilty  of  excessively  harsh  and 
tyrannous  conduct  towards  the  poorer  class  of  tenants,  who 
rented  small  holdings  on  the  barren  slopes  of  the  Galtee  Moun- 
tains. Mr.  Casey  gave  a  graphic  account  of  the  misery  and 
suffering  of  these  tenants  and  the  rack-renting  of  their  hill- 
side farms,  and  his  letters  created  a  wide-spread  interest. 
Mr.  Patten  S.  Bridge,  the  agent  of  the  estate,  proceeded 
against  Mr.  Casey  for  defamation  of  character.     The  trial 

141 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

lasted  for  eight  days  in  Dublin,  Mr.  Isaac  Butt  being  counsel 
for  the  defendant.  Several  tenants  from  the  wild  regions  of 
the  Galtees  had  been  examined  for  the  defence,  and  their 
stories  of  hardship,  of  unremitting  toil,  of  the  carrying  of  lime 
and  manure  on  the  backs  of  men  and  boys  up  the  steep  moun- 
tain-side to  fertilize  land  which  had  paid  little  or  no  rent  before 
the  advent  of  Mr.  Buckly,  created  such  a  feeling  against  the 
landlord  system  in  the  minds  of  the  jury  that  they  disagreed, 
the  result  being  equal  to  an  acquittal.  It  was  a  triumph  for 
popular  feeling  over  the  legal  forces  which  upheld  the  land- 
lord system.  Commercialism  in  land  had  resorted  to  uncon- 
scionable rack-renting  in  this  as  in  most  other  instances,  under 
a  law  that  virtually  made  the  tillers  of  the  soil  mere  rent-pro- 
ducers for  the  profit  of  the  speculating  landlord  who  had  pur- 
chased the  property.  The  law  was  for  the  owner,  but  the 
moral  equities  and  the  popular  conscience  were  on  the  other 
side,  and  the  anti-landlord  case  triumphed.  Mr,  Casey,  who 
had  served  a  short  sentence  for  Fenianism  previously,  was 
hailed  as  a  small  David  who  had  brought  down  a  landlord 
Goliath,  and  was  elected  coroner  for  the  district  a  short  time 
afterwards,  in  popular  recognition  of  his  services  to  the  Galtee 
Mountain  tenants. 

The  honor  of  thus  dragging  the  worst  evils  of  the  landlord 
system  once  more  into  public  light  and  of  subjecting  it  to 
the  penalties  of  a  moral  defeat  belonged  to  a  recognized 
local  Fenian  leader.  Mr.  Butt's  unequalled  pleading  and 
remorseless  exposure  of  the  injustices  done  to  the  tillers  of 
the  soil  gained  half  the  victory;  but  the  credit  of  having 
struck  the  blow  which  brought  the  case  into  court  was  due 
to  Mr.  Casey.  He  was  a  man  of  considerable  literary  gifts, 
and  had  been  an  occasional  contributor  to  The  Irish  People, 
James  Stephens's  organ,  under  the  nom  de  plume  of  "The 
Galtee  Boy."  His  services  to  the  land  movement  in  his 
contest  with  the  agent  of  the  Buckly  estate  ought  not  to  be 
forgotten  by  the  peasantry  of  his  native  county. 

Scarcely  had  the  echoes  of  the  shot  fired  at  Mr.  Patten 
Bridge  died  out  of  public  memory  before  another  and  a  more 
sensational  crime  startled  the  country.  In  April,  1878,  Lord 
Leitrim  and  two  servants  were  assassinated  while  driving  near 
Milford,  in  County  Donegal.  The  attendants  were  guards,  or 
protectors,  who  accompanied  their  employer,  and  these  were 
killed  in  the  desperate  resolve  of  the  assailants  to  settle  ac- 
counts with  the  landlord.  He  had,  it  was  said,  earned  an  evil 
reputation  in  the  management  of  his  estate,  being  suspected, 
among  other  acts  of  oppression,  of  using  his^power  over  the 
tenants  for   designs   against   the   honor   of   their  daughters. 

142 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

This  was  no  isolated  instance  of  Irish  landlord  attempts  to 
exercise  a  privilege  akin  to  the  infamous  droits  des  seigneurs 
which  had  helped  to  precipitate  the  French  Revolution  and 
to  bring  the  heads  of  some  of  the  libertine  noblesse  under  the 
knife  of  the  avenging  guillotine.  This  power  was  an  inevi- 
table infamy  of  a  social  economic  system  under  which  a  family 
could  be  deprived  of  its  means  of  livelihood  and  turned  adrift 
from  its  home,  or  otherwise  ruined,  at  the  will  of  the  landlord; 
the  law,  as  the  mere  creature  of  this  privileged  order,  conniv- 
ing at  the  excesses  of  the  class  who  ruled  the  country  because 
they  owned  the  land. 

Lord  Leitrim  had  not  the  best  of  reputations  in  this  or  in 
any  other  respect  as  a  land-owner,  and  he  fell  a  victim,  it  is 
said,  to  the  revenge  of  a  farmer's  son  whose  sister  had  suffered 
an  unforgivable  wrong.  Several  persons  were  arrested  on 
suspicion  of  being  implicated  in  the  crime,  but  the  real  per- 
petrators were  never  discovered,  though  I  have  been  assured 
by  one  who  was  well  qualified  to  offer  an  opinion  on  the  mat- 
ter that  "the  whole  country-side"  knew  the  persons  who  did 
the  deed.  It  was  considered  by  the  peasantry  as  an  act  of 
war,  a  resort  to  retahatory  justice  where  no  civic  redress 
could  be  obtained  by  an  appeal  to  a  class  law.  It  was  a  deed 
of  savagery,  it  is  true,  deliberately  resolved  upon  and  executed, 
just  as  many  a  similar  crime  had  reddened  with  the  stain  of 
murder  the  records  of  this  same  agrarian  struggle.  Every 
tenant  in  Ulster  knew  and  felt  that  it  was  by  acts  of  this  kind 
that  the  oppression  of  landlordism  was  kept  within  bounds 
and  the  homes  of  the  peasantry  were  rendered  more  or  less 
secure  against  the  fate  of  eviction.  This  was  why  the  per- 
sons who  killed  Lord  Leitrim  and  his  guards  were  never  dis- 
covered or  punished  by  the  law. 

This  savage  act  was  the  subject  of  a  fierce  debate  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Attempts  were  made  by  landlord  mem- 
bers to  disparage  Irish  peasant  character  over  the  crime. 
This  provoked  Mr.  Parnell's  small  party  into  a  discussion  of 
the  whole  facts  relating  to  the  unfortunate  nobleman's  life 
and  estate  management,  the  result  being  an  expose  which  told 
heavily  in  the  public  mind  against  a  social  system  that  was 
considered  the  main  bulwark  of  English  rule  in  Ireland.  The 
deed  in  question  had  lifted  once  more  the  veil  which  hid  from 
the  view  of  the  British  public  the  feudal  power  wielded  by 
Irish  landlordism  and  the  fierce  passions  which  its  exercise 
was  liable  to  enkindle  in  the  minds  of  peasant  victims.  The 
revelation  was  not  a  surprise  in  Ireland.  The  character  and 
history  of  landlordism  was  a  too  familiar  theme  in  every  peas- 
ant mind  and  home.     But  the  story  of  the  killing  of  Lord 

143 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Leitrim,  and  the  chapter  of  Irish  social  misery  and  wrong  to 
the  discussion  of  which  it  led  the  House  of  Commons,  were 
warnings  given  to  the  assembly  which  first  sanctioned  the 
CromweUian  Act  of  Settlement  that  the  long  revolt  of  Celtic 
Ireland  against  this  English  land  system  was  soon  to  carry 
its  warfare  into  the  arena  of  this  same  House  of  Commons. 
A  bad  harvest  in  1878,  following  an  indifferent  one  in  1877, 
and  a  marked  falling  off  in  agricultural  prices,  caused  serious 
apprehension  to  Irish  tenants  in  the  spring  of  1879  for  their 
prospects  should  this  condition  of  things  not  improve.     The 
importation  of  food-stuffs  from  the  United  States,  Canada, 
and  elsewhere  was  also  rapidly  increasing  in  Ireland's   only 
market  for  her  surplus  produce,  Great  Britain,  and  she  was 
met  in  this  market  with  meat,  grain,  butter,  and  eggs  grown 
upon  American  or  European  soil  for  which  little  if  any  rent 
was  paid.     The  owners  of  this  foreign  land  were  its  cultiva- 
tors.    The  rent  -  burden  was  no  obstacle  to  the  full  exercise 
of  their  energies  and  enterprise  in  the  industry  of  their  calling. 
They  were  secure  against  every  power,  caprice,  and  exaction 
which  discouraged  and  taxed  the  labor  of  the  Irish  food  pro- 
ducer, and  this  fact  brought  home  to  the  public  mind  again, 
■i   what  periods  of  depression  had  often  done  before,  the  great 
economic  evil  which  the  landlord  system  was  to  Ireland  and 
the  intolerable  injustice  that  lay  in  the  power  of  a  land-owner 
to  impose  an  unfair  rent  upon  a  farmer's  holding.     It  was  the 
evidence  of  a  great  economic  truth  tendered  by  circumstance 
in  support  of  a  movement  which  the  facts  of  the  situation  im- 
peratively called  for  at  the  time, 
r     The  county  of  Mayo  had  suffered  more  from  the  manifold 
evils  of  the  landlord  system  than  any  other  Irish  county.     It 
had  lost  more  of  its  population,  had  experienced  more  evic- 
tions, had  witnessed  more  "clearances,"  possessed  a  greater 
number  of  people  on  the  border-line  of  starvation,  and  had 
more  paupers  in  proportion  to  the  population  than  any  of  its 
i  sister  counties.    In  a  period  of  thirty  years  its  inhabited  dwell- 
ings had  decreased  over  twenty-five  thousand  in  number,  and 
yet  there  had  been  no  corresponding  improvement  in  the  con- 
^.  ditions  of  the  enormously  reduced  numbers  of  land-workers 
;  who  remained.     The  explanation  was  this:    cattle  and  not 
labor  were  placed  on  the  lands  from  which  the  cultivators 
had  been  evicted  since  1849,  while  the  diminished  population 
were  crowded  in  upon  the  poorer  soils  of  the  county.     This, 
however,  was  only  half  the  evil.     The  reclaimed  bog-land,  or 
mountain-side,  onto  which  the  people  who  could  not  emigrate 
were  compelled  to  migrate,  was  rack-rented  in  defiance  of  all 
economic  or  equitable  principles.     Without  the  labor  which 

144 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

alone  reclaimed  such  soil  and  kept  it  in  a  state  of  cultivation, 
it  could  not  produce  a  shilling  of  rent  per  acre.  Rent  for  such 
land  was,  therefore,  sheer  robbery,  sanctioned  by  law,  and 
evictions  carried  out  for  arrears  of  such  legal  blackmail,  in 
seasons  of  distress,  differed  in  one  sense  only  from  the  common 
crime  of  house-breaking — the  law  in  one  case  punished  the 
common  burglar  for  invading  a  citizen's  home  and  stealing  his 
property,  while  in  the  other  case  the  law  made  itself  the  in- 
strument of  wrong  and  oppression  at  the  instance  of  the  land- 
lord. This,  at  any  rate,  was  the  untutored  view  of  the  Celtic 
cottier  and  tenant  of  Mayo,  and  hence  the  certainty  with 
which  every  movement  or  agitation  against  landlordism  found 
its  readiest  recruits  in  the  part  of  Ireland  that  of  her  thirty- 
two  counties  had  perhaps  the  bitterest  experience  of  all  the 
wrongs  and  privations,  losses  and  trials  that  have  followed  in 
the  trail  of  this  system  since  the  fatal  hour  in  which  it  came 
to  inflict  the  country  with  its  social  warfare,  poverty,  and 
crime. 
^Except  during  the  epidemic  of  national  cowardice  which 
was  common  to  all  Ireland  at  the  period  of  the  great  famine, 
Mayo  was  no  tame  sufferer  under  landlordism.  \  She  played 
her  part  in  every  phase  of  the  land  war  waged  by  the  despoiled 
Celt  for  the  recovery  of  his  confiscated  soil.  Whether  in 
secret  combination  or  in  open  action,  a  section  of  her  people 
were  always  found  in  the  fray.  Whiteboyism,  Steelboys, 
Thrashers,  and  Ribbonmen  had  each  their  active  adherents 
among  the  Mayo  peasantry  in  times  of  agrarian  troubles. 
These  societies  were  the  only  protectors  of  the  people.  Where 
they  failed  to  prevent  acts  of  oppression  on  the  part  of  land- 
lord or  agent,  they  frequently  avenged  the  eviction  of  a  family 
or  the  grabbing  of  a  holding  in  some  deed  of  violence  against 
the  authors  of  this  wrong. 

In  the  legal  agitations  for  reform  the  county  was  also  well 
represented.  The  late  Mr.  George  Henry  Moore,  though  him- 
self a  Mayo  landlord,  was  a  loyal  member  of  Gavan  Duffy's 
Tenant  League  party  in  the  fifties.  He  was  a  moderate  but 
earnest  land-reformer,  and  remained  an  advocate  of  Duffy's 
proposals  after  the  break-up  of  the  party  following  the  Sad- 
lier-Keogh  treachery. 

Father  Lavelle,  of  Partry,  was  in  his  day  a  militant  tenant- 
righter.  He  attacked  a  local  landlord  from  the  altar  and  in 
the  press  for  alleged  proselytism  through  the  terrors  of  threat- 
ened evictions  and  rack-rents.  The  publication  by  him  of 
facts  relating  to  the  poverty  of  the  people  in  and  around  the 
Mount  Partry  district  of  Mayo  aroused  the  sympathies  of  the 
then  Bishop  of  Orleans,  Monsignor  Dupanloup,  who  on  one 
lo  145 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

occasion  preached  a  sermon  in  one  of  the  Paris  churches  upon 
the  subject  of  the  Partry  tenants  and  their  sufferings.  A 
princess  of  the  Bonaparte  family  and  other  titled  ladies  took 
up  a  collection  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers.  So  great  was 
the  sensation  caused  by  this  sermon  that  the  then  British 
ambassador  at  Paris  protested  to  the  French  government 
against  Bishop  Dupanloup's  action. 

Father  Lavelle  wrote  a  work  on  the  Irish  land  question  in 
1870,  under  the  title,  Irish  Landlordism  Since  the  Revolution. 
It  was  found  very  useful  by  speakers  at  Western  meetings 
during  the  subsequent  Land  League  movement,  and  was 
often  quoted  from  on  public  platforms. 

In  1874  Mr.  John  O'Connor  Power  was  elected  one  of  the 
members  for  Mayo.  He  was  one  of  Mr.  Pamell's  obstruc- 
tionist party,  and  he  at  once  interested  himself  actively  in 
the  social  condition  of  the  Western  peasantry.  He  was  the 
only  member  of  Parliament  invited  to  or  who  attended  the 
historic  Irishtown  meeting,  which  began  the  land  agitation 
out  of  which  the  Land  League  movement  grew. 
y^  This  demonstration  was  organized  as  follows:  After  my 
return  from  America,  in  December,  1878, 1  visited  most  parts 
of  my  native  county  and  portions  of  Connemara  and  North 
Galway  in  company  with  Mr.  John  W.  Walshe,  of  Balla, 
County  Mayo.  In  this  tour  I  had  opportunities  of  meeting 
all  the  local  leaders  and  those  of  the  priests  who  took  an 
active  interest  in  national  politics.  Early  in  1879,  as  al- 
ready mentioned,  the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  Irish 
tenant  -  farmers  were  topics  of  general  public  interest  and 
discussion,  and  I  found  farmers,  business-men,  and  others  in 
the  West  intelligently  anxious  about  the  outlook,  and  all 
eager  to  take  part  in  any  movement  that  might  promise 
some  hope  of  a  relief  from  excessive  rents.  In  the  month 
of  March  I  happened  to  be  in  Claremorris,  County  Mayo, 
where  I  was  introduced  to  a  few  tenants  from  the  Irish- 
town  district.  They  complained  of  their  heavy  rents,  and 
gave  me  the  following  facts  and  figures  to  sustain  their 
case : 

The  old  landlord  of  Quinaltagh,  a  townland  near  the  village 
of  Irishtown,  was  a  Mr.  R.  Kirwan.  His  estate  was  pur- 
chased in  1857  by  one  Walter  Burke.  The  new  landlord 
doubled  the  old  rent  immediately  on  the  twenty-two  tenants 
of  the  property,  and  in  addition  fined  each  a  half-year's 
rental  with  the  alternative  of  eviction.  Some  of  the  land 
was  of  poor  quality,  and  the  increased  rents  could  only  be 
paid  by  the  smaller  tenants  out  of  remittances  from  relatives 
in  America. 

146 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

Early  in  1879  Mr.  Burke  died.  All  the  tenants  on  the 
estate  were  in  arrears.  The  executor  under  the  landlord's 
will  was  his  brother,  the  late  Rev.  Geoffrey  Canon  Burke,  ot 
Irishtown.  It  was  represented  to  me  by  the  tenants  that 
the  executor  had  threatened  to  dispossess  them  unless  the 
arrears  were  paid,  while  they  complained  that  because  he 
was  a  clergyman  they  could  not  obtain  a  hearing  for  their 
case  in  the  local  press.  It  was  likewise  reported  that  the 
bailiff  or  agent  for  the  property  had  resigned  his  post  rather 
than  carry  out  the  instructions  given  to  him  to  proceed 
against  the  tenants  for  the  rents  then  due. 

On  consulting  with  Mr.  John  Walshe,  Mr.  John  O'Kane,  and 
a  few  other  nationalists  in  Claremorris,  it  was  resolved,  on 
my  suggestion,  to  hold  a  meeting  in  Irishtown,  to  protest 
against  the  action  of  Canon  Burke,  to  demand  a  reduction 
of  rents,  and  to  denounce  the  whole  landlord  system.  The 
late  Mr.  P.  W.  Nally,  of  Balla,  a  fine  type  of  young  Mayo 
yeoman,  and,  like  O'Kane,  a  Fenian,  volunteered  his  influence 
and  help,  and  all  the  necessary  arrangements  were  made  to 
hold  a  large  demonstration  on  Sunday,  April  19th.  The  task 
of  collecting  the  audience  was  left  in  the  hands  of  Messrs. 
Nally,  O'Kane,  Walshe,  J.  P.  Quin,  and  a  few  others,  while 
I  undertook  to  find  speakers,  and  prepare  the  necessary  res- 
olutions. Mr.  Thomas  Brennan,  of  Dublin,  subsequently 
secretary  of  the  Land  League;  Mr.  John  O'Connor  Power, 
member  for  the  county,  and  Mr.  John  Ferguson,  of  Glasgow, 
a  veteran  land  reformer  and  Home  -  Ruler,  accepted  invita- 
tions to  attend.  Mr.  James  Daly,  of  Castlebar,  proprietor  of 
a  local  newspaper  and  an  active  local  leader,  was  selected  as 
chairman,  while  Mr.  J.J.  Louden,  of  Westport,  a  local  barrister, 
was  also  a  speaker. 

The  meeting  was  a  great  success.  Fully  seven  thousand 
people  were  present,  while  upward  of  five  hundred  mounted 
men  acted  as  a  body-guard  for  the  speakers.  The  resolutions 
and  some  of  the  speeches  were  on  the  lines  of  the  new-de- 
parture proposals,  and  they  voiced  the  spirit  and  sentiments 
on  the  land  question  which  characterized  the  subsequent 
Land-League  meetings.  Owing  to  the  important  part  played 
in  the  final  struggle  against  landlordism  by  this  meeting,  it 
will  not  be  out  of  place  to  give  short  extracts  from  the  three 
speeches  which  opened  the  new  campaign  in  Mayo.  These 
utterances  at  this  initial  gathering  indicated  the  three  view- 
points from  which  the  land  question  has  been  discussed  in 
the  country  since  then  :  the  semi  -  revolutionary  (or  root- 
and-branch  settlement)  line  of  Fintan  Lalor  and  John 
Mitchel,  taken  by  Mr.  Brennan;  the  constitutional  and  par- 

147 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

liamentarian,  adopted  by  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  and  the 
strictly  economic  treatment  of  the  problem  by  Mr.  John 
Ferguson. 

The  resolutions  were  as  follows: 

"  I.  Whereas,  the  social  condition  of  the  Irish  people 
having  been  reduced,  through  their  subjection  to  England 
and  its  coercive  legislation,  to  a  state  below  that  of  any 
civilized  country  in  the  world;  and  whereas,  the  mouth-piece 
of  English  public  opinion  when  speaking  of  continental  mis- 
government  in  late  years  having  declared  that  'government 
should  be  for  the  good  of  the  governed,  and  that  whatever 
rulers  will  fully  and  persistently  postpone  the  good  of  their 
subjects  either  in  the  interests  of  foreign  states,  or  to  assist 
theories  of  religion  or  politics,  such  rulers  have  thereby 
forfeited  all  claim  to  allegiance';  be  it  therefore  resolved, 
that  we  Irishmen  assembled  to-day  in  our  thousands  do 
hereby  endorse  the  foregoing  declarations  as  embodying  the 
position  and  wrongs  of  our  misgoverned  and  impoverished 
country,  and  as  likewise  affording  us  a  justification  for  re- 
cording our  unceasing  determination  to  resort  to  every 
lawful  means  whereby  our  inalienable  rights — political  and 
social — can  be  regained  from  our  enemies. 

"2.  That  as  the  land  of  Ireland,  like  that  of  every  other 
country,  was  intended  by  a  just  and  all-providing  God  for  the 
use  and  sustenance  of  those  of  His  people  to  whom  he  gave 
inclination  and  energies  to  cultivate  and  improve  it,  any  sys- 
tem which  sanctions  its  monopoly  by  a  privileged  class,  or  as- 
signs its  ownership  and  control  to  a  landlord  caste,  to  be  used 
as  an  instrument  of  usurious  or  political  self-seeking,  de- 
mands from  every  aggrieved  Irishman  an  undying  hostility, 
being  flagrantly  opposed  to  the  first  principle  of  their  hu- 
manity— self-preservation . ' ' 

3.  A  resolution  demanding  a  reduction  in  unjust  rents  by 
local  and  Mayo  landlords. 

Mr.  Thomas  Brennan  said: 

"I  will  not  tell  you  what  my  opinions  are  as  to  the  best 
means  by  which  this  state  of  things  can  be  changed.  I  am 
but  a  student  on  this  great  question,  and  there  are  some  dis- 
tinguished authorities  on  it  to  follow  me;  but  I  will  tell  you 
that  I  have  read  some  history,  and  I  find  that  several  coun- 
tries have  from  time  to  time  been  afflicted  with  the  same 
land  disease  as  that  under  which  Ireland  is  now  laboring,  and 
although  the  political  doctors  applied  many  remedies,  the 
one  that  proved  effectual  was  the  tearing  out,  root  and  branch, 
of  the  class  that  caused  the  disease.  All  right-thinking  men 
would  deplore  the  necessity  of  having  recourse  in  this  country 

148 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

to  scenes  such  as  have  been  enacted  in  other  lands,  although  I 
for  one  will  not  hold  up  my  hands  in  holy  horror  at  a  move- 
ment that  gave  liberty  not  only  to  France  but  to  Europe.  If 
excesses  were  at  that  time  committed,  they  must  be  measured 
by  the  depth  of  slavery  and  ignorance  in  which  the  people 
had  been  kept,  and  I  trust  Irish  landlords  will  in  time  rec- 
ognize the  fact  that  it  is  better  for  them  at  least  to  have 
this  land  question  settled  after  the  manner  of  a  Stein  or  a 
Hardenberg  than  wait  for  the  excesses  of  a  Marat  or  a  Robes- 
pierre. The  Irish  people  have  often  been  charged  with 
being  very  sentimental.  They  say  all  our  grievances  are 
sentimental.  Well,  I  trust  the  day  will  never  come  when  all 
sentiment  will  be  crushed  in  the  Irish  heart.  But  this  is  no 
mere  sentimental  question;  it  is  one  on  which  your  very 
existence  depends,  and  any  change  in  the  government  of 
Ireland  that  would  not  also  change  the  present  relations  be- 
tween landlord  and  tenant  would  be  a  mere  mockery  of 
freedom.  You  may  get  a  federal  parliament,  perhaps 
Repeal  of  the  Union — nay,  more,  you  may  establish  an  Irish 
republic,  but  as  long  as  the  tillers  of  the  soil  are  forced  to 
support  a  useless  and  indolent  aristocracy,  your  federal 
parliament  would  be  but  a  bauble  and  your  Irish  republic 
but  a  fraud.  .  .  .  There  is  an  opportunity  for  every  Irishman, 
no  matter  how  moderate  or  how  extreme  may  be  his  views, 
to  work  for  Ireland ;  and  in  the  combined  energy  and  unceas- 
ing labor  of  all  classes  of  Irishmen  lies  the  hope  of  the  national 
cause.  Let  you  continue  the  struggle  in  your  own  way, 
avoiding  all  brag  and  bluster,  on  the  one  hand — men  who 
are  determined  will  prove  their  determination  by  deeds  and 
not  by  words — and  all  semblance  of  fear  on  the  other; 

"Be  our  people  then  still  daring, 
Bold  in  word  and  brave  in  fight. 
And  when  comes  the  day  of  trial, 
Then  may  God  defend  the  right!" 

Mr.  O'Connor  Power  urged  the  radical  remedy  of  peasant 
proprietary : 

"Whence  arises  this  difference  in  the  conduct  of  British 
and  Irish  landlords?  It  arises  from  the  fact  that  we  have 
no  organized  public  opinion  in  Ireland,  and  the  lords  of  the 
soil  here  may  do  the  grossest  acts  of  tyranny  with  impunity 
— acts  which  if  committed  in  Great  Britain  would  bring  upon 
them  the  well  -  merited  condemnation  of  the  community. 
Now,  if  you  ask  me  to  state  in  a  brief  sentence  what  is  the 
Irish  land  question,  I  say  it  is  the  restoration  of  the  land  of 
Ireland  to  the  people  of  Ireland.     And  if  you  ask  me  for  a 

149 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

solution  of  the  land  question  in  accordance  with  philosophy, 
experience,  and  common-sense,  I  shall  be  equally  brief  and 
explicit.  Abolish  landlordism,  and  make  the  man  who 
occupies  and  cultivates  the  soil  the  owner  of  the  soil.  I  am 
afraid,  however,  that  some  time  must  elapse  before  we  can 
induce  Parliament  to  adopt  a  solution  of  the  question  which 
commended  itself  long  ago  to  the  ablest  statesmen  of  Europe, 
and  the  economic  and  social  value  of  which  experience  has 
amply  proved.  We  must,  therefore,  take  note  of  our  present 
difficulties  and  apply  an  immediate  remedy.  Eviction  must 
be  stopped  at  all  hazards.  Ireland  cannot  afford  to  lose  any 
more  of  her  industrious  children.  She  has  lost  too  many 
already.  True,  we  must  resolve  now,  at  last,  to  make  a  stand 
against  the  unholy  work  of  the  exterminator.  I  have  great 
faith  in  the  power  of  an  enlightened  public  opinion,  and, 
depend  upon  it,  there  is  nothing  tyrants  dread  so  much  as 
public  exposure." 

Mr.  Ferguson's  speech  was  not  fully  reported.  This  is  an 
extract  from  the  summary  given  in  the  local  press : 

"Mr.  Ferguson  then  dwelt  at  great  length  on  the  import 
and  export  trade  of  the  country,  and  demonstrated  that  it 
is  only  by  breaking  up  the  large  tracts  of  territory  owned  by 
a  few  aristocrats  and  dividing  it  among  peasant  proprietors 
that  a  sufficient  supply  of  food  can  be  raised  so  as  to  check 
the  enormous  demand  which  exists  at  present  for  food  im- 
ported from  abroad.  He  pointed  out  how  the  land  question 
had  thus  become  one  of  vital  interest  to  the  artisans  and 
working-men  of  the  great  manufacturing  towns  of  England, 
and  he  said  that  the  time  had  arrived  when  it  was  the  duty 
of  Irish  tenants  and  English  working-men  to  demand  such 
a  settlement  of  the  land  question  as  will  bring  about  the 
prosperity  and  happiness  of  the  people." 

No  resolution  or  speech  advocated  the  "three  F's,"  or 
Mr.  Butt's  bill,  which  represented  the  official  programme  of 
the  Home -Rule  party  on  the  land  question,  so  that  the 
Irishtown  meeting  broke  with  the  then  moderate  parliamen- 
tary land  reformers,  and  began  the  movement  which  was  to 
demand  "the  land  for  the  people"  as  the  only  real  remedy 
for  the  intolerable  evils  of  the  Anglo-Irish  land  system. 

It  was,  in  every  sense,  a  people's  meeting.  No  leaders, 
either  revolutionary  or  constitutional,  had  been  consulted 
about  it,  or  had  anything  to  do  with  its  organization  or 
success.  No  priests  had  been  invited.  None  could,  in  any 
case,  attend,  as  one  of  the  purposes  of  the  demonstration 
was  to  exert  pressure  upon  the  parish  priest  of  Irishtown  to 
abate  the  rack-rents  which  he  demanded  from  his  tenants. 

ISO 


THE    I  R I  S  H  T  O  W  N    MEETING 

In  this  respect  the  meeting  scored  an  immediate  success. 
Canon  Burke  granted  an  abatement  of  twenty-five  per  cent, 
a  few  days  after  the  invasion  of  his  quiet  Httle  village  by 
seven  thousand  sturdy  Mayomen  shouting  "Down  witii  land- 
lordism! The  land  for  the  people!"  Subsequently,  it  may 
be  remarked,  the  same  rents  were  reduced  forty  per  cent, 
more,  under  the  provisions  of  the  Land  Act  of  1881. 

The  Dublin  press  did  not  report  the  demonstration,  nor 
even  allude  to  it  in  any  way.  It  was  not  held  under  official 
Home-Rule  auspices,  while  the  fact  that  one  of  its  objects 
was  to  denounce  rack  -  renting  on  an  estate  owned  by  a 
Catholic  clergyman  would  necessarily,  at  that  early  stage 
of  a  popular  movement,  frighten  the  timid  editors  of  Dublin 
from  offering  it  any  recognition.  But  the  local  prestige  won 
by  the  meeting  was  enormous.  The  speeches  were  fully 
given  in  the  Connaught  Telegraph.  The  meeting  had  within 
a  few  days  knocked  five  shillings  in  the  pound  off  the  rentals 
of  the  estate  which  was  singled  out  for  attack.  This  news 
flew  round  the  county,  and  requests  for  meetings  reached 
the  organizers  from  various  districts.  It  was  generally 
known  that  the  active  spirits  in  the  organizing  of  the  meet- 
ing were  members  of  the  Fenian  body,  and  on  this  account, 
but  chiefly  owing  to  the  "attack"  made  upon  Canon  Burke, 
many  of  the  altars  in  Mayo  rang  with  warnings  and  denun- 
ciations against  gatherings  called  by  "irresponsible  people," 
and  which  showed  "disrespect"  towards  the  priests.  But 
Mayo  nationalists  have  always  had  a  record  for  courage 
and  independence,  and  this  opposition  had  no  effect  upon 
the  men  who  were  resolved  to  push  forward  the  work  that 
had  scored  so  significantly  at  its  initial  step. 

Mr.  Pamell  soon  learned  all  the  facts  relating  to  the  Irish- 
town  meeting.  He  was  intensely  interested,  especially  about 
the  clerical  opposition,  and  this  hostility  may,  perhaps,  have 
been  one  reason  why  he  showed  some  disinclination  for  a 
time  to  become  identified  with  the  movement.  There  was, 
likewise,  a  disposition  on  his  part  to  shy  at  what  he  suspected 
to  be  a  revolutionary  plan  and  purpose,  in  the  disguise  of  a 
public  agitation.  He  was  made  acquainted  with  the  de- 
cision of  the  leaders  of  the  Fenian  body  in  Ireland  not  to 
lend  countenance  to  the  new  departure,  but  also  with  the 
resolve  of  those  who  believed  in  the  need  for  such  a  policy 
to  push  it  forward  on  the  merits  of  its  programme,  no  matter 
who  might  oppose  or  approve  of  such  action.  It  was  pointed 
out  to  him  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  extreme  party  would 
in  all  likelihood  act  as  those  did  who  organized  the  Irishtown 
meeting,  and  support  as  farmers,  laborers,  and  artisans  an 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

agitation  which  promised  them,  in  common  with  others  of 
the  industrial  classes,  a  share  in  general  benefits  to  be  won 
for  the  country.  The  assistance  of  Irish  America  could  also 
be  counted  upon  as  certain  if  he  would  throw  himself  into 
the  movement,  and  upon  a  due  consideration  of  these  facts 
he  agreed  to  attend  a  meeting  which  had  been  announced 
to  be  held  at  Westport  on  June  8th. 

In  his  evidence  before  the  special  commission  {Report,  vol. 
vii.,  p.  lo),  Mr.  Parnell,  in  reply  to  a  question  put  to  him  about 
this  meeting,  said:  "Mr.  Davitt  was  very  anxious  that  the 
Land  League  should  be  formed,  and  that  the  tenants  should 
be  supported  by  an  agrarian  movement.  I  had  in  my  mind 
advice  given  to  me  by  Mr.  Butt  one  or  two  years  previously, 
when  I  pressed  upon  him  the  extension  of  the  Home-Rule 
movement  by  the  formation  of  branches  throughout  the  coun- 
try. He  said,  looking  at  it  from  a  lawyer's  point  of  view, 
that  we  should  be  made  responsible  for  every  foolish  thing 
done  by  the  members  of  the  branches.  I  was  rather  disin- 
clined to  entertain  the  idea  of  the  formation  of  an  extensive 
agrarian  movement  on  account  of  that  caution  which  I  re- 
ceived from  Mr.  Butt.  But  ultimately  I  saw  that  it  was 
necessary  for  us  to  take  the  risk."  And,  again,  on  cross- 
examination  (p.  95)  he  gave  a  fuller  explanation  of  what  he 
understood  the  proposed  league  movement  to  stand  for.  "I 
think  we  had  many  discussions  before  the  Westport  meeting. 
,1  don't  know  that  there  was  any  particular  plan  propounded 
!  about  the  Land  League  at  these  interviews.  Mr.  Davitt  spoke 
with  regard  to  the  desirability  of  a  combined  social  and  po- 
litical movement,  a  movement  that  would  interest  the  tenant- 
farmers  by  directing  attention  to  their  condition  and  pro- 
posing remedies  for  their  relief,  and  a  movement  which  at  the 
same  time  would  interest  the  Irish  nation  at  home  and  abroad 
in  the  direction  of  the  restitution  of  an  Irish  Parliament.  We 
must  have  had  many  conversations  upon  this  subject,  and  I 
am  not  at  all  sure  that  I  did  not  more  than  once  put  these  ob- 
jections, and  other  objections  which  occurred  to  me  at  the 
time,  to  Mr.  Davitt." 

Mr.  Parnell's  consent  to  speak  at  Westport  was  an  enor- 
mous gain  for  the  infant  movement,  and  an  act  of  great  cour- 
age on  his  part,  considering  the  hostile  attitude  of  a  section  of 
the  Mayo  priests.  But  his  reputation  for  dogged  resoluteness 
of  purpose  was  soon  to  be  put  to  the  utmost  test. 

The  Archbishop  of  Tuam,  Dr.  MacHale,  the  friend  and  col- 
league of  O'Connell  in  the  Repeal  movement,  and  probably 
the  strongest  personality  in  Ireland  in  1879,  was  induced  to 
launch  a  thunderbolt  against  the  proposed  meeting.     Rumor 

152 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

charitably  asserted  at  the  time  that,  though  the  name  was 
that  of  "John  of  Tuam,"  he  whom  O'Connell  had  called" The 
Lion  of  the  Fold  of  Judah,"  the  spirit  and  composition  of  the 
following  letter  were  of  another  and  lower  origin: 


"THE    WESTPORT     MEETING 

"  Westport,  June  $th. 
"  To  the  Editor  of  the  '  Freeman  ': 

"Dear  Sir, — In  a  telegraphic  message  exhibited  towards 
the  end  of  last  week  in  a  public  room  of  this  town,  an  Irish 
member  of  Parliament  has  unwittingly  expressed  his  readi- 
ness to  attend  a  meeting  convened  in  a  mysterious  and  dis- 
orderly manner,  which  is  to  be  held,  it  seems,  in  Westport  on 
Sunday  next.  Of  the  sympathy  of  the  Catholic  clergy  for  the 
rack-rented  tenantry  of  Ireland,  and  of  their  willingness  to 
co-operate  earnestly  in  redressing  their  grievances,  abundant 
evidence  exists  in  historic  Mayo,  as  elsewhere.  But  night 
patrolling,  acts  and  words  of  menace,  with  arms  in  hand,  the 
profanation  of  what  is  most  sacred  in  religion — all  the  result 
of  lawless  and  occult  association,  eminently  merit  the  solemn 
condemnation  of  the  ministers  of  religion,  as  directly  tending 
to  impiety  and  disorder  in  Church  and  in  society.  Against 
such  combinations  in  this  diocese,  organized  by  a  few  design- 
ing men,  who.  instead  of  the  well-being  of  the  community,  seek 
only  to  promote  their  personal  interests,  the  faithful  clergy 
will  not  fail  to  raise  their  warning  voices,  and  to  point  out  to 
the  people  that  unhallowed  combinations  lead  invariably  to 
disaster  and  to  the  firmer  riveting  of  the  chains  by  which  we 
are  unhappily  bound  as  a  subordinate  people  to  a  dominant 
race.     I  remain,  dear  sir, 

"Faithfully  yours, 

"+JoHN,  Archbishop  of  Tuam." 

This  bolt  from  the  blue  fell  upon  the  prospects  of  the  meet- 
ing the  day  before  it  was  to  be  held.  Mr.  Parnell  had  crossed 
from  London  to  attend,  and  as  I  wended  my  way  to  Morri- 
son's Hotel,  Dublin,  on  the  Saturday  morning,  it  was  with  the 
conviction  that  he  would  follow  the  example  of  other  invited 
guests  by  pleading  some  excuse  to  remain  away.  "Will  I 
attend  ?  Certainly.  Why  not  ?  I  have  promised  to  be  there, 
and  you  can  count  upon  my  keeping  that  promise."  This 
was  superb.  Here  was  a  leader  at  last  who  feared  no  man 
who  stood  against  the  people,  no  matter  what  his  reputation 
or  record  might  be;  a  leader,  too,  who,  though  a  Protestant, 

153 


L 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

might,  on  that  account,  be  more  poHtically  subservient  to  a 
great  CathoHc  prelate  on  pubHc  issues  than  the  CathoHc  na- 
tionahsts  of  Mayo  would  consent  to  be  in  such  a  democratic 
cause.  i/It  was  Mr.  Pamell's  first  momentous  step  in  his  prog- 
ress towards  the  leadership  of  a  race  mostly  Catholic,  and  I 
have  always  considered  it  the  most  courageously  wise  act  of 
his  whole  political  career. 

The  assemblage  was  a  repetition  of  that  of  Irishtown,  only, 
if  possible,  a  greater  success.  Some  eight  thousand  persons 
were  present,  while  about  five  hundred  young  fellows  on 
horseback  formed  a  body  -  guard  for  Mr.  Parnell  from  the 
hotel  to  the  place  of  meeting.  The  organization  of  the  gather- 
ing was  perfect,  and  this  fact,  together  with  the  indifference 
shown  by  the  nationalists  and  tenants  to  the  extraordinary 
clerical  influence  that  had  been  evoked  against  the  demon- 
.stration,  impressed  him  very  strongly.  He  felt  that  there 
was  a  power  being  evolved  at  last  out  of  the  people  which 
was  about  to  bear  down  all  opposition  and  to  carry  things 
before  it,  and  he  responded  to  this  coming  power  and  spirit 
in  the  best  fighting  utterances  he  had  yet  delivered.  It  was 
in  this  speech  he  gave  to  the  movement  one  of  its  subsequent 
watchwords,  "Hold  a  firm  grip  of  your  homesteads."  The 
prevailing  spirit  of  the  meeting  was  anti-rent  and  anti- 
eviction,  and  he  took  inspiration  from  this  feeling.  He  spoke 
as  follows  on  these  questions : 

"A  fair  rent  is  a  rent  the  tenant  can  reasonably  pay  accord- 
ing to  the  times,  but  in  bad  times  a  tenant  cannot  be  expected 
to  pay  as  much  as  he  did  in  good  times  three  or  four  years  ago. 
If  such  rents  are  insisted  upon,  a  repetition  of  the  scenes  of  1847 
and  1848  will  be  witnessed.  Now,  what  must  we  do  in  order 
to  induce  the  landlords  to  see  the  position?  You  must  show 
them  that  you  intend  to  hold  a  firm  grip  of  your  homesteads 
and  lands.  You  must  not  allow  yourselves  to  be  dispossessed 
as  your  fathers  were  dispossessed  in  1847.  You  must  not  al- 
low your  small  holdings  to  be  consolidated.  I  am  supposing 
that  the  landlords  will  remain  deaf  to  the  voice  of  reason,  but 
I  hope  they  may  not,  and  that  on  those  properties  where 
the  rents  are  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  times  a  reduction 
may  be  made,  and  that  immediately.  If  not,' you  must  help 
yourselves,  and  the  public  opinion  of  the  world  will  stand  by 
you  and  support  you  in  your  struggle  to  defend  your  home- 
steads." ^ 

The  root  remedy  for  the  injustices  of  landlordism  was 
strongly  voiced  by  another  of  the  speakers  at  this  historic 
gathering: 

'  Freeman' s  Jonrnal,  June  9,  1879. 


THE    IRISHTOWN    MEETING 

"To  confiscate  the  land  of  a  subjugated  but  unconquered 
people  and  bestow  it  upon  adventurers  is  the  first  act  of  un- 
righteous conquest,  the  preliminary  step  to  the  extermination 
or  servitude  of  an  opponent  race.  And  the  landlord  garrison 
established  by  England  in  this  country,  centuries  ago,  is  as 
true  to  the  object  of  its  foundation,  and  as  alien  to  the  moral 
instincts  of  our  people,  as  when  it  was  first  expected  to  drive 
the  Celtic  race  'to  hell  or  Connaught.'  It  is  the  bastard  off- 
spring of  force  and  wrong,  the  Ishmael  of  the  social  common- 
wealth, and  every  man's  hand  should  be  against  what  has 
proved  itself  to  be  the  scourge  of  our  race  since  it  first  made 
Ireland  a  land  of  misery  and  poverty.  If  the  tenant-farmers 
of  Ireland  will  organize  themselves  in  one  body,  with  but  one 
purpose,  and  resolve  upon  a  settlement  which  the  organized 
determination  of  such  a  purpose  would  render  comparatively 
easy,  the  landlords  of  Ireland  would  be  compelled  to  sell  out 
to  the  government  within  less  time  than  has  already  been 
occupied  in  the  discussion  of  Mr.  Butt's  complicated  and  un- 
satisfactory land  bill.  Instead  of  'Agitate,  agitate,'  the  cry  i 
of  the  present  should  be  'Organize,  organize.'  "  ^ 

'  Speech  by  Mr.  Davitt;  Connaught  Telegraph,  June  14,  1879. 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE     LAND     LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

f  Mr.  Parnell's  presence  at  this  demonstration  insured  the 
attention  of  the  DubHn  papers.  His  speech  and  the  res- 
olutions were  fully  reported  in  the  metropolitan  press,  while 
pro-landlord  organs  took  notice  of  some  strong  expressions 
by  other  speakers,  and  made  these  a  text  on  which  to  lecture 
the  member  for  Meath  upon  the  "communistic  company" 
he  had  associated  with.  The  Freeman's  Journal,  then  edited 
by  its  proprietor,  Mr.  E.  D.  Gray,  was  severely  critical  upon 
the  "raw  theories"  of  land  reform  which  were  put  forward. 
Other  Dublin  papers  severely  condemned  "the  wild  language  " 
of  Western  meetings,  and  leading  British  journals  joined  in  the 
critical  censure  of  the  speakers  and  the  anti-rent  sentiments 
which  were  spoken  as  they  never  had  been  expressed  before 
on  an  Irish  platform.  All  this  condemnation  was  a  gratifying 
testimony  to  the  reality  of  the  new  movement,  and  a  proof 
that  its  advanced  doctrines  had  arrested  public  attention. 
There  was  also  the  recognition  of  the  new  power  which  had 
brushed  aside  the  great  archbishop's  opposition  by  simply 
ignoring  it,  and  it  was  thus  made  evident  to  friend  and  foe 
alike  that  the  new  departure  had  come  in  time  and  was  des- 
tined to  stay  as  a  movement  of  great  political  possibilities. 

Nature,  too,  gave  it  a  helping  hand.  The  early  summer  of 
1879  offered  to  the  country  an  alarming  prospect  of  a  bad 
harvest,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  gloomy  promise  of  a 
winter  of  severe  distress.  The  outlook  was  far  more  dis- 
couraging than  in  the  previous  year,  and  this  condition  of 
things  caused  the  tenants  in  Connaught  to  join  more  readi- 
ly in  "the  anti-rent  agitation,"  for  by  this  time  the  move- 
ment had  earned  this  name  from  the  pro-landlord  press.  We 
made  no  objection.  Rent  was  the  basis  of  landlord  power,  the 
very  life-blood  of  the  system  we  were  resolved,  if  possible, 
to  destroy.  The  more  rent  for  land  we  abolished,  the  weaker 
became  the  organism  of  the  system  which  had  almost  ex- 
terminated our  race  in  Ireland.     And  the  cry  of  "No  rent!" 

L  was  soon  heard  from  one  end  of  Mayo  to  the  other. 

156 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

Meetings  commenced  to  multiply  rapidly,  but  only  within 
the  county  in  which  the  movement  had  taken  birth.  Some- 
thing was  wanted  to  encourage  it  to  cross  the  borders,  and 
in  a  short  time  the  necessary  impulse  was  given.  It  came 
from  a  Tory  chief  secretary. 

The  Miltown  meeting,  held  on  the  borders  of  Mayo  and 
Galway,  on  the  Sunday  following  the  Westport  gathering, 
was  the  greatest  demonstration  in  point  of  numbers  held 
in  the  West  during  the  whole  league  agitation.  Fully  fifteen 
thousand  people  were  present.  There  were  over  a  thousand 
men  on  horseback.  Hundreds  of  young  men  carried  imitation 
pikes,  while  the  various  contingents  taking  part  in  the  meet- 
ing marched  to  the  rendezvous  in  military  order.  Banners 
inscribed  with  "Down  with  the  land  robbers!"  "Down  with 
tyrants!"  were  a  feature  of  the  procession.  A  large  number 
of  police  were  in  attendance,  and  for  the  first  time  a  govern- 
ment reporter  made  an  appearance  in  behalf  of  Dublin  Castle. 
The  speeches  were  very  violent ;  far  more  so  than  at  Irishtown. 
Rent  was  attacked  as  "legal  robbery,"  which  was  to  be  put 
down  by  combination.  The  doctrine  was  preached  that  the"l 
tenant  who  did  not  consider  his  children's  wants  and  his 
household's  comfort  before  thinking  of  the  claim  of  the 
landlord  was  disobeying  a  natural  law,  and  should  be  held 
accountable  to  justice  if  any  of  his  offspring  suffered  from 
hunger  or  privation  while  rents  were  paid.  The  frightful 
cowardice  of  the  '47  victims  who  paid  their  landlords  and  then 
lay  down  to  die  was  held  up  as  a  warning,  while  on  the  other 
hand  "a  word  of  sound  advice"  was  spoken  to  persons  who 
might  be  tempted  to  covet  a  vacant  holding  to  let  it  alone, 
if  they  wished  to  live  at  peace  with  their  neighbors.  The 
final  note  struck  was  one  demanding  ample  reductions  in 
rent  with  which  to  meet  the  serious  situation  of  bad  harvests 
and  low  prices. 

A  question  was  asked  in  the  House  of  Commons  about 
this  meeting  and  the  speeches  thus  described,  and  Mr.  James 
Lowther,  who  had  been  made  chief  secretary  for  Ireland  by 
Lord  Beaconsfield,  replied  as  follows: 

"One  of  the  resolutions  proposed  at  the  meeting  was 
moved  by  a  clerk  in  a  commercial  house  in  Dublin  [Mr. 
Thomas  Brennan],  and  seconded  by  a  person  who  was  de- 
scribed as  a  discharged  school  -  master  [Mr.  M.  O 'Sullivan]. 
Another  resolution  was  moved  by  a  convict  at  large  on  tick- 
et-of-leave — [loud  laughter  and  cheers] — and  the  same  reso- 
lution was  seconded  by  a  person  who  was  stated  to  be  the 
representative  of  a  local  newspaper"  [Mr.  James  Daly].  The 
language  of  this  reply  was  intended  to  be  insulting  to  me,^ 

157 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  it  was  resented  by  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  who  moved  the 
adjournment  of  the  House  in  order  to  discuss  the  chief  sec- 
retary's answer.  A  great  uproar  ensued  —  the  ministerial- 
ists trying  to  drown  the  voice  of  the  member  for  Mayo,  and 
some  of  the  Irish  members  shouting  back  and  creating  a  pan- 
demonium. Finally,  Mr.  John  Bright  intervened  and  politely 
reprimanded  Mr.  Lowther  for  his  want  of  parliamentary  tact 
in  using  provocative  phrases,  which  were  rightly  resented  by 
the  member  for  Mayo. 

Nothing  could  have  helped  our  meetings  and  movement 
better  at  the  time  than  the  foolish  attack  that  had  thus  been 
made  upon  the  agitation  by  a  British  minister  inside  Parlia- 
ment. The  "scenes"  in  the  House  were  fully  described  in 
the  British  press,  while  the  anti-rent  theories  of  the  Miltown 
meeting  were  given  a  publicity  which  nothing  else  could  at  the 
time  have  secured  for  speakers  or  speeches. 

The  whole  country  was  now  watching  with  growing  inter- 
est the  progress  of  "the  Western  meetings."  The  Dublin 
press  began  to  abate  its  indifference  and  hostility,  while  much 
indignation  was  expended  upon  Mr.  Lowther  for  the  happy 
blundering  which  had  served  so  much  to  popularize  what  he 
had  hoped  might  suffer  in  some  way  under  the  slight  and 
ridicule  of  his  ministerial  sarcasm.  At  our  next  large  meet- 
ing, held  in  Claremorris,  Mr.  John  Dillon  joined  the  move- 
ment, and  brought  into  it  a  sterling  character,  a  fighting 
power,  and  a  tireless  energy  which  added  probably  more  to 
the  ultimate  success  of  the  new  departure  than  the  labor  of 
any  other  single  leader.  Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle,  of  County  Dublin, 
a  veteran  land  reformer  and  lieutenant  of  Mr.  Butt's,  also 
strengthened  the  ranks.  Mr.  Matthew  Harris,  a  local  leader 
of  conspicuous  ability  in  County  Galway,  an  old-time  Fenian, 
had  taken  part  in  the  Westport  meeting,  and  became  one  of 
our  leading  organizers  and  speakers  in  Connaught.  But  our 
most  valuable  recruit,  after  Mr.  Dillon,  was  the  late  Dr. 
Duggan,  Bishop  of  Clonfert.  He  entered  whole-heartedly 
into  the  spirit  and  aim  of  the  agitation,  and  from  his  posi- 
tion and  record  afforded  us  an  encouragement  all  the  more 
valuable  and  welcome  on  account  of  the  open  or  badly  con- 
cealed hostility  of  bishops  and  priests  elsewhere.  Nor  did  this 
warm  and  loyal  support  ever  flag  afterwards;  always,  how- 
ever, given  privately  and  silently.  In  every  crisis,  whether 
caused  by  coercion  or  resulting  from  interference  by  Rome,  his 
counsel  and  assistance  were  eagerly  sought  for  and  were  al- 
ways, and  in  either  case,  at  the  service  of  the  league. 

But  the  agitation  had  not  yet  (in  July,  1879)  pleased  or 
placated  the  veteran  Archbishop  of  Tuam.     The  old  warrior 

158 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

who  had  once  warned  O'Connell  not  to  cross  the  Shannon, 
had  failed  to  frighten  the  people  of  Westport,  and  some  of  his 
admirers  organized  a  meeting  at  Ballyhaunis,  in  rivalry  with 
the  new  movement,  invited  the  archbishop  to  attend,  and 
ignored  the  parties  who  had  incurred  his  censure.  He  wrote 
a  reply  in  which,  following  the  bad  example  of  Mr.  James 
Lowther,  he  referred  as  follows  to  the  organizers  of  the  new- 
departure  meetings: 

"In  some  parts  of  the  country  the  people,  in  calmer  mo- 
ments, will  not  fail  to  be  astonished  at  the  circumstance  of 
finding  themselves  at  the  tail  of  a  few  unknown,  strolling 
men,  who,  with  affected  grief,  deploring  the  condition  of 
the  tenantry,  seek  only  to  mount  to  place  and  preferment  on 
the  shoulders  of  the  people;  and  should  they  succeed  in 
their  ambitious  designs,  they  would  not  hesitate  to  shake 
aside  at  once  the  instrument  of  their  advancement  as  an 
unprofitable  encumbrance." 

On  the  appearance  of  this  ill-tempered  letter  in  the  press,  it 
was  resolved  to  come  to  close  quarters  immediately  with  this 
arrogant  hostility,  and  settle  the  question  once  and  for  all 
whether  the  people  trusted  men  from  their  own  ranks  or 
those  in  higher  places  who  had  counselled  the  bravest  race 
on  earth  to  lie  down  and  die  like  soulless  animals  before  the 
English-made  famine  of  1846-47  rather  than  act  as  men  and  as 
true  Christians  by  putting  the  natural  rights  of  their  families 
above  the  landlords'  rent.  A  meeting  was  organized  for 
Tuam,  where  the  archbishop  resided,  and  on  the  advertised 
day  five  thousand  men,  with  two  or  three  hundred  on  horse- 
back, marched  into  the  cathedral  town,  and  put  an  end  to 
the  notion  that  either  an  Irish  archbishop  or  an  English 
chief  secretary  was  strong  enough  to  frown  down  such  a 
movement  or  turn  its  leaders  from  the  objects  upon  which 
they  had  embarked.  This  was,  for  the  time  being,  an  end 
of  clerical  opposition.  There  were  later  developments  of  a 
more  dangerous  kind,  which  will  be  referred  to  in  the  order  of 
time,  but  they  fared  no  better  in  their  purpose  than  these 
early  attempts  to  emasculate  a  people's  resolve  to  deliver 
themselves  from  the  social  scourge  of  landlordism. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  pressed  again  about  this  period  to  co- 
operate in  creating  a  permanent  organization  for  the  control 
and  direction  of  the  new  movement.  He  hesitated.  Its 
progress  in  the  West  gratified  him.  There  were  signs,  too, 
that  other  parts  of  the  country  were  awakening  to  the  need  of 
a  militant  agitation  and  were  calling  for  the  Connaught  "in- 
cendiaries" in  preference  to  the  tenant-righters  who  held  to 
Mr.  Butt's  moderate  programme.     All  these  symptoms  of  ac- 

159 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tivity  were  keenly  noted  by  him,  but  he  could  not  see  his  way 
to  take  a  step  which  might  look  like  the  abandonment  of  the 
tenants'  defence  associations,  and  the  throwing  over  of  their 
local  leaders  in  Limerick,  Tipperary,  Cork,  and  elsewhere, 
for  a  new  organization  which  had  its  birth  in  extremist 
plans.  He  further  and  frankly  confessed  that  he  did  not  like 
the  idea  of  a  wide-spread  organization  which  would  embrace 
all  kinds  of  elements  and  probably  resort  to  illegality  and 
violence,  as  all  such  popular  combinations  were  only  too  prone 
to  do.  These  objections,  however,  were  apparently  more  ex- 
pedient than  determinate,  and  it  was  felt  that  it  would  only 
require  the  pressure  of  the  continued  growth  in  power  and 
prestige  of  the  agitation  to  induce  him  to  place  himself  openly 
at  its  head. 

It  was  then  resolved  to  form  an  organization  for  Mayo  as 
the  nucleus  for  a  national  body.  The  name  fixed  upon  was 
that  of  "The  National  Land  League,"  and  a  convention  was 
summoned  to  meet  at  Castlebar,  on  August  i6th,  to  put  the 
new  departure  into  concrete  shape.  The  following  abridged 
report  of  the  proceedings  is  taken  from  the  Dublin  Freeman's 
Journal  of  August  i8,  1879: 

"LAND  LEAGUE  CONVENTION  AT  CASTLEBAR" 

"  A  meeting  in  connection  with  the  land  agitation  in  Mayo 
(the  first  convention  of  tenant-farmers  held  in  Ireland  since 
the  repeal  of  the  Convention  Act)  took  place  at  Castlebar, 
Saturday,  August  16,  1879,  at  Daly's  Hotel,  and  was  attended 
by  representative  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  county. 
On  the  motion  of  Mr.  James  Daly,  Castlebar,  seconded  by  Mr. 
William  Judge,  Claremorris,  the  chair  was  taken  by  Mr. 
James  J.  Louden,  B.L.,  Westport. 

"  DECLARATION    OF    PRINCIPLES 

"  Mr.  Michael  Davitt  then  read  the  following  document  em- 
bodying the  declaration  of  principles  and  rules  of  the  proposed 
association : 

"  '  Declaration  of  principles:  The  land  of  Ireland  belongs  to 
the  people  of  Ireland,  to  be  held  and  cultivated  for  the  suste- 
nance of  those  whom  God  decreed  to  be  inhabitants  thereof. 
Land  being  created  to  supply  mankind  with  the  necessaries 
of  existence,  those  who  cultivate  it  to  that  end  have  a  higher 
claim  to  its  absolute  possession  than  those  who  make  it  an 
article  of  barter,  to  be  used  or  disposed  of  for  purposes  of 
profit  or  pleasure.     The  end  for  which  the  land  of  a  country 

160 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

is  created  requires  an  equitable  distribution  of  the  same  among 
the  people  who  are  to  live  upon  the  fruits  of  their  labor  in  its 
cultivation.  ..."  Before  the  conquest  the  Irish  people  knew 
nothing  of  absolute  property  in  land,  the  land  virtually  be- 
longing to  the  entire  sept.  The  chief  was  little  more  than  the 
managing  member  of  the  association.  The  feudal  idea,  which 
views  all  rights  as  emanating  from  a  head  landlord,  came  in 
with  the  conquest,  was  associated  with  foreign  dominion,  and 
has  never  to  this  day  been  recognized  by  the  moral  sentiments 
of  the  people.  Originally  the  offspring,  not  of  industry  but 
of  spoliation,  the  right  has  not  been  allowed  to  purify  itself 
by  protracted  possession,  but  has  passed  from  the  original 
spoliators  to  others  by  a  series  of  fresh  spoliations,  so  as  to  be 
always  connected  with  the  latest  and  most  odious  oppression 
of  foreign  invaders,  in  the  moral  feelings  of  the  Irish  people. 
The  right  to  hold  the  land  goes  as  it  did  in  the  beginning  with 
the  right  to  till  it."  Those  are  the  words  of  John  Stuart  Mill, 
the  English  political  economist. 

"  '.  .  .  Over  six  million  acres  of  Irish  land  are  owned  by  less 
than  three  hundred  individuals,  twelve  of  whom  are  in  pos- 
session of  one  million  two  hundred  and  ninety-seven  thousand 
eight  hundred  and  eighty-eight  acres,  while  five  millions  of 
the  Irish  people  own  not  a  solitary  acre.  For  the  protection 
of  the  proprietorial  rights  of  a  few  thousand  landlords  in  the 
country,  a  standing  army  of  semi-military  police  is  maintained, 
which  the  landless  millions  have  to  support.  Thus  the  right 
of  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  their  security  from  arbitrary  dis- 
turbance, their  incentives  to  social  advancement,  together  with 
the  general  well-being,  peace,  and  prosperity  of  the  people  at 
large,  are  sacrificed  for  the  benefit  of  a  class  insignificant  in 
numbers  and  of  least  account  in  all  that  goes  towards  the 
maintenance  of  a  country.  Yet  this  idle,  non-producing  class 
are  enabled  by  English  land  laws  to  extract  from  twelve 
to  fifteen  million  pounds  annually  from  the  soil  of  Ireland, 
without  conferring  any  single  benefit  in  return  on  the  same, 
or  upon  the  people  by  whose  industry  it  is  produced.  If  the 
land  in  possession  of,  say,  seven  hundred  and  forty-four  land- 
lords in  this  country  was  divided  into  twenty-acre  farms,  it 
would  support,  in  ease  and  comparative  independence,  over 
two  and  a  half  millions  of  our  people.  .  .  .  The  interests  of  the 
landlords  are  pecuniary  and  can  be  compensated,  but  the  in- 
terests of  the  people  of  Ireland,  dependent  upon  the  produce 
of  the  soil,  are  their  very  existence.  In  denouncing  existing 
land  laws  and  demanding  in  their  place  such  a  system  as  will 
recognize  and  establish  thejqultivator  of  the  soil  as  its  pro- 
prietor, we  desire  that  coinpensation  be  given  the  landlords 
II  i6i 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

for  the  loss  of  their  interests  when  the  state,  for  the  peace, 
benefit,  and  happiness  of  the  people,  shall  decree  the  abolition 
of  the  present  system.   .   .  . 

" '  We  appeal  to  the  farmers  of  Ireland  to  be  up  and  doing 
at  once,  and  organize  themselves  in  order  that  their  full 
strength  may  be  put  forward  in  behalf  of  themselves  and  their 
country  in  efforts  to  obtain  a  reform  that  has  brought  security 
and  comparative  plenty  to  the  farming-classes  of  continental 
countries.  Without  an  evidence  of  earnestness  and  practical 
determination  being  shown  now  by  the  farmers  of  Ireland  and 
their  friends  in  a  demand  for  a  small  proprietary,  which  alone 
can  fully  satisfy  the  Irish  people,  or  finally  settle  the  great 
land  question  of  the  country,  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion 
will  neither  recognize  the  urgent  necessity  for  such  a  change, 
nor  lend  its  influence  in  ameliorating  the  condition  of  our 
country  or  in  redressing  the  social  and  political  wrongs  of 
which  we  complain.  .  .  . 

"  '  RULES    AND    OBJECTS 

"  '  This  body  shall  be  known  as  the  National  Land  League  of 
Mayo,  and  shall  consist  of  farmers  and  others  who  will  agree 
to  labor  for  the  objects  here  set  forth,  and  subscribe  to  the 
conditions  of  membership,  principles,  and  rules  specified 
below. 

"  '  OBJECTS 

"  '  The  objects  for  which  this  body  is  organized  are: 

"  '  I.  To  watch  over  the  interests  of  the  people  it  represents, 
and  protect  the  same  as  far  as  may  be  in  its  power  to  do  so 
from  an  unjust  or  capricious  exercise  of  power  or  privilege 
on  the  part  of  landlords  or  any  other  class  in  the  community. 

"  '  2.  To  resort  to  every  means  compatible  with  justice, 
morality,  and  right  reason  which  shall  not  clash  defiantly 
with  the  constitution  upheld  by  the  powers  of  the  British 
Empire  in  this  country  for  the  abolition  of  the  present  land 
laws  of  Ireland,  and  the  substitution  in  their  place  of  such  a 
system  as  shall  be  in  accord  with  the  social  rights  and  inter- 
ests of  our  people,  the  traditions  and  moral  sentiments  of 
our  race,  and  which  the  contentment  and  prosperity  of  our 
country  imperiously  demand. 

"  '  3.  Pending  a  final  and  satisfactory  settlement  of  the  land 
question,  the  duty  of  this  body  will  be  to  expose  the  injustice, 
wrong,  or  injury  which  may  be  inflicted  upon  any  farmer  in 
Mayo,  either  by  rack-renting,  eviction,  or  other  arbitrary 
exercise  of  power  which  the  existing  laws  enaMe  the  landlords 

162 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

to  exercise  over  their  tenantry,  by  giving  all  such  arbitrary 
acts  the  widest  publicity,  and  meeting  their  perpetration 
with  all  the  opposition  which  the  laws  for  the  preservation 
of  the  peace  will  permit.  In  furtherance  of  which  the 
following  plan  will  be  adopted:  Returns  to  be  obtained, 
printed,  and  circulated  of  the  number  of  landlords  in  this 
county,  the  amount  of  acreage  in  possession  of  same,  and  the 
means  by  which  such  lands  were  obtained,  the  farms  owned 
by  each,  with  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  held  by 
their  tenants,  and  the  excess  of  rent  paid  by  same  over  the 
government  valuation.  To  publish  by  placard,  or  otherwise, 
notice  of  contemplated  evictions  for  non-payment  of  ex- 
orbitant rent,  or  other  unjust  cause,  and  the  convening  of 
public  meetings,  if  necessary  or  expedient,  as  near  the  scene 
of  such  evictions  as  circumstances  will  allow,  and  on  the 
day  fixed  upon  for  the  same.  The  publication  of  a  list  of 
evictions  carried  out,  together  with  cases  of  rack-renting, 
giving  full  particulars  of  same,  name  of  landlord,  agents,  etc., 
concerned,  and  the  number  of  people  evicted  by  such  acts. 
The  publication  of  the  names  of  all  persons  who  shall  rent  or 
occupy  land  or  farms  from  which  others  have  been  dis- 
possessed for  non-payment  of  exorbitant  rents,  or  who  shall 
ofEer  a  higher  rent  for  land  or  farms  than  that  paid  by  the 
previous  occupier. 

"'4.  This  body  to  undertake  the  defence  of  such  of  its 
members  or  others  of  local  clubs  affiliated  with  it  who  may 
be  required  to  resist  by  law  actions  of  landlords  or  their 
agents,  who  may  purpose  doing  them  injury,  wrong,  or  in- 
justice in  connection  with  their  land  or  farms. 

"  '  5.  To  render  assistance  when  possible  to  such  farmer 
members  as  may  be  evicted  or  otherwise  wronged  by  the 
landlords  or  their  agents. 

"  '  6.  To  undertake  the  organizing  of  local  clubs  or  defence 
associations  in  the  baronies,  towns,  and  parishes  of  this 
county,  the  holding  of  public  meetings  and  demonstrations 
on  the  land  question,  and  the  printing  of  pamphlets  on  that 
and  other  subjects  for  the  information  of  the  farming-classes. 

"'7.  Finally,  to  act  as  a  vigilance  committee  in  Mayo, 
noting  the  conduct  of  its  grand  jury,  poor-law  guardians, 
town  commissioners,  and  members  of  Parliament,  and  pro- 
nouncing on  the  manner  in  which  their  respective  duties  are 
performed,  whenever  the  interests,  social  or  political,  of  the 
people  represented  by  this  club  render  it  expedient  to  do  so.'  " 

With  the  summoning  of  this  convention,  the  framing  of  the 
programme  put  before  it,  or  the  naming  of  the  new  organiza- 
tion, neither  Mr.  Parnell  nor  any  of  the  constitutional  party 

163 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

was  in  any  way  concerned.  Mr.  Parnell  was  made  aware 
of  the  fact  that  the  step  was  to  be  taken,  but  he  had  neither 
expressed  approval  nor  offered  objection  to  what  was  pro- 
posed. Mr.  Thomas  Brennan  and  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  of  Dublin, 
and  Mr.  Matt.  Harris,  of  County  Galway,  were  among  the  pro- 
moters. With  the  exception  of  Messrs.  Louden  and  Daly, 
these  promoters  had  been  members  of  the  Fenian  organization. 

The  plan  and  purpose  of  the  leaders  of  the  new  league  were 
to  supplant  the  tenants'  defence  associations,  which  had 
provided  a  platform  for  Mr.  Butt  and  the  Home-Rulers  on 
the  land  question,  and  to  create  an  aggressive  movement 
which  would  try  to  rally  the  whole  country  in  a  fight  against 
the  whole  land  system.  An  organized  Mayo,  where  the  people 
had  already  wrung  reductions  of  rents  from  several  landlords 
and  silenced  clerical  opposition,  was  the  vantage  -  ground 
from  which  the  agitation  was  to  operate  for  the  capture  of 
the  moderate  land  movement,  with  the  moral  certainty  that 
success  in  this  easy  enterprise  would  mean  the  capture  of 
Mr.  Parnell,  too,  as  the  leader  of  the  forces  which  were  to  be 
recruited  for  the  contemplated  struggle. 

It  was  found  necessary  at  this  stage  of  the  new  departure 
to  insist  as  much  as  possible  upon  certain  root  principles  as 
to  the  ownership  and  tenure  of  land.  The  mass  of  small 
tenants,  who  were  the  main  support  of  the  movement,  under- 
stood very  little  of  the  land  problem  beyond  the  question 
of  rent  and  the  dread  reality  of  eviction.  There  could  be  no 
ignorance  upon  these  powers  of  landlordism  in  Ireland,  but 
otherwise  the  people  generally  were  the  enemies  of  the  system 
by  force  of  Celtic  instinct  more  than  by  any  process  of  in- 
dependent thought  or  conviction.  A  speaker  at  a  meeting 
near  Castlebar  insisted  upon  "the  complete  abolition  of  the 
landlords,"  meaning  of  their  system,  when  an  old  man  in 
the  audience  interjected  the  remark,  "  Arrah,  to  who  would 
we  pay  the  rint,  thin,  sir?"  The  speaker  tried  to  make  his 
proposal  clearer  to  the  rather  pertinent  questioner,  and 
apparently  succeeded.  At  a  subsequent  meeting,  however, 
the  writer  saw  the  same  intelligent  inquirer  marching  at 
the  head  of  a  contingent  from  his  village,  and  bearing  a  pole 
which  carried  a  rough  banner,  across  which  two  words,  in 
large,  uneven  characters,  were  painted.  The  words  were, 
"Pay  Nothing!"  Manifestly  education  in  this  instance  had 
progressed  a  little  too  rapidly. 

There  was  a  greater  evil  than  economic  ignorance  to  beat 
down  among  the  tenantry  of  Ireland,  and  that  was  their 
slavish  social  attitude  towards  not  alone  the  landlord  but 
his  agent  and  whole  entourage.     It  was  a  hateful  and  heart- 

164 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

breaking  sight  to  see  manly  looking  men,  young  and  old. 
doffing  their  hats  and  caps  and  cringing  in  abject  manner  to 
any  person  connected  with  an  estate,  and  before  magistrates 
and  others  associated  with  the  administration  of  pro-landlord 
laws.  It  was  a  moral  malady,  born  of  feudalism  and  fear, 
the  demoralizing  results  of  the  power  possessed  by  those  who 
owned  the  land  and  who  had  the  legal  authority  to  carry  out 
the  dreaded  penalty  of  eviction.  Generations  of  suffering 
and  tyranny  had  inflicted  this  slavishness  of  manner  upon  a 
Celtic  peasantry.  It  was,  therefore,  resolved  to  undo  this  as 
far  as  possible  by  holding  the  landlord  class,  its  arrogance 
and  acts,  up  to  opprobrium  and  contempt,  as  being  the  sordid 
beneficiaries  of  a  system  of  legal  injustice  which  had  robbed 
the  nation  of  its  patrimony  and  industry  of  its  right  reward. 
It  became  necessary  to  instil  confidence  into  minds  in  which 
fear  of  the  landlord  had  given  birth  to  helot  qualities  of  un- 
manly subserviency,  and  in  the  pithy  phrase  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Brennan,  "the  gospel  of  manhood"  as  well  as  that  of  "the  land 
for  the  people"  became  a  necessary  part  of  the  new  propaganda. 

There  was  another  and  a  kindred  evil  to  assail  in  the 
carrying  out  of  these  purposes.  The  land-grabber  was  the 
buttress  of  the  rack  -  renting  evil  and  the  worst  foe  of  the 
struggling  tenant.  He  was  never  a  man  who,  from  the  coer- 
cion of  real  want,  took  a  holding  from  which  a  neighbor  was 
ejected  for  inability  to  pay  an  unfair  rent.  The  necessity  of 
existence  breaks  no  law  when  it  obeys  the  highest  impulse  of 
human  nature  and  seizes  upon  the  means  to  live.  No  grabber 
in  Ireland  is  ever  impelled  to  take  land  on  this  principle.  He 
is  always  a  man  who  possesses  a  farm  or  holding  and  covets 
more,  or  a  person  with  means  otherwise  earned  which  prompts 
him  to  go  contrary  to  the  public  sentiment  by  outbidding  a 
poorer  occupant  of  some  tempting  piece  of  land.  It  would  be 
necessary,  therefore,  to  put  this  practice  down  by  popular 
power,  and  this  was  one  of  the  planks  we  inserted  in  the  Cas- 
tlebar  programme.  No  person  taking  land  from  which  an- 
other was  evicted  was  to  be  admitted  to  the  Land  League, 
while  the  names  of  such  transgressors  against  the  unwritten 
agrarian  code  would  be  published  as  notoriously  going  con- 
trary to  the  interests  of  his  fellows.  The  resolve  to  support 
persons  who  might  be  evicted,  to  help  them  fight  their  legal 
claims  or  objections  in  the  courts,  and  to  defend  them  against 
all  attacks,  legal  or  otherwise,  on  the  part  of  their  oppressors, 
instilled  great  courage  into  the  Western  tenants,  and  brought 
them  by  thousands  into  the  new  organization. 

Meetings  grew  very  numerous,  and  were  no  longer  confined 
to  Mayo,  though  the  Western  "incendiaries"  were  not  always 

165 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

invited  to  attend  the  gatherings  which  were  organized  else- 
where. The  Dubhn  press  still  harped  upon  extreme  utter- 
ances and  impracticable  proposals,  the  moral  necessity  for 
safeguarding  the  landlords'  interests,  and,  above  all,  the  need 
to  keep  within  the  law,  and  these  warnings  explained  the  ob- 
jections to  our  presence  at  these  meetings.  But  the  Con- 
naught  movement  held  on  its  own  course,  aided  by  the  growing 
certainty  of  an  unprecedentedly  bad  season  and  the  fears  of 
an  eviction  campaign  should  rents  not  be  paid  in  full  at  the 
coming  November  gale. 

Our  chief  speakers  were,  as  a  rule,  those  already  named, 
few,  if  any,  members  of  Parliament  being  available,  owing  to 
their  absence  in  London  during  the  session.  Local  talent  had 
to  be  relied  upon,  and  though  it  was  extremely  difficult  to 
obtain  a  chairman  or  the  proposer  of  a  resolution  at  the 
earlier  meetings,  owing  to  fears  of  landlord  resentment,  this 
feeling  soon  vanished,  and  it  became  equally  difficult  to  limit 
local  volunteer  orators  either  in  number  or  in  verbosity. 

The  political  ballad-singer  has  always  been  a  familiar  feat- 
ure of  modem  Irish  movements,  but  chiefly  in  connection 
with  electioneering  contests.  He  was  once  a  mighty  power 
in  the  more  Celtic  life  of  Ireland,  for  it  is  on  record  that  in  the 
early  part  of  the  fifteenth  century  one  Nial  O'Higgins,  of 
Usnagh,  whose  stock  of  cattle  had  been  plundered  in  a  foray 
by  Lord  Deputy  Stanley,  retaliated  by  writing  such  a  caustic 
attack  upon  him  that  he  "rhymed  the  viceroy  to  death," 
according  to  the  annals  of  the  times.  The  Land  League 
movement  appealed  to  the  poetic  patriotism  of  the  now  less 
powerful  order  of  tuneful  propagandists,  and  few  meetings 
came  off  in  the  West  or  South  which  had  not  its  singer  with 
some  "lament"  of  a  hero  of  agrarian  repute,  or  a  versified 
malediction  upon  an  evictor  or  other  obnoxious  enemy  of  the 
cause.  One  of  the  best  of  such  ballads  was  much  in  vogue  in 
these  early  days  of  the  movement,  and  emphasized  the  teach- 
ing of  the  new  departure.     It  ran  as  follows: 

"AN     IRISH     PEASANT'S    LAMENT 

"to     his    wife 

"  The  harvest  is  over,  my  corn  not  sold, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree; 
But  I'm  Httle  the  better,  if  truth  must  be  told, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 
For  though  mine  was  the  toil,  yet  the  landlord's  the  spoil. 
Sure  he  says  that  the  soil  belongs  not  to  me, 
As  if  God,  through  some  whim,  made  the  world  for  him, 

Ochone!    acushla  machree. 
i66 


THE    LAND    LEAGUE    OF    MAYO 

"  Though  in  labor  unceasing  my  days  are  all  spent, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree, 

A  just  rent  to  pay  I  did  always  consent, 

Ochone!  acvishla  machree. 

Though  in  sunshine  and  snow  I  delve  and  I  sow, 

Yet  to  pay  what  I  owe  I  will  surely  agree; 

But  'tis  hard  to  resign  what  is  rightfully  mine, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 

"  The  fish  in  the  brook  and  the  bird  in  the  brake, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 
Were  made  for  his  honor,  without  a  mistake, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 
While  I  toil  all  the  day,  with  pains  for  my  pay, 
He  dwells  far  away,  amid  wild  revelry. 
And  squanders  in  sin  what  I  labored  to  win, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 
"  And  now  that  I  ask  an  abatement  of  rent, 

Ochone !  acushla  machree, 
Sincerely  hoping  his  honor's  consent, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree, 
Though  my  holding  is  small,  I  can't  see  at  all 
Why  he  should  take  all  and  leave  nothing  to  me. 
If  it's  legally  so,  'tis  not  justice,  1  know, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 

"  From  the  law-shop  in  London  no  succor  we'll  get, 

Ochone!  acitshla  machree. 
Still,  'tis  vain  to  complain,  and  'tis  idle  to  fret, 

Ochone!  acushla  machree. 
But  courage  awhile,  for  soon  o'er  our  isle, 
Kind  Heaven  will  smile,  and  each  Saxon  decree, 
Will  be  righted  straight  away,  and  I  ferventl)^  pray, 
May  God  hasten  the  day,  a  cushla-machree!  " 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE     LAND     LEAGUE     OF     IRELAND 

During  August  and  September  the  fears  of  a  coming  par- 
tial famine  grew  into  the  certainty  of  a  deep  and  wide-spread 
distress,  as  a  result  of  crops  destroyed  by  continuous  rains.  As 
usual,  there  was  an  official  denial  by  Dublin  Castle  of  the  ex- 
istence of  such  a  state  of  things.  It  was  all  an  invention  of 
"mercenary  and  disloyal  agitators."  The  government  were 
closely  observing  the  condition  of  the  country,  and  while  there 
could  be  no  doubt  about  the  excessive  rainfall  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  blight  in  the  potato-fields,  there  were  no  real 
grounds  for  the  cries  of  alarm  raised  at  seditious  meetings. 
This  was  the  official  attitude.  The  country  saw  clearly,  how- 
ever, that  the  league  warnings  were  only  too  well  justified, 
that  a  crisis  threatening  a  possible  famine  was  at  hand,  and 
meetings  were  called  for  from  all  quarters.  Most  of  those 
which  were  held  outside  of  Connaught  were  organized  by  the 
Tenants'  Defence  Clubs  or  the  Home  -  Rule  League,  in  re- 
sponse to  popular  feeling.  The  speeches  and  resolutions, 
while  being  in  advance  of  previous  utterances  in  denunciation 
of  landlordism,  wore  the  appearance  of  a  final  attempt  to  bar 
the  progress  of  the  Land  League  across  the  Shannon.  It  was 
the  last  rally  of  the  moderate  land  reformers  to  save  their 
movement.  Meetings  in  Tipperary,  Limerick,  Cork  City, 
Mallow,  Enniscorthy,  and  in  other  centres  showed  that  while 
large  gatherings  could  be  assembled  by  the  old  associations, 
under  the  pressure  of  impending  distress,  the  spirit  of  the  au- 
diences was  that  of  the  "Western  incendiaries,"  and  that  the 
^-country  demanded  something  more  to  fight  for  than  the  re- 
'  form  comprised  in  the  formula  of  "The  Three  F's."  At  the 
Limerick  demonstration,  held  on  August  31st,  Mr.  Parnell 
went  so  far  as  to  say  to  the  farmers,  "It  is  the  duty  of  the 
Irish  tenant-farmers  to  combine  among  themselves,  and  ask 
for  a  reduction  of  rent,  and  if  they  get  no  reduction,  then  I 
say  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  tenant  to  pay  no  rent." 

In  the  mean  time,  the  Western  agitation  had  won  the  active 
support   of   Irish- American  bodies  and   papers.     The  Irish 

168 


THE  LAND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

World,  of  New  York,  a  journal  with  a  circulation  of  unique 
extent  and  character,  had  strenuously  backed  from  the 
beginning  the  Connaught  revolt  against  landlordism.  Mr. 
Patrick  Ford,  its  editor,  was  a  native  of  Galway.  His  paper 
had  been,  from  its  initial  number,  an  advocate  of  extremist 
views  on  Anglo-Irish  problems,  and  the  new  departure  was  in  ^•' 
line  with  its  general  attitude  on  the  questions  of  Irish  land  and 
government.  The  Irish  World  rendered  enormous  assistance 
to  the  league  movement  up  to  the  Kilmainham  treaty ;  send- 
ing, during  that  period,  from  its  readers  and  friends  more 
financial  help  than  has  probably  ever  been  contributed  by 
the  efforts  of  a  single  weekly  paper  to  any  political  move- 
ment. 

The  Boston  f^ilot,  under  Boyle  O'Reilly's  editorship,  was 
equally  earnest  in  our  support,  though  not  in  a  position  to 
extend  the  same  amount  of  help.  O'Reilly  had  been  one  of 
the  promoters  of  the  new  departure,  and  he  was  kept  regularly 
informed  of  the  progress  we  were  making  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  John  Devoy  sent  us  the  first  monetary  assistance  from 
America.  It  was  a  grant  from  the  "Skirmishing  Fund," 
changed  in  name  to  the  "National  Fund,"  and  was  made  in 
reply  to  a  communication  I  had  addressed  to  O'Reilly,  Devoy, 
Ford,  and  others,  asking  their  support  for  a  contemplated 
lecture  tour  in  the  United  States  in  behalf  of  the  new  move- 
ment. This  money  was  originally  subscribed  for  "warfare" 
against  England,  and  was  intended  solely  for  revolutionary 
purposes.  The  acceptance  of  any  of  it  for  the  furtherance 
of  the  new  departure  would  be  attended  with  risk,  while  be- 
ing, under  the  circumstances,  an  unwise  proceeding  anyhow. 
After  a  long  consideration  of  the  whole  matter,  the  friendly 
motives  of  those  who  sent  it  unsolicited  were  deemed  to  be  a 
sufficient  reason  for  accepting  it  in  that  sense,  and  the  first  big 
mistake  of  the  infant  league  was  thus  committed.  The  trans- 
action being  associated  with  "conspiracy,"  it  was  certain  at 
no  distant  day  to  be  confided  to  the  strict  obligations  of  se- 
crecy which  are  peculiar  to  the  New  York  press,  and  then  there 
might  be  trouble  in  explaining  the  innocent  purpose  of  this 
accidental  connection  with  revolutionary  funds.  These  fears 
were  only  too  truly  realized.  In  a  few  months'  time  it  was  . 
revealed  in  some  New  York  papers  that  money  belonging  to 
the  " Skinnishing  Fund"  had  been  used  for  parliamentary 
purposes,  which  was  quite  untrue,  and  that  there  were  serious 
troubles  brewing  in  extreme  circles  over  the  business.  Ulti- 
mately (June,  1882)  I  told  the  public,  through  an  interview  in 
the  American  press,  the  facts  as  I  am  now  recording  them, 
when  this  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  new  departure  was 

169 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

closed  in  the  publication  of  a  small  document  of  which  this  is 
a  copy: 

"  New  York,  July  13,  1882. 

"Received  from  Michael  Davitt  the  sum  of  seven  hundred 
and  thirty-five  dollars  ($735),  being  the  balance  of  the  whole 
amount  advanced  to  him  by  the  trustees  of  the  Irish  National 
Fund,  and  liquidating  all  monetary  claims  against  him  by 
that  body. 

"On  behalf  of  the  trustees  of  the  Irish  National  Fund. 

"John  Devoy. 

"Witnessed  by  WiUiam  K.  Redmond." 

It  is  but  just  to  Mr.  Devoy  to  add  that  the  publication  of 
the  facts  about  the  grant  which  had  been  made  out  of  the 
National  Fund  was  not  due  to  him. 

Returning  to  the  position  in  Ireland  in  September,  1878, 
Mr.  Parnell  was  again  approached  and  urged  to  join  in  trans- 
i    forming  the  Land  League  of  Mayo  into  the  National  Land 
,  '' ''      League  of  Ireland.     He  consented;  but  on  the  understanding 
that  the  platform  to  be  put  forward  should  be  a  parliamentary 
one — that  is,  the  planks  should  be  such  as  could  be  advocated 
as  freely  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  at  meetings  in  Ireland, 
vl  This  was  not  objected  to.     On  the  other  hand,  Mr.  Parnell 

agreed  to  the  absorption  of  the  Tenants'  Defence  Associations 
in  the  new  league,  and  that  its  active  promoters  should  be 
included  in  the  executive  of  the  enlarged  organization.  It 
was  a  reasonable  compromise,  on  both  sides;  the  concessions 
to  Mr.  Parnell's  position  being  necessary  on  our  part,  owing 
to  the  refusal  of  the  extremist  leaders  in  Ireland  to  have  any- 
thing to  do  with  the  new  departure;  while  Mr.  Parnell  was 
obtaining  the  prestige  of  the  Western  agitation,  and  the  pros- 
pect of  financial  aid  from  the  United  States,  without  running 
any  serious  risks  in  joining  the  movement  which  he  had  helped 
so  much  by  attending  the  Westport  meeting.  Mr.  A.  J.  Ket- 
tle, the  honorary  secretary  of  the  Tenants'  Defence  Associa- 
tion, was  readily  persuaded  to  merge  this  body  in  the  Land 
League,  and  it  was  arranged  that  he  should  be  a  member  of  the 
executive  of  the  new  organization.  All  necessary  discussions 
with  Mr.  Parnell  having  taken  place,  he  consented  to  write  a 
circular  of  invitation  to  representative  nationalists  and  land 
reformers  to  meet  in  conference  in  Dublin  to  form  the  Central 
Land  League. 

The  invitation  to  [this  historic  conference  was  worded  as 
follows : 

176 


THE  LAND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

"  AvoNDALE,  Rathdrum,  September  29,  1879. 
"My  dear  Sir, — Some  friends  have  urged  upon  me  the 
strong  desirabiHty  of  forming  a  committee  for  the  purpose  of 
appeaHng  to  our  countrymen  abroad,  and  more  especially  in 
America,  for  assistance  in  forwarding  the  new  land  agitation 
in  favor  of  the  ownership  of  the  soil  by  the  occupier,  and  also 
for  the  purpose  of  upholding  the  tenants  during  this  terrible 
crisis  by  the  promotion  of  organization.  I  enclose  you  a  copy 
of  the  appeal  that  we  have  drawn  up,  and  trust  that  you  will 
permit  yourself  to  be  added  to  the  committee,  and  allow  your 
name  to  be  appended  to  the  appeal.     I  am,  dear  sir, 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"Charles  S.  Parnell." 

In  addition  to  consenting  to  become  the  president  of  the 
Land  League,  Mr.  Parnell  had  agreed  to  a  proposal  to  visit 
the  United  States  in  November  with  Mr.  John  Dillon,  to  ob- 
tain material  help  for  the  movement.  The  appeal  to  which 
allusion  is  made  in  the  above  circular  was  drawn  up  for  pub- 
lication in  the  home  and  American  press,  with  the  view  of 
preparing  the  way  for  the  Parnell  -  Dillon  mission.  It  set 
forth  the  changed  condition  that  had  taken  place  in  popular 
feeling  in  Ireland  on  the  land  question,  the  hopeful  pros- 
pects of  national  organization,  and  asked  for  help  and  co- 
operation from  exiled  Irishmen  who  had  been  driven  from 
Ireland  by  landlordism,  to  assist  those  of  the  race  at  home 
in  their  resolve  to  drive  landlordism  in  a  final  struggle  from 
the  country. 

The  conference  assembled  in  Dublin  on  October  21,  1879, 
and  the  following  abridged  report  of  the  proceedings  is 
taken  from  the  Freeman's  Journal  for  the  2 2d  of  that 
month : 

"  In  response  to  a  circular  from  Mr.  Parnell,  M.P.,  a  meeting 
was  held  in  the  Imperial  Hotel,  Dublin,  on  Tuesday,  at  two 
o'clock,  for  the  purpose  of  forming  a  central  body  in  connec- 
tion with  the  present  land  agitation.  The  chair  was  taken  by 
Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle,  P.L.G. 

"Among  those  present  were; 

"Mr.  C.  S.  Parnell,  M.P.;  Rev.  Mr.  Behan,  C.C;  Lau- 
rence M'Court,  P.L.G. ;  Wilham  Dillon,  B.L.;  James  Rourke, 
George  Delany,  Rev.  Father  Sheehy,  William  Kelly,  Dona- 
bate;  Patrick  Cummins,  P.L.G.;  Thomas  Roe,  Dundalk  Demo- 
crat; John  Sweetman,  Kells;  Michael  Davitt,  Thomas  Brennan, 
Thomas  Grehan,  Loughlinstown ;  Patrick  Egan,  Thomas  Ryan, 
J.   F.   Grehan,   P.L.G.,   Cabinteely;  T.   D.   Sullivan,  Charles 

171 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

Reilly,  Artane;  Dr.  Kenny,  R.  J.  Donnelly,  James  O'Connor, 
etc. 

"  The  Rev.  Father  Behan,  C.C,  proposed,  and  Mr.  William 
Dillon,  B.L.,  seconded,  the  following  resolution: 

"'That  an  association  be  hereby  formed  to  be  named  the 
Irish  National  Land  League.' 

"  Proposed  by  Mr.  W.  Kelly,  seconded  by  Mr.  Thomas  Roe: 

"'That  the  objects  of  the  league  are:  First,  to  bring  about 
a  reduction  of  rack-rents;  second,  to  facilitate  the  obtaining 
of  the  ownership  of  the  soil  by  the  occupiers.' 

"Proposed  by  Mr.  Parnell,  M.P.,  seconded  by  the  Rev. 
Father  Sheehy,  C.C: 

"'That  the  objects  of  the  league  can  be  best  attained  by 
promoting  organization  among  the  tenant-farmers;  by  de- 
fending those  who  may  be  threatened  with  eviction  for  re- 
fusing to  pay  unjust  rents ;  by  facilitating  the  working  of  the 
Bright  clauses  of  the  Land  act  during  the  winter;  and  by  ob- 
taining such  a  reform  in  the  laws  relating  to  land  as  will  en- 
able every  tenant  to  become  the  owner  of  his  holding  by  pay- 
ing a  fair  rent  for  a  limited  number  of  years.' 

"Proposed  by  Mr.  John  Sweetman,  seconded  by  Mr.  T.  D. 
Sullivan : 

'"That  Mr.  Charles  S.  Parnell,  M.P.,  be  elected  president 
of  this  league.' 

"Proposed  by  Mr.  George  Delany,  seconded  by  Mr.  W.  H. 
Cobbe,  Portarlington : 

"  '  That  Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle,  Mr.  Michael  Davitt,  and  Mr.  Thomas 
Brennan  be  appointed  honorary  secretaries  of  the  league.' 

"Proposed  by  Mr.  Patrick  Cummins,  P.L.G.,  seconded  by 
Mr.  Laurence  M'Court,  P.L.G.: 

'"That  Mr.  J.  G.  Biggar,  M.P.,  Mr.  W.  H.  O'Sullivan,  M.P., 
and  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  be  appointed  treasurers.' 

"An  appeal  to  the  Irish  race  for  the  sustainment  of  the 
movement  having  been  submitted,  was  approved  and  ordered 
to  be  circulated. 

"On  the  motion  of  the  Rev.  Father  Sheehy,  seconded  by 
Mr.  Michael  Davitt,  it  was  resolved: 

"'That  the  president  of  this  league,  Mr,  Parnell,  be  re- 
quested to  proceed  to  America  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
assistance  from  our  exiled  countrymen  and  other  sympa- 
thizers for  the  objects  for  which  this  appeal  is  issued.' 

"Proposed  by  Mr.  Thomas  Ryan,  seconded  by  Mr.  J.  F. 
Grehan : 

"  '  That  none  of  the  funds  of  this  league  shall  be  used  for  the 
purchase  of  any  landlord's  interest  in  the  land  or  for  further- 
ing the  interests  of  any  parliamentary  candidate.' 

172 


THE  LAND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

"The  following  committee  was  appointed: 

"Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  M.P.,  president,  Avondale,  Rath- 
drum;  Purcell  O'Gorman,  M.P.,  Waterford;  John  Ferguson, 
Glasgow;  Dean  of  Cashel,  W.  Quirke;  Dr.  Cummins,  Liver- 
pool; Matthew  Harris,  Ballinasloe;  Very  Rev.  Canon  Bourke, 
P.P.,  Claremorris ;  J.  O'Connor  Power,  M.P.,  London;  Rev. 
John  Behan,  C.C.,  Francis  Street,  Dublin;  Richard  Lalor, 
Mountrath;  J.  L.  Finegan,  M.P.,  London;  Rev.  R.  Sheehy, 
C.C,  Kilmallock;  J.  J.  Louden,  Westport;  O'Gorman  Mahon, 
M.P.,  London;  John  Dillon;  Rev.  W.  Joyce,  P.P.,  Louisburgh, 
County  Mayo;  N.  Ennis,  M.P.,  Claremount,  County  Meath; 
Thomas  Roe,  Dundalk  Democrat;  Dr.  J.  R.  M'Closkey,  Lon- 
donderry; George  Delany,  Dublin;  T.  D.  Sullivan,  The  Nation, 
Dublin;  James  Byrne,  Wallstown  Castle,  Cork;  Dr.  J.  E. 
Kenny,  Dublin;  Mulhallen  Marum,  J. P.,  Ballyragget;  P.  F. 
Johnston,  Kanturk;  Rev.  M.  Tormey,  Beauparc;  Very  Rev. 
Canon  Doyle,  P.P.,  Ramsgrange;  Philip  J.  Moran,  Finen, 
Granard;  O.  J.  Carraher,  Cardestown,  County  Louth;  Rev. 
J.  White,  P.P.,  Milltown-Malbay ;  P.  Cummins,  Rathmines; 
James  Daly,  Castlebar;  P.  M.  Furlong,  C.C,  New  Ross; 
Thomas  Ryan,  Dublin;  James  Rourke,  Dublin;  Richard  Kelly, 
Tuam  Herald;  William  Dillon,  Dublin;  I.  J.  Kennedy,  T.C., 
Dublin;  M.  O' Flaherty,  Dunoman  Castle,  Croom;  John  Sweet- 
man,  Kells;M.  F.  Madden,  Clonmel;  J.  C.  Howe,  London;  J.  F. 
Grehan,  Cabinteely;  Rev.  D.  Brennan,  Kilmacow,  County  Kil- 
kenny; William  Kelly,  Donabate,  County  Dublin;  C.  Reilly, 
Artane,  County  Dublin;  L.  M'Court,  Dublin;  Stephen  O'Mara, 
Limerick;  Thomas  Grehan,  Loughlinstown,  County  Dublin; 
Rev.  M.  K.  Dunne,  C.C,  Enniscorthy;  Rev.  M.  J.  Kenny,  P.P., 
Scariff ;  R.  H.  Medge,  Navan;  Rev.  M.  Conway,  Skreen,  Sligo." 

The  last  resolution  was  agreed  to  by  Mr.  Parnell  with  some 
reluctance.  It  was  scarcely  fair  to  him  that  it  should  be  in- 
sisted upon  by  the  promoters  of  the  new  departure.  It  was 
felt,  however,  at  the  time,  that  it  would  be  most  difficult  to 
obtain  funds  in  America  for  the  work  of  organizing  the  coun- 
try, of  fighting  the  landlords  in  the  courts,  and  for  resisting 
evictions  unless  it  were  made  clear  that  such  funds  were  not 
to  be  expended  on  parliamentary  elections.  It  was  a  con- 
cession to  extremist  prejudices  in  the  United  States,  and  was 
a  necessary  expedient  in  the  temper  of  the  time.  At  this 
period  Mr.  W.  Shaw,  of  Cork,  was  the  chairman  of  the  Home- 
Rule  party,  in  succession  to  Mr.  Isaac  Butt,  who  had  died  in 
May.  Mr.  Shaw  had  no  leanings  of  any  kind  towards  radical 
views  on  land  or  national  questions,  and  it  would  be  very  un- 
reasonable, therefore,  to  ask  men  of  advanced  opinions  to  col- 

173 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

lect  funds  for  the  use  of  a  party  with  such  a  head.  When,  in 
due  course,  Mr.  Parnell  would  be  placed  by  the  country  in  the 
position  held  by  Mr.  Shaw,  the  question  might  then  be  recon- 
sidered. 

Mr.  Shaw's  leadership  of  the  Irish  party  is  remembered  in 
nationalist  minds  chiefly  by  two  sayings;  one  by  himself,  and 
the  other  of  him.  Speaking  on  one  occasion  on  the  land  ques- 
tion, he  declared  that  he  never  saw  a  sheriff's  party  driving 
to  the  scene  of  an  eviction  that  he  did  not  wish  he  could  pull 
the  linchpin  out  of  the  wheel  of  the  car.  Of  himself,  after 
being  elected  to  succeed  Mr.  Butt,  it  was  said,  with  some 
truth,  that  the  Irish  members  had  placed  a  man  at  their  head 
who  was  known  in  England  as  the  leader  of  the  Irish  Home- 
Rule  party,  and  only  known  in  Ireland  as  chairman  of  the 
Munster  Bank. 

Mr.  Parnell  at  this  period  had  grown  in  popularity  and  very 
much  in  capacity.  If  Mr.  Shaw  was  the  nominal,  his  young 
rival  was  the  real,  leader  of  the  parliamentary  party.  He  had 
greatly  improved  as  a  speake/,  and  appeared  to  be  obtaining  a 
better  grasp  of  such  public  questions  as  formed  the  general 
stock  of  contemporary  political  discussion.  I  do  not  think 
he  held  any  definite  convictions  on  the  land  question  at  this 
time.  His  views  appeared  to  be  in  process  of  formation.  He 
frequently,  in  our  conversations,  expressed  himself  in  favor 
of  a  solution  of  the  question  in  the  form  of  a  state  tenantry, 
under,  of  course,  a  Home-Rule  or  other  national  administra- 
tion. Peasant  proprietary  he  was  never  heartily  in  favor  of, 
though  he  advocated  it  as  a  party  proposal.  He  knew  the 
economic  danger  which  existed  in  absolute  class  ownership 
of  land  in  a  country  with  little  or  no  alternative  industry  for 
the  masses  except  agriculture,  and  how  prone  the  Irish  peas- 
ant would  be  to  mortgage  his  interest  to  banks  and  others 
when  once  he  possessed  a  proprietary  right  in  his  farm.  "It 
would  matter  little  if  we  had  Home  Rule,"  he  was  wont  to 
say,  "whether  the  farmers  were  proprietors  of  their  land  or 
tenants  with  fixity  of  tenure  and  low  rents  under  national 
government.  But  land-ownership  and  loyalty  are  generally 
inseparable  with  a  peasantry  no  way  prone  in  any  country  to 
care  or  sacrifice  much  for  the  principle  of  patriotism.  It  is 
here  where  the  risk  is  incurred  in  fighting  for  a  final  settlement 
of  the  land  question,  rather  than  for  an  Irish  Parliament 
through  which  a  settlement  safe  for  the  national  cause  could 
be  insured." 

He  frequently  came  to  my  lodgings  in  Amiens  Street,  Dub- 
lin, in  the  autumn  of  1879,  to  chat  with  Mr.  Brennan,  Mr. 
Egan,  and  other  new-departure  extremists  upon  the  move- 

174 


THE  LAND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

ment  and  other  matters.  No  man  enjoying  such  growing 
popularity  and  poHtical  prospects  could  be  more  modest  in 
his  talk  and  manner,  or  more  agreeable  to  those  whom  he  met. 
He  had  a  peculiar  personal  charm  when  in  company  where  all 
formality  was  suspended.  He  was  in  complete  health  at  the 
time,  and  looked  the  very  picture  of  manly  strength,  being 
strikingly  handsome  in  general  appearance  and  in  facial  ex- 
pression. His  laugh  was  most  infectious,  the  whole  counte- 
nance lighting  up  with  merriment,  and  the  eyes  expressing 
a  keen  enjoyment  of  the  fun  or  point  of  the  story  or  in- 
cident. 

He  liked  to  listen  to  stories  about  eccentricity  of  character 
and  of  ridiculous  situations  in  which  some  acquaintance,  po- 
litical or  personal,  might  be  involved.  He  frequently  told  a 
good  story  himself,  but  I  never  recollect  him  repeating  any- 
thing that  could  not  have  been  said  in  the  presence  of  ladies. 
There  was  sure  to  be  a  point  or  a  moral  in  his  contributions  to 
the  pleasantries  of  social  intercourse,  and  he  always  laughed 
at  his  own  efforts,  and  thus  helped  to  make  others  laugh. 
Referring,  on  one  occasion,  to  his  contest  for  Meath,  he  said: 
"I  went  strong  on  John  Stuart  Mill  upon  the  ownership  of 
land  and  political  economy  in  my  speeches,  but  I  noticed 
somehow  that  the  priests  who  gave  me  great  assistance  did 
not  seem  to  like  this  authority.  One  day  a  friend  told  me  he 
had  dined  the  previous  evening  with  a  number  of  clergymen, 
and  that  my  speeches  were  the  topic  of  conversation,  and  were 
not  too  highly  praised.  'This  young  man,'  remarked  one  of 
the  clergymen,  referring  to  me,  'comes  down  to  Meath  and 
talks  a  great  deal  of  John  Stuart  Mill,  but  I'd  like  to  tell  him 
that  the  priests  of  Meath  know  nothing  about  John  Stuart 
Mill.'" 

Of  Mr.  Biggar  he  always  spoke  in  patronizing  affection,  and 
the  name  of  his  then  most  loyal  colleague  in  the  policy  of 
baiting  the  House  of  Commons  would  bring  up  the  subject 
of  obstruction.  There  was  something  that  might  be  called 
Cromwellian  in  Parnell's  dislike  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
Neither  at  this  nor  at  any  other  period  of  his  career  had  he  any 
genuine  racial  or  personal  hatred  of  England  or  of  English- 
men. Statements  to  the  contrary  are  more  legend  than  fact, 
and  have  been  invented  to  support  some  theory  of  incurable 
hostility  to  the  nation  from  which  he  sprang  by  overzealous 
eulogists,  with  the  object  of  justifying  his  attitude  of  personal 
antipathy  to  those  who  opposed  him  after  the  catastrophe  of 
1890.  But  he  had  a  strong  feeling  against  the  House  of  Com- 
mons; possibly  due  to  its  browbeating  conduct  towards  him- 
self during  stormy  scenes  in  the  chamber.     To  defy  it,  worry 

175 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

it,  scandalize  it,  appealed  most  strongly  to  his  feeling  of  per- 
sonal animus  against  that  assembly- 

"We  were  dividing  the  House  one  night,"  he  told  us,  "just 
at  the  dinner-hour.  It  was  so  arranged  by  Biggar  and  others. 
We  forced  three  divisions,  and  drove  them  furious.  I  noticed 
one  old  country  squire,  a  Tory,  who  had  been  wounded  in  the 
Crimean  War,  limping  along  to  the  dining-room  after  each 
division  to  resume  his  interrupted  meal.  He  glared  at  me 
each  time  we  passed  each  other,  as  if  he  would  like  to  have 
me  in  some  situation  that  would  enable  him  to  settle  accounts 
with  me  in  his  own  way  over  his  outraged  appetite.  The 
third  call  of  the  bell  was  too  much  for  him,  and,  coming  up  to 
me,  he  said,  in  a  voice  choking  with  anger,  '  Sir,  in  the  name  of 
God,  tell  me  what  it  is  you  want;  take  it  and  go,  and  let  me 
have  my  dinner  in  peace!' 

"That  is  the  temper  you  have  to  provoke  in  that  place. 
Make  them  feel  that  it  is  not  all  their  own,  that  they  have  to 
face  some  of  the  discomforts  of  the  Irish  fight;  punish  and 
worry  them,  and  they  may  then  begin  to  think  there  is  some- 
thing wrong  behind  it  all  which  requires  setting  right  so  as  to 
promote  their  own  peace  of  mind.  An  ounce  of  parliamentary 
fear  is  worth  a  ton  of  parliamentary  love." 

Mr.  Parnell  did  not  enter  into  the  plans  of  the  Land  League 
in  1879  in  any  careless  or  indifferent  spirit.  Quite  the  con- 
trary. He  knew  that  though  the  new  departure  had  been  op- 
posed by  the  recognized  Fenian  leaders  in  Ireland,  the  men 
of  the  Clan-na-Gael  in  America  were  most  favorable  to  it,  and 
that  Egan,  Brennan,  Harris,  myself,  and  others,  though  not 
actually  within  the  revolutionary  organization  at  the  time, 
were  in  no  way  changed  in  our  plans  or  aims  in  adopting  a 
change  of  method  in  working  them  out.  But  at  no  time  did 
Parnell  enter  into  any  compact  or  agreement  to  carry  out  any 
proposal  that  would  be  likely  to  involve  him  in  any  treasonable 
proceedings.  Nor  was  any  such  proposal  ever  made  to  him 
after  that  already  referred  to.  He  thoroughly  approved  of  all 
efforts  to  bring  the  revolutionary  forces  into  the  open  and  to 
y  employ  them  in  the  work  of  wringing  reforms  out  of  Parlia- 
/  ment,  but  beyond  this  and  a  natural  desire  to  learn  all  that 

could  be  told  to  him  about  the  struggle  within  the  secret 
movement  between  the  inflexible  and  expedient  Fenians  he 
took  no  part  in  the  plans  or  councils  of  either  wing. 

Mr.  John  Devoy  has  asserted  the  contrary  more  than  once, 
but  he  is  mistaken.  Mr.  Parnell  saw  him  twice  in  this  year 
(1879)  and  not  earlier,  as  he  (Parnell)  was  misled  into  saying 
in  his  evidence  before  the  Parnell  Commission.  I  was  present 
at  both  interviews;  one  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  who 

176 


THE  LA.ND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

then  resided  at  Synnot  Place,  Dublin,  and  the  second  time  at 
Morrison's  Hotel.  The  conversation  on  both  occasions  was 
very  general,  and  Mr.  Parnell's  part  was  that  of  a  listener 
mainly.  There  was  neither  compact  nor  treaty,  agreement 
or  understanding  of  any  kind  drawn,  discussed,  or  even  alluded 
to  that  could  warrant  any  one  in  saying  a  union  between  Mr. 
Parnell  and  the  revolutionary  bodies  had  been  entered  into  or 
was  in  contemplation.  It  would  serve  no  purpose,  cause,  or 
motive  to  deny  the  existence  of  such  a  union  now  had  it  ever 
been  in  existence.  It  would  be  no  injustice  to  Mr.  Parnell's 
memory,  nor  could  it  be  any  censure  or  reflection  upon  any 
conduct  of  mine  after  I  had  tried  but  failed  to  induce  him  to 
enter  the  revolutionary  ranks.  The  mistake  in  this  connec- 
tion arose  in  supposing  that  Mr.  Parnell  was  "run"  because 
he  showed  a  friendly  personal  feeling  towards  extreme  men 
who,  he  knew,  all  respected  him,  and  on  account  of  his  hav- 
ing accepted  the  leadership  of  the  Land  League  which  had 
grown  out  of  the  new  departure.  Mr.  Parnell's  attitude 
might  be  called  that  of  friendly  neutrality  towards  the  revo- 
lutionary movement  and  nothing  more. 

Offices  for  the  new  combination  were  secured  at  62  Middle 
Abbey  Street,  Dublin,  premises  owned  by  Mr.  Patrick  Gordon, 
and  the  headquarters  of  the  league  soon  became  the  centre  of 
organizing  activity.  Meetings  of  an  informal  committee 
(made  up  of  those  whose  names  appear  in  the  report  of  the 
Imperial  Hotel  meeting  on  October  21st)  were  held  once  a 
fortnight,  at  which  Mr.  Parnell  occasionally  attended.  The 
chief  business  was  that  of  extending  the  league,  encouraging 
meetings,  and  printing  and  circulating  literature  against  land- 
lordism, and  showing  the  inadequacy  of  Mr.  Butt's  Land  Bill, 
which  still  stood  for  the  parliamentary  programme  of  the  Home- 
Rule  members  on  the  land  question.  The  league  was  steadily 
extending  in  the  West  and  a  few  other  counties,  but  not  as  rap- 
idly as  was  wished.  There  was  still  a  good  deal  of  clerical 
opposition  to  the  extreme  opinions  associated  with  the  league 
propaganda,  while  the  Freeman's  Journal,  the  leading  nation- 
alist daily  paper,  was  loyal  to  Mr.  William  Shaw's  leadership, 
and  more  or  less  hostile  to  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  new  supporters. 

In  this  situation  something  even  more  stimulating  to  prog- 
ress in  organization  than  impending  distress  was  required, 
and  our  hopes  were  centred  in  sanguine  expectancy  upon  the 
usual  asinine  stupidity  of  Dublin  Castle.  Nor  did  we  hope 
in  vain.  The  league  was,  of  course,  anathema  to  the  land- 
lords from  its  inception.  It  attacked  the  sacred  right  of  rent, 
and  that  fact  alone  demonstrated  the  treasonable  purpose  of 
the  agitation,  and  was  an  overwhelming  reason  why  the  gov- 
12  177 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ernment  should  prosecute  those  who  preached  so  abominable 
a  doctrine.  And  as  Dublin  Castle  has  never  been  anything 
in  the  rule  of  Ireland  unless  a  subservient  agent  or  state 
bailiff  for  landlordism,  it  followed  that  the  action  which  this 
class  clamored  for  would  sooner  or  later  be  taken  by  the  Castle 
executive,  which  was  ready  to  prostitute  England  and  its  laws 
to  the  purposes  of  its  Irish  landlord  masters.  Our  policy  at 
this  juncture  was  to  force  the  hands  of  the  Castle,  and  thus  to 
compel  our  enemies  to  render  the  league  a  service  which  no 
other  agency  could  at  the  time  offer  us.  The  eternal  blunder- 
ers on  Cork  Hill,  Dublin,  played  into  our  hands,  as  we  knew 
they  would. 

A  league  meeting  was  arranged  for  Gurteen,  County  Sligo, 
on  Sunday,  November  2d.  It  was  the  first  of  the  league 
gatherings  in  County  Sligo,  and  Mr.  John  Dillon,  Mr.  Daly,  of 
Castlebar,  and  Mr.  Killeen,  a  Belfast  barrister,  along  with 
myself,  attended.  I  made  a  very  violent  attack  upon  rent, 
and  hinted  at  a  coming  combination  of  farmers  and  others 
which  would  sweep  landlords  and  rent  out  of  the  country. 
Messrs.  Daly  and  Killeen  followed  in  a  similar  strain,  the 
speeches  being  taken  down  by  a  government  reporter. 

A  fortnight  subsequently,  on  learning  that  there  was  to 
be  an  eviction  at  Balla,  in  Mayo,  on  or  about  the  24th,  it 
was  resolved  to  plan  a  resistance  to  the  proceeding  in  the 
form  of  a  huge  demonstration  close  to  the  scene  of  the  threat- 
ened expulsion  of  Anthony  Dempsey  and  his  family  of  six 
children  from  their  cabin  home. 

At  midnight  of  November  i8th,  as  I  was  retiring  to  bed, 
the  following  communication  was  handed  to  me  by  a  special 
messenger  from  the  late  Mr.  E.  Dwyer  Gray,  editor  of  The 
Freeman:  "You  will  be  arrested  to-morrow  morning  for  your 
speech  at  Gurteen,  and  your  ticket  -  of  -  leave  will  be  can- 
celled. I  would  advise  you  to  avoid  being  sent  back  to 
penal  servitude  by  leaving  the  country  until  the  storm  blows 
over." 

This  friendly  advice  was  not  followed,  and  at  five  o'clock 
next  morning  my  lodgings  were  raided  from  Dublin  Castle 
and  I  was  carried  a  prisoner  to  Sligo.  Messrs.  Daly  and  Kil- 
leen were  also  arrested.  We  were  taken  before  the  resident 
magistrate  the  same  day  and  remanded  until  the  following 
Monday  for  trial  on  a  charge  of  sedition. 

Nothing  could  surpass  Mr.  Parnell's  courageous  loyalty  to 
the  league  in  face  of  this  action  of  the  government.  He  at 
once  denounced  the  arrests,  called  an  indignation  meeting 
immediately,  which  was  held  within  forty-eight  hours  in  the 
Rotunda,  Dublin,  presided  over  by  Mr.  Dwyer  Gray,  and  ad- 

178 


THE  LAND  LEAGUE  OF  IRELAND 

dressed  by  the  late  Mr.  P.  J.  Smythe,  Mr.  Dillon,  Mr.  T.  D. 
Sullivan,  others,  and  himself.  He  worked  up  popular  feeling 
so  successfully  in  Dublin  and  elsewhere  against  the  obvious 
intention  of  the  Castle  to  send  me  back  to  penal  servitude  that 
they  abandoned  this  plan,  and  put  me  on  trial  with  the  others 
on  the  merits  of  the  Gurteen  speech. 

He  not  only  aroused  public  sympathy  in  our  favor,  he  boldly 
faced  danger  himself.  The  Balla  meeting  had  been  arranged 
for  before  my  arrest,  and  I  was  to  attend  together  with  Mr. 
Brennan  and  others  to  prevent  an  eviction,  if  possible.  Men 
were  to  come  with  such  weapons  as  could  be  provided  to  en- 
able them  to  defend  themselves  if  attacked  by  the  police. 
In  the  event  of  the  meeting  being  proclaimed,  it  was  to  be  held 
all  the  same  in  defiance  of  any  Dublin  Castle  edict.  Mr.  Par- 
nell  volunteered  to  attend  the  demonstration,  and  announced 
his  resolution  at  the  Rotunda  indignation  meeting  in  these 
defiant  words: 

"To-morrow,  at  Balla,  we  propose  to  test  the  rights  of  Irish- 
men to  assemble  in  public  meeting.  I  believe  that  to-morrow 
will  be  the  turning-point  of  this  great  land  movement.  If  the 
people  will  contain  themselves,  if  they  refuse  to  be  driven  by 
the  government  into  illegal  courses,  I  say  that  the  victory  is 
ours.  As  for  the  rest,  we  do  not  fear  them.  Let  them  pro- 
ceed with  their  action ;  let  them  bring  forward  their  false  and 
suborned  witnesses,  and  let  them  arrest,  if  they  will,  those 
other  men  who  have  made  themselves  prominent  in  the  agita- 
tion, and  for  every  one  that  is  lost  to  you  the  fresh  hopes  and 
aspirations  and  spirit  which  tyranny  always  produces  among 
a  people  will  abundantly  compensate."  ^ 

The  Balla  meeting  was  held,  and  was  so  extraordinary  a 
demonstration  of  organized  strength  and  determination  that 
no  attempt  was  made  either  to  interfere  with  it  or  to  proceed 
with  the  eviction.  Mr.  Parnell  delivered  a  thoroughly  fight- 
ing speech,  and  went  straight  from  the  meeting  to  Sligo,  ac- 
companied by  Mr.  John  Dillon,  to  attend  the  trial  of  the 
prisoners.  He  visited  us  in  the  prison  on  Monday,  and  his 
very  first  concern  was  to  describe  the  Balla  meeting,  over  the 
success  of  which  he  was  full  of  enthusiasm.  "We  formed  our 
men  in  two  columns,  military  style,  and  seeing  the  constabu- 
lary mustering  in  force  near  Dempsey's  house,  we  sent  one  col- 
umn round  to  their  left,  while  the  other  marched  to  the  right, 
our  object  being  to  encircle  the  police  with  our  ten  thousand 
men.  But  when  they  saw  how  they  were  certain  to  be  caught 
by  our  manoeuvre,  the  officer  retired  his  men  beyond  our  lines 

*  Freeman's  Journal,  November  22,  1879. 
179 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  escaped  the  net.  They  were  thoroughly  frightened,  and 
we  held  our  meeting  unmolested,  Mr.  Brennan  making  a 
fiery  and  splendid  speech."  For  which  speech,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, he  was  subsequently  prosecuted,  and  added  to  the 
Land  League's  first  batch  of  political  confessors. 


CHAPTER  XV 
THE    SLIGO     PROSECUTIONS 

By  a  happy  inspiration  Mr.  Joseph  Biggar  had  divined  what 
we  purposed  doing  with  the  prosecution  in  SHgo — to  turn  the 
whole  proceedings  into  ridicule,  and  to  cover  the  Castle  and 
its  law  with  public  contempt.  Acting  in  sympathy  with  this 
plan,  he  engaged  John  Rea,  of  Belfast,  to  defend  Mr.  Killeen, 
who  was  a  native  of  that  city  and,  like  Rea,  a  Protestant. 
John  Rea  was  a  solicitor  with  a  career  as  extraordinary  as  his 
personality.  Those  of  my  readers  who  may  never  have  heard 
of  a  man  who  was  in  his  time  the  most  popular  as  well  as  the 
most  eccentric  character  in  Ulster  will  probably  find  a  better 
picture  of  him  in  the  following  piece  of  self-portraiture  than 
in  any  longer  description  by  another  pen.  The  press  at  the 
time  when  this  document  was  published  referred  to  John  in 
these  terms: 

"The  eccentric  John  Rea,  who  is  now  a  prisoner  in  Down- 
patrick  jail  for  contempt  of  court,  lately  sent  the  following 
extraordinary  telegram  to  his  solicitor: 

"'Manage,  if  you  can,  every  morning  to  send  up  breakfast 
at  seven  o'clock,  or  even  sooner,  for,  as  a  most  experienced 
jail-bird,  I  know  what  a  very  great  comfort  it  is  for  a  prisoner 
to  get  his  ham,  eggs,  and  tea  and  toast  very  early;  hot  dinner 
to  be  sent  up  at  one  in  the  afternoon,  and  tea  at  six  in  the 
evening. 

"'With  dinner  be  sure  also  to  transmit  a  gallon  or  two  of 
essence  of  shamrocks.  By  that,  of  course,  you  know  I  mean 
good  Ulster  buttermilk,  with  just  a  dash  of  sweet  milk  through 
it — say  one-fourth,  not  more — to  take  off  the  acidity,  and  to 
make  it  agree  better  with  persons  not  habituated,  as  every 
Christian  Irishman  ought  to  be,  to  its  lavish  use. 

"'Poets  may  sing  as  they  like  of  Falernian,  Old  Coleraine, 
Guinness's  stout.  Bass's  beer,  and  French  champagne,  but  from 
life-long  experience  (and  you  have  often  had  practical  knowl- 
edge during  our  thirty-five  years'  friendship  of  the  fact  that  I 
never  was  a  teetotaller)  I  can  certify  that  there  is  not  a  drink 
available  for  the  human  race  at  all  equal  to  the  essence  of 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

shamrocks.  If  a  man  will  drink  nothing  but  that  (except  on 
an  odd  time,  such  as  St.  Patrick's  Day  or  the  Twelfth  of  July), 
and  will  keep,  for  the  purpose  of  compelling  himself  to  take 
morning  and  evening  exercise,  from  one  to  three  brace  of 
Irish  water-spaniels  (the  best  of  all  existing  dogs),  I  will  guar- 
antee him  both  health  and  longevity.  But  for  my  great  love 
of  mixed  milk  and  brown  curled  dogs  I  would  now,  to  a  dead 
certainty,  be  not  an  Orange  prisoner  in  Downpatrick  jail, 
fifteen-stone  weight,  and  in  the  highest  possible  spirits,  but  a 
very  unsubstantial  Irish -Orange- Fenian  angel  flying  through 
purgatory  with  a  plumage  of  a  most  dingy  hue,  or,  perhaps, 
if  in  favor  of  St.  Peter,  of  orange,  green,  and  crimson,  the  Irish 
tricolor. 

'"God  save  Ireland,  and  no  surrender!'" 

Rea  was  accounted  one  of  the  best  criminal  lawyers  in  Ire- 
land despite  his  peculiarities.  He  was  the  terror  of  the  petty 
sessions  and  other  magistrates  in  the  North  of  Ireland,  before 
whom  he  generally  defended  Orange  rioters  or  other  disturb- 
ers of  the  peace  after  party  processions.  He  loved  to  call 
himself  "Her  Orthodox  Presbyterian  Britannic  Majesty's 
Orange-Fenian  Attorney-General  for  Ulster."  Whenever  he 
appeared  in  any  case  in  which  he  was  likely  to  come  into  con- 
flict with  the  justices,  he  carried  his  portmanteau  with  him. 
On  rising  to  address  the  bench  he  would  open  it,  and  reveal, 
along  with  his  law  books,  preparations  already  made  for  a 
sojourn  in  prison  for  expected  contempt  of  court.  This  prac- 
tice was  a  deliberate  game  to  intimidate  the  magistrates.  He 
would  then  inform  the  bench  that  he  objected  on  principle  to 
being  removed  from  court  by  any  number  less  than  seven 
policemen. 

He  stood  nearly  six  feet  high,  had  a  massive  head  of  a  most 
combative  formation,  a  loud  voice  with  a  pronounced  Ulster 
accent,  and  a  provocative  manner  which  would  drive  a  bench 
of  Quakers  into  a  militant  mood  of  retaliation.  This  was  the 
man  whom  we  planned  to  let  loose  upon  the  Crown  and  its 
representatives  in  the  proceedings  in  which  the  Land  League 
and  Dublin  Castle  were  to  have  the  first  of  many  encounters 
for  the  palm  of  supremacy  in  Ireland. 

There  began  in  the  court-house,  SHgo,  on  Monday,  Novem- 
ber 24,  1879,  one  of  the  most  successful  legal  farces  ever  acted 
off  a  theatrical  stage.  The  bench  was  occupied  by  a  resident 
magistrate  (whom  Rea  at  once  addressed  as  "Mr.  Promoted- 
Policeman,"  the  unfortunate  president  of  the  court  having 
once  been  an  humble  "peeler")  and  three  or  four  local  jus- 
tices. The  Crown  was  represented  by  Mr.  Monroe,  a  rather 
gentlemanly  opponent  of  ours  (whom  Rea  immediately  sa- 

182 


THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 

luted  as  being  associated  in  blood  with  the  '98  Monroe  who 
was  hanged  by  the  English  as  a  rebel  in  County  Down),  and  a 
local  Crown  prosecutor.  On  our  side  towered  Rea  in  his 
most  aggressive  and  most  insolent  manner,  conscious  of  his 
own  superiority  in  legal  knowledge  and  in  talkative  powers 
over  the  entire  Crown  side,  and  revelling  in  the  circum- 
stance, described  by  himself:  "I  know  I  am  pleading  in  the 
hearing  of  twenty-seven  press  reporters,  and  before  a  bench 
on  which  an  ex-policeman  presides,  for  the  right  of  meeting 
and  free  speech."  Mr.  Louden  represented  Mr.  James  Daly, 
and  I  had  decided  to  be  my  own  defender,  with  Messrs.  Par- 
nell  and  Dillon  as  lay  assessors. 

The  day's  proceedings  began  by  the  Sligo  brass-band  and  a 
huge  crowd  escorting  the  prisoners  from  the  county  jail  to  the 
trial,  the  procession  parading  the  whole  town  on  its  way  to  the 
court,  like  a  newly  arrived  circus  company.  The  court  was 
as  crowded  as  a  theatre  with  the  attraction  of  a  popular  play, 
a  large  number  of  ladies  being  present.  Then  began  the  sol- 
emn farce  of  reading  an  indictment,  and  the  customary  legal 
fray  over  points,  precedents,  and  previous  judgments  between 
the  opposing  counsel.  The  luckless  magistrate  who  pre- 
sided happened  to  mispronounce  a  word  in  ruling  on  a  point 
of  order,  when  Rea  jumped  to  his  feet  and  wanted  to  know 
"whether  it  was  permissible  for  a  man  in  the  pay  of  the  Crown 
to  murder  the  Queen's  English?"  The  audience  roared,  the 
reporters  carefully  noted  the  point,  and  the  helpless  victim 
of  the  "Orange-Fenian  Attorney-General  for  Ulster"  did  not 
offer  another  remark  to  court  or  counsel  during  the  day. 
In  this  manner  the  first  session  of  the  magisterial  investi- 
gation went  on  and  ended,  the  sitting  being  adjourned  until 
the  following  morning.  Back  we  went  to  the  prison,  the 
brass-band  leading,  the  police  escorting,  and  the  whole  town 
following  and  cheering  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  the  prisoners. 
And  when  the  "villains"  of  the  piece  were  disposed  of  for 
the  night  in  the  jail,  a  public  meeting  was  held  in  the  town, 
addressed  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  others  in  speeches  which  rang 
with  fierce  denunciations  of  the  prosecution,  and  the  curtain 
was  rung  down  upon  the  first  act  of  the  precious  perform- 
ance. 

Then  the  twenty-seven  newspaper  correspondents  did  their 
part  of  the  day's  work.  They  spread  their  reports  of  the  trial 
on  the  wings  of  the  press  of  Ireland,  Great  Britain,  and  the 
United  States.  Indignation  meetings  were  at  once  called  for 
in  Limerick,  Cork,  London,  Liverpool,  Bradford,  Glasgow, 
Dundee,  and  elsewhere;  while  cable  messages  of  sympathy 
and  promised  support  came  flashing  across  the  Atlantic  in 

183 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAxND 

reprobation  of  this  most  tyrannous  action  of  the  British 
government.  The  situation  was  superb,  and  some  cells  in 
Sligo  jail  echoed  each  night  with  the  chuckling  of  contented 
inmates. 

Here  we  had  the  imbecihty  of  English  rule  in  Ireland  dis- 
played in  its  most  rampant  antics.  The  "crime"  consisted 
of  three  speeches  that  would  not  have  been  heard  of  outside 
of  the  circulating  radius  of  the  local  press,  or  by  chance  in 
Dublin,  had  the  Castle  possessed  common-sense  enough  to 
ignore  them.  They  were  tame  enough  utterances,  in  all  con- 
science, compared  with  subsequent  league  pronouncements. 
Yet  they  were  being  wired  to  every  quarter  of  the  three  king- 
doms, together  with  accounts  of  "scenes"  between  John  Rea 
and  the  bench,  and  with  reports  of  meetings  of  protest  ad- 
dressed by  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Dillon.  We  could  not  have 
done  the  league  work  of  propaganda  and  of  covering  the  law 
with  ridicule  as  effectively  if  we  hati  spent  ;;^5ooo  on  the  task. 
Our  enemies  were  our  best  friends  in  this  sense,  and  it  became 
a  most  anxious  consideration  with  us  how  we  could  best  pro- 
long the  priceless  entertainment. 

The  programme  for  the  second  day  resembled  that  of  the 
first — brass-band,  police,  prisoners,  procession,  cheers,  and  a 
re-entry  into  the  temple  of  the  law  converted  into  a  judicial 
vaudeville.  When  Rea  would  grow  tired  of  gibing  at  the 
bench,  "  '98  Monroe,"  and  the  rest,  he  would  leave  the  build- 
ing, stand  on  the  steps,  and  harangue  the  crowd  outside  upon 
the  composition  of  the  court,  and  end  by  lauding  William  of 
Orange,  denouncing  the  pro-British  politics  of  Italian  cardi- 
nals, and  the  incurable  stupidity  and  corruption  of  Dublin 
Castle.  His  programme  was  to  try  and  carry  on  the  pro- 
ceedings for  a  week,  insult  the  bench  at  the  end  of  the  trial, 
get  sentenced  to  a  short  imprisonment  for  contempt  of  court, 
and  then  terminate  the  whole  business  in  a  physical  struggle 
to  prevent  the  police  removing  him  to  the  jail.  But  so  com- 
pletely did  he  terrify  the  magistrates  by  his  vitriolic  tongue 
that  they  allowed  him  to  tire  himself  out,  and  in  this  way  only 
did  they  frustrate  what  was  to  have  been  the  final  scene  of 
this  ludicrous  performance. 

The  trial  continued  almost  the  whole  week.  We  were 
each  committed  for  trial,  and  then  admitted  to  bail,  being 
serenaded  with  torches  and  tar  -  barrels  in  turn  each  night ; 
every  day's  sitting  of  the  court  being  followed  by  the  inevi- 
table public  meeting,  with  more  speeches  from  Messrs.  Parnell 
and  Dillon.  I  recollect  one  evening,  after  we  had  escorted  Mr. 
Killeen  to  prison  (he  being  the  last  of  the  trio  to  be  "tried"), 
finding  myself  seated  at  dinner  in  the  hospitable  home  of 

184 


THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 

Dr.  Michael  Cox,  with  the  head  officer  in  charge  of  the  Sligo 
poHce  between  Mr.  Parnell  and  myself.  He  is  dead  some 
years  now,  and  the  mention  of  this  fact  will  not  injure  his 
chances  of  promotion.  We  had  no  more  ardent  sympathizer 
in  Sligo,  and  no  one  enjoyed  the  exquisite  fooling  which  had 
been  carried  on  at  the  expense  of  the  majesty  of  the  law  more 
thoroughly  than  its  chief  protector  in  the  prosperous  little 
western  borough. 

Near  the  end  of  the  play  the  press  began  to  "hiss"  the 
Crown  performance  off  the  stage.  The  farce  was  becoming 
too  broadly  ludicrous,  and  the  purpose  of  the  league  was  too 
plainly  obvious  to  deceive  any  one.  For  almost  a  week  it 
had  turned  the  Castle  court  into  a  spectacle  of  public  mockery, 
the  country  chuckling  all  the  time  at  the  complete  success  of 
the  comedy  which  had  been  provided  for  the  public  at  the 
initial  instigation  of  the  league  by  Lord  Beaconsfield's  Irish 
chief  secretary,  the  Right  Hon.  James  Lowther,  M.P. 

But  John  Rea  was  not  happy.  His  plans  had  not  all  been 
agreed  to  by  Mr.  Parnell.  The  league  president  began  to  tire 
of  John's  dangerous  allusions  to  "Romish  priests  and  Italian 
cardinals"  as  being  extra  gag,  and  not  contemplated  by  Mr. 
Biggar  when  that  consummate  strategist  had  engaged  the 
"Orange-Fenian"  lawyer  to  make  an  English  court  of  justice 
a  public  laughing-stock  to  all  Ireland.  So  the  end  of  the 
"Sligo  state  trials  "  was  the  retirement  of  the  justices  from  the 
bench,  after  committing  Mr.  Killeen  for  trial,  while  John  Rea 
was  left  the  sole  occupant  of  the  court.  Wondering  why  he 
remained  behind  after  the  place  had  been  ordered  to  be  clear- 
ed, I  re-entered  the  building  and  found  the  big,  burly  Orange- 
man leaning  with  his  back  against  the  bench  on  which  his 
victims  had  sat  in  terror  of  his  tongue  for  several  days,  hands 
folded  across  his  huge  chest  and  head  bent  down. 

"What  is  the  matter,  John?     Why  don't  you  come  out?" 

"Only  for  Parnell,  my  friend,"  Rea  answered,  "this  thing 
could  have  gone  on  for  nearly  another  week.  He  has  spoiled 
the  play.  I  don't  like  him.  His  head  is  too  small  to  contain 
much  brains,  and  he  will  come  to  a  bad  end.  I  was  in  jail  in 
Kilmainham  in  1848,  with  Mitchell  and  others,  and  I  have 
been  many  times  in  prison  since,  as  you  know,  but  there  never 
was  such  a  chance  for  John  Rea  as  that  fellow  Parnell  has 
spoiled.  And  I  know  why  he  did  it.  He  saw  that  I  would, 
in  the  end,  have  things  all  my  own  way,  and  wind  up  in  a 
blaze  of  glory  as  a  contempt -of-court  prisoner,  to  be  selected 
as  an  Orange-Fenian  candidate  for  the  next  vacancy  in  a  po- 
litical-papist constituency,  and  that  nothing  could  stop  my 
progress  to  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Commons.     Heavens,  how 

185 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

I  could  help  Biggar,  if  I  got  there,  to  make  things  lively!  And 
now  Parnell  has  gone  and  spoiled  it  all."  And  John,  sorrow- 
ing over  the  failure  of  his  parliamentary  hopes,  left  the  scene 
of  his  week's  professional  entertainment  with  slow  and  re- 
luctant steps. 

A  few  weeks  subsequently  the  traversers  were  notified  to 
attend  the  assizes  at  Carrick-on-Shannon  for  trial  by  jury. 
Mr.  Thomas  Brennan  had  been  added  to  the  list  in  the  mean 
time  for  a  speech  at  Balla.  We  organized  a  league  demon- 
stration in  the  town  in  which  we  were  to  be  tried,  and  arranged 
for  it  to  be  held  the  day  before  the  court  assembled.  We  re- 
peated our  indicted  speeches  in  defiance  of  the  threatened 
penalties,  only  to  find  on  the  following  day  that  Dublin  Castle 
had  virtually  thrown  up  the  sponge.'  They  learned  from  the 
police  and  others,  what  we  well  knew  already,  that  no  jury 
in  Connaught  could  be  empanelled  to  convict  us  in  face  of 
impending  distress.  The  league  had  triumphed.  The  Castle 
was  defied,  ridiculed,  and  defeated,  the  country  was  at  our 
back,  and  the  way  was  clear  for  the  projected  mission  of  Par- 
nell and  Dillon  to  the  United  States. 

The  priceless  assistance  rendered  to  the  league  by  the  blun- 
dering tactics  of  the  Sligo  prosecution  broke  down  almost  all 
barriers  hitherto  operating  against  its  progress  outside  of 
Connaught.  Its  influence  in  the  country  grew  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  Dublin  Castle  had  grappled  with  it  and  had  been 
thrown  badly  in  the  encounter,  and,  wdiat  was  worse,  was 
laughed  at  by  the  public  in  the  disgrace  of  its  defeat.  Its 
prestige  had  suffered  while  that  of  the  league  became  enor- 
mously enhanced.  The  landlords  had  forced  the  action  of 
the  government  in  the  trials,  and  the  result  would  tell  against 
them  and  their  rentals  in  a  situation  which  was  soon  to  hoist 
them  more  or  less  by  their  own  petard.  They  had  attempted 
to  kill  the  "no-rent"  feeling,  when  they  saw  clearly  that  a 
terrible  winter  was  approaching,  and  instead  they  had  helped 
to  create  a  power  that  was  destined  in  that  and  another  winter 
to  kill  the  rent  system  which  had  the  British  Empire  behind 
it  for  hundreds  of  years. 

It  was  a  matter  of  indifference  to  the  Downing  Street  rulers 
of  Ireland  how  or  to  what  extent  the  bad  harvests  and  fall- 
ing prices  of  the  years  1877  and  1878  could  or  should  aft'ect 
the  payment  of  rents  after  a  culminating  crop  failure  in  the 
summer  of  1879.  A  domestic  government  would  not  be 
blind  to  such  a  condition  of  things,  but  an  English  govern- 

*  The  trials  vv'ere  removed  to  Dublin  on  the  application  of  the  Crown, 
and  were  sitbsequently  abandoned  on  the  eve  of  the  general  election 
of  1880. 

186 


THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 

ment  of  Ireland  was  extra  blind  where  it  did  not  wish  to  see 
or  know  the  truth. 

According  to  official  statistics  issued  by  the  Irish  registrar- 
general,  the  total  value  of  Irish  crops  in  1876  was  estimated 
to  be  worth  ;^36,ooo,ooo;  in  1877,  ;^28,ooo,ooo;  in  1878, 
;i<^3 2,000,000,  and  in  1879,  ;^22,ooo,ooo.  The  year  1876  was 
by  no  means  a  good  year  in  the  matter  of  prices;  but,  taking 
it  as  an  average,  the  actual  loss  by  Irish  farmers  in  the  three 
following  years,  as  compared  with  the  produce  of  1876, 
amounted  to  a  total  sum  of  ;^26,ooo,ooo,  or  over  two  and  a 
half  years'  rental  for  all  the  agricultural  land  of  Ireland. 

This  was  how  all  the  rent-paying  tenants  of  the  country 
were  affected  by  three  successive  bad  seasons.  In  the 
province  of  Connaught  the  condition  of  things  was  relatively 
worse,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  greatest  failure  of  all  Irish 
crops  in  these  years  was  that  of  potatoes,  and  because  this 
was  and  still  is  the  chief  food  crop  for  the  peasantry  of  the 
counties  along  the  Western  seaboard. 

In  1876  the  value  of  the  Irish  potato  crop  was  given  in 
official  statistics  at  ;;^i2,464,ooo;  in  1877  at  ;;^5,27i,ooo;  in 
1878  at  ;^7,579,ooo,  and  in  1879  at  ;^3,34i,ooo  only.  The 
loss  in  this  last  year,  as  compared  with  the  yield  of  1876, 
was  near  four  hundred  per  cent,  in  value. 

There  was  likewise  a  marked  falling-off  in  the  earnings  of 
the  migratory  laborers  from  Connaught  who  seek  harvest 
employment  in  England  each  year,  and  as  this  work,  with 
all  its  attendant  privations  and  self-denial,  was  a  main  source 
whence  rents  were  to  be  drawn  by  large  numbers  of  families 
in  the  West,  it  became  absolutely  impossible  for  such  rents  to 
be  paid  in  such  cases. 

In  view  of  all  these  facts,  the  attacks  which  the  Land 
League  made  upon  rent  in  the  autumn  of  1879  and  in  1880 
were  justified  on  every  ground  and  upon  every  theory  which 
legally  evolves  a  rent  for  land  out  of  the  surplus  yield  or 
value  of  its  produce,  and  takes  note  of  the  right  of  the  tenant 
or  worker  to  live  from  the  fruits  of  such  industry.  In  a 
word,  there  was  no  rent  earned  by  the  crop  lands  of  Ireland 
in  1879,  and  we  were  resolved  as  far  as  possible  to  prevent  any 
being  screwed  out  of  the  impoverished  people.  One  thing 
was  determined  upon:  there  should  be  no  slavish  moral 
cant  like  that  of  1846-47 — that  the  tenants  should  starve 
rather  than  "defraud"  the  landlord  of  his  rent — preached 
with  impunity  or  practised  through  fear.  No  matter  from 
what  quarter,  religious,  social,  or  political,  this  doctrine 
of  cowardice  and  voluntary  starvation  might  be  taught,  it 
was  to  be  met  and  stamped  upon  remorselessly  by  the  power 

187 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  our  organization.  Evictions  would,  of  course,  follow. 
That  was  inevitable.  Wars  are  not  waged  without  losses 
nor  battles  won  except  by  daring  and  sacrifice.  The  enemy 
was  landlordism,  and  the  more  we  reduced  its  rentals  and 
injured  their  annual  or  sale  value,  or  otherwise  damaged  a 
system  which  trampled  upon  the  homes  and  happiness  of  our 
peasantry  and  was  an  insolent  usurpation  of  a  national  right, 
the  sooner  would  England  recognize  the  necessity  for  a 
radical  reform  by  the  sweeping  away  of  the  whole  institution, 
with  its  infamous  record  of  failure,  wrong,  and  imposture. 

It  was  the  power  of  landlordism  to  demoralize  which  was  its 
most  hateful  feature.  It  owned  the  law,  it  influenced  the 
churches,  it  terrorized  the  homes  of  those  on  whose  earnings 
it  alone  subsisted,  and  in  addition  arrogated  to -its  members 
a  status  of  social  superiority  which  taught  the  landlord  class 
to  despise  the  very  people  by  whom  and  upon  whom  they 
lived.  Against  this  enemy,  therefore,  it  was  necessary  to 
employ  every  force  which  we  could  influence  or  employ, 
and  foremost  among  the  allies  on  whom  we  counted  in  such 
a  contest  was  the  Irish  race  in  the  United  States. 

The  Castle  coup  in  November  had  compelled  Mr.  Parnell  to 
postpone  his  departure  on  the  American  mission.  Had  he 
left  at  the  time  originally  intended  it  would  look  as  if  he 
went  away  from  danger,  a  ridiculous  charge  actually  brought 
against  him  subsequently  in  the  United  States,  and  replied 
to  in  his  speech  at  St.  Louis  in  the  sensational  words  which 
will  be  found  reproduced  in  the  next  chapter.  It  was  es- 
sential before  starting  to  encourage  the  country  in  the  policy 
laid  down  at  the  Western  meetings — no  rent  without  abate- 
ments, no  tame  submission  to  evictions,  and  no  land  grabbing 
to  be  permitted.  No  revolutionist  in  the  movement  sur- 
passed Mr.  Parnell  in  the  fearless  assertion  of  this  policy. 
At  meetings  in  Cork,  Navan,  Enniscorthy,  Belfast,  and 
Liverpool  he  proclaimed  it,  and  thus  openly  challenged  the 
law  to  proceed  against  him.  At  the  Liverpool  demonstra- 
tion he  declared  that  he  accepted  and  repeated  all  that  had 
been  spoken  at  the  Gurteen  meeting,  denying  that  there  was 
anything  said  which  could  be  proved  to  be  illegal  where  a 
fair  trial,  as  in  England,  would  determine  the  issue  between 
the  accused  and  the  Crown.  The  London  Standard  called 
upon  the  government  to  accept  Mr.  Parnell's  challenge, 
declaring  that  he  had  uttered  sedition,  but  the  advice  was 
not  taken.  The  Sligo  fiasco  had  given  Lord  Beaconsfield's 
administration  quite  enough  of  state  prosecutions  for  the 
present. 

Mr.  Parnell  and  other  prominent  Land-Leaguers  were   in 


THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 

daily  receipt  of  threatening  letters  at  this  time.  All  kinds  of 
violence  were  to  be  resorted  to  by  "a  landlord's  son,"  "the 
son  of  an  agent,"  "an  anti-communist,"  "a  hater  of  rogues 
and  vagabonds,"  and  others  who  were  careful,  like  all  writers 
of  sanguinary  epistles,  to  conceal  their  real  names.  For  every 
landlord  fired  at  one  of  us  was  to  experience  the  sensation  of 
being  made  a  human  target  of  in  retaliation.  This  was  not 
altogether  fair,  seeing  that  our  attacks  were  not  made  upon 
landlords  personally,  but  upon  rents,  which  were  a  violation 
of  all  laws  except  those  passed  expressly  by  a  landlord-ridden 
Parliament  for  the  selfish  interests  of  the  class.  But  threat- 
ening letters  are  not  concerned  with  nice  distinctions  between 
the  sanctity  of  rent  and  the  worth  of  a  life,  and  we  were 
constrained  to  purchase  revolvers,  and  to  be  on  the  defensive 
against  possible  assaults  in  Dublin  and  other  places  where 
there  were  comparatively  large  pro-landlord  partisans  and 
pro-British  minorities. 

On  one  occasion  about  this  period  Mr.  Parnell  was  proceed- 
ing to  London  from  Holyhead,  and  found  himself  in  a  carriage 
with  four  other  persons,  all  travelling  first  class.  He  was 
unrecognized.  The  subject  of  the  anti-rent  agitation  was 
soon  broached  by  one  of  his  companions,  and  the  strongest 
language  of  abuse  was  resorted  to. 

"The  man  who  sat  next  to  me,"  said  Parnell,  in  relating 
the  incident,  "declared  that  Parnell  was  a  renegade  to  his 
own  class,  and  ought  to  be  shot  for  stirring  up  the  country 
against  the  landlords.  I  wondered  at  the  time  how  he  would 
feel  if  he  knew  that  he  was  sitting  close  up  to  a  six-chambered 
loaded  revolver  in  my  right-side  pocket." 

There  were  other  assailants  also,  of  a  less  violent  but  of  a 
more  dangerous  and  insidious  kind,  who  indirectly  backed 
up  the  clamors  of  the  landlord  organs  to  suppress  the  league. 
The  then  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  Dr.  McCabe,  had  had  the 
good  taste  to  assail  the  movement  in  a  pastoral  letter,  which 
was  issued  the  very  day  before  the  trial  of  the  prosecuted 
leaguers  at  Sligo.  The  archbishop  was  full  of  sympathy 
for  the  victims  of  distress,  and  strong  in  that  complacent 
charity  which  can  give  an  abundance  of  advice  and  blame 
to  those  who  suffer  wrong  and  the  silence  of  sympathy  or 
support  towards  the  authority  that  upholds  and  the  class 
which  inflicts  the  suffering.  It  was  quite  in  keeping  with  the 
propaganda  of  this  one-sided  charity  that  the  Castle  which 
prosecuted  us  in  Sligo  should  reinforce  its  case  by  quoting 
Archbishop  McCabe  against  us,  and  the  press  of  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  had  to  publish  the  following  extract  from  the 
opening  speech  of  the  Crown  prosecutor: 

189 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"Counsel  thought  that  when  language  of  that  kind  was 
received  by  ten  thousand  tenant-farmers  of  this  country  with 
loud  and  enthusiastic  cheering,  it  was  no  wonder  that  the 
Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin  addressed  the  faithful  clergy 
of  his  Church,  who  he  trusted  would  ponder  well  the  words 
he  used.  'Unfortunately,'  he  said,  'men  proclaiming  their 
sympathy  with  the  people  in  their  distress  are  going  through 
the  country  disseminating  doctrines  which,  pushed  to  their 
logical  conclusion,  will  strike  at  the  root  of  that  good  faith 
and  mutual  confidence  which  are  the  foundation  of  social 
life.'" 

There  was  an  angry  feeling  created  among  the  supporters 
of  the  league  at  this  language  and  action  of  Archbishop  Mc- 
Cabe.  Unlike  the  aged  and  patriotic  Dr.  MacHale,  he  had  no 
claim  of  any  kind,  in  any  past  service  to  people  or  country, 
to  lecture  or  denounce  men  who  had  resolved  to  grapple  with 
the  root-causes  of  periodical  distress  in  a  death-struggle,  and  his 
Pharisaical  talk  about  good  faith  and  national  confidence  was 
bitterly  resented.  It  was  the  slavish  doctrine  of  the  great 
famine  time  once  more;  the  mendicants'  remedy  again  for  the 
victims  of  the  landlord  system ;  alms  from  the  public  for  starv- 
ing tenants  to  pay  rents  with, seasoned  with  "morality" — the 
morality  that  is  religiously  blind  to  the  theft  of  rack-rents  and 
the  social  sacrilege  of  eviction,  but  which  is  proclaimed  from 
the  house-tops  in  trumpet  tones  against  the  reformers  who  do 
not  follow  the  footsteps  of  the  modern  Levites  when  they  pass 
by  the  down-trodden  or  oppressed  with  averted  eyes. 

The  Archbishop  McCabe  opposition  was  not  lost  upon  the 
class  of  parliamentary  politicians  who  had  crept  into  Irish 
public  life  on  a  lip  profession  of  Home  Rule.  These  men  were 
the  stanch  supporters  of  Mr.  Shaw  and  the  unsparing  moral 
and  political  critics  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  league.  The  anx- 
ious concern  of  Dr.  McCabe  for  national  faith  and  honor,  based 
on  rack-rents  and  eviction,  was  piously  re-echoed  by  the  Sir 
George  Bowyers  and  Lord  Robert  Montagues  and  Dr.  Bradys, 
who  were  then  (how  almost  impossible  it  is  to  credit  it  now!) 
the  exponents  of  Irish  opinions  in  the  House  of  Commons. 
These  were  the  class  of  "representatives"  who  responded  to 
the  ideal  level  of  Churchmen  like  Dr.  McCabe.  Men  of  "po- 
sition and  standing,"  and  not  of  the  common  herd  whence 
some  archbishops  like  some  agitators  spring,  who  would  no 
more  dream  of  contesting  the  wish  or  the  opinion  of  a  bishop 
in  matters  political  than  to  question  the  law  of  gravitation. 
And  it  was  creatures  of  this  caliber  who  succeeded  in  creating 
the  impression  in  Rome  that  the  Land-Leaguers  were  "the 
enemies  of  religion,"  "the  foes  of  morality,"  and  all  the  rest; 

190 


THE    SLIGO    PROSECUTIONS 

an  impression  which,  at  two  later  periods  of  the  Hfe  of  the 
league  movement,  caused  the  greatest  of  the  Popes  to  tacitly 
sanction  pronouncements  in  support  of  the  Dr.  McCabe  code 
of  social  and  political  ethics,  which  led  the  Vatican  to  receive 
from  the  Catholic  laity  of  Ireland  two  of  the  sternest  rebuffs 
given  to  it  in  modern  times. 

The  combined  ignorance  and  presumption  which  went  to  the 
formation  of  opinion  about  Irish  national  politics  in  Rome  at  the 
time  will  be  illustrated  in  the  following  extract  which  was  repro- 
duced in  the  London  Globe,  the  high  Tory  and  landlord  organ : 

"The  Osservatore  Romano,  the  leading  organ  of  the  Vatican, 
writes  in  no  complimentary  terms  of  Messrs.  Biggar  and  Par- 
nell.  Mr.  Biggar  is  described  as  a  pizzicagnolo  [bacon-seller], 
who  became  a  member  for  Cavan  and  is  a  species  of  Irish 
Naquet.  'It  is  evident,'  says  the  Osservatore,  'that  the  Irish 
press  is  trying  to  get  rid  of  all  those  Catholic  members  who  are 
too  high-minded  to  pander  to  the  revolution,  and  that  the 
Freemasons  Parnell  and  Biggar  think  it  their  interest  to  make 
war  on  a  pontifical  zouave  whom  they  find  rising  above  their 
party  passions.  The  head  of  the  obstructionists  [it  says]  has 
completed  a  tour  of  agrarian  agitation  in  his  native  country. 
Mr.  Parnell,  instead  of  demanding,  along  with  his  Catholic 
colleagues,  better  legislation,  urges  his  auditors  to  confisca- 
tion, and  allows  them  in  his  presence  to  utter  prayers  for  as- 
sassination and  armed  revolt.  Ireland  is  now  in  an  acute 
moral  and  political  crisis.'  " 

It  was  this  same  Osservatore  Romano  that  had  declared,  in 
1875,  that  "forty  miscreants"  were  then  in  the  prison  of  the 
County  of  Thnrles,  Ireland,  on  a  charge  of  "murdering  priests." 
All  this  and  more  of  the  same  kind  of  opposition  was  borne 
with  at  the  time,  tempered  with  the  anticipated  satisfaction 
of  being  able  before  long  to  deal  with  those  whom  it  was  in- 
tended to  uphold  in  Irish  public  life.  The  Bowyers  and 
Montagues,  O'Conor  Dons  and  Bradys,  papal  zouaves  and 
the  rest,  would  soon  meet  the  "bacon-sellers"  and  "Free- 
masons" and  Fenians,  and  the  second-hand  retailers  of  the 
moral  precepts  which  were  stone-blind  to  evictions  while 
ablaze  with  holy  indignation  at  a  people's  revolt  against  a 
crime  and  pauper-making  system  would  have  to  disappear 
into  political  oblivion.  The  general  election  would  be  a  time 
of  reckoning  with  this  class  of  opponent,  and  the  league  had 
already  marked  down  the  professional  pious  politician  for  its 
quarry  in  every  nationalist  constituency. 

We  had,  however,  some  stanch  friends  and  supporters 
among  the  Irish  bishops,  while  many  priests  were  on  our  side, 
where  they  were  afraid  to  openly  take  part  in  the  movement. 

191 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Dr.  Duggan  was  always  with  us,  to  counsel  and  encourage  the 
league.  Dr.  MacCormick,  then  Bishop  of  Achonry,  freely  al- 
lowed his  priests  to  take  part  in  the  agitation.  One  of  these, 
Father  Denis  O'Hara,  spoke  at  the  Gurteen  meeting,  and 
began  there  a  career  of  work  for  the  good  of  the  people  which 
has  never  been  surpassed,  if  ever  equalled,  by  any  priest  who 
has  labored  with  the  kindest  of  Irish  hearts  and  the  most  level 
of  Irish  heads  for  the  protection  and  for  the  material  welfare 
of  the  Connaught  peasantry.  Father  Joyce,  of  Louisburgh, 
was,  I  believe,  the  first  priest  to  join  the  Land  League,  followed 
by  Father  James  Corbett,  then  of  Claremorris,  now  parish 
priest  of  Father  Lavelle's  old  parish  of  Mount  Partry,  Father 
Eugene  Slreehy,  of  Limerick,  Father  John  Behan,  of  Dub- 
lin, and  Father  O'Connor,  of  Achill.  Dr.  Croke,  Archbish- 
op of  Cashel,  had  not  yet  identified  himself  anew  with  the 
work  he  began  when  curate  in  Mallow  in  1852,  but  he  was 
soon  destined  to  become  the  league's  stoutest  defender  and 
strongest  supporter  among  the  Irish  hierarchy,  and  on  that 
account  to  be  singled  out  by  English  intrigue  in  Rome  for  a 
humiliation  which  only  made  him  the  more  revered  and  popular 
with  his  Catholic  fellow-countrymen  until  the  day  of  his  death. 

This  was  how  the  Land  League  stood  on  the  eve  of  the 
mission  to  the  United  States  in  December,  1879. 

The  government  had  been  compelled  by  the  facts  of  the  sit- 
uation to  recognize  the  perilous  state  of  the  tenantry,  espe- 
cially in  the  West,  and  the  remedies  suggested  for  the  distress 
which  we  had  foretold  in  August  were  the  customary  panaceas 
of  relief  committees  and  appeals  for  money  to  the  charitable 
public.  Mr.  Parnell  had  demanded  an  autumn  session  of 
Parliament  as  the  only  effective  means  by  which  adequate 
state  provisions  might  be  made  against  possible  starvation  in 
the  winter.  There  was  no  response  from  the  Prime-Minister, 
who  had  once  declared  that  worse  things  had  happened  in 
Ireland  than  the  great  famine  of  the  forties.  Lord  Beacons- 
field's  sympathies  took,  instead,  the  form  of  a  suggestion  to  the 
wife  of  the  Lord  Lieutenant,  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  to 
make  an  appeal  to  the  Lord  Mayor  of  London  and  the  public 
generally  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  the  rent-paying  peasantry 
with  subscriptions  that  were  certain  to  find  their  indirect  way 
into  landlords'  pockets.  This  appeal  was  issued  on  Christ- 
mas eve,  and  it  was  resolved  by  the  league  to  commission 
Messrs.  Parnell  and  Dillon  to  ask  the  friends  of  Ireland  in  the 
United  States  for  assistance  to  relieve  distress  as  well  as  for 
aid  for  the  movement  which  was  to  seek  the  overthrow  of  the 
system  that  was  primarily  responsible  for  this  periodic  in- 
fliction of  poverty  and  beggary  upon  oar  people. 

192 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE     AMERICAN     MISSION 

Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Dillon  sailed  on  the  Scythia  from 
Queenstown  on  December  27,  1879.  To  give  even  the  briefest 
account  of  the  historic  mission  thus  entered  upon,  with  its 
huge  meetings,  speeches,  interviews,  and  list  of  prominent 
people  who  supported  the  league  envoys,  would  be  impossible 
within  the  limits  of  this  volume.  Still,  the  cities  which  were 
visited  by  them  aided  the  Land  League  enormously  at  a  time 
when  it  needed  most  assistance,  and  without  this  and  subse- 
quent help  sent  from  these  great  American  centres  the  work 
that  has  to  some  extent  been  accomplished  would  not  be  on 
record.  A  brief  summary  of  the  tour  is  for  this  and  other 
reasons  a  necessary  part  of  the  plan  of  this  book. 

The  following  rough  diary  of  the  whole  mission  was  prepared 
by  Mr.  Parnell  for  use  during  the  special  commission  of  1888. 
His  address  before  Congress  has  an  historic  interest,  both  in 
itself  and  in  the  record  of  the  distinction  thus  conferred  upon 
the  grandson  of  Admiral  Stewart,  and  is  reproduced  under 
the  date  of  its  delivery.  One  or  two  quotations  from  other 
speeches,  together  with  extracts  from  addresses  delivered  by 
Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  the  great  abolitionist  orator,  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  in  support  of  the  envoys  and  their  cause,  are  like- 
wise added  for  their  intrinsic  worth  and  interest. 

''New  York,  January  2,  i8Sg. — We  arrived  per  Scythia.  The 
steamer  was  boarded  down  the  bay  by  a  reception  committee. 

"General  reception  committee  consisted  of  three  hundred 
gentlemen,  including  distinguished  judges,  Senators,  mer- 
chants, Presbyterian  ministers,  and  Germans. 

"Addressed  great  meeting  at  Madison  Square  Garden,  Jan- 
uary 4,  1880;  eight  thousand  people  estimated  to  be  present. 
Was  accompanied  to  platform  by  Thurlow  Weed  and  others. 
The  chair  was  taken  by  Judge  Henry  A.  Gildersleeve.  [Mr. 
Parnell  explained  the  nature  of  his  mission  in  the  following 
words : 

"'Our  objects  in  visiting  this  country  and  I  may  say  the 
intention  we  originally  formed  have  been  considerably  modified 
13  193 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

by  the  pressure  of  circumstances.  Originally  we  proposed 
only  to  address  you  on  behalf  of  our  political  organization, 
but  the  course  of  events  in  Ireland  has  culminated  so  rapidly 
— a  terrible,  far,  and  wider  spread  famine  is  so  imminent — 
that  we  felt  constrained  to  abandon  our  original  intention,  and 
to  leave  ourselves  open  to  receive  from  the  people  of  America 
money  for  the  purposes  of  our  political  organization  and  also 
money  for  the  relief  of  the  pressing  distress  in  Ireland.  We 
propose,  then,  to  form  two  funds — one  for  the  relief  of  dis- 
tress and  the  other  for  the  purely  political  purpose  of  forward- 
ing our  organization.  These  funds  will  be  kept  entirely  dis- 
tinct, so  that  the  donors  will  be  afforded  the  opportunity  of 
doing  as  they  please  in  the  matter.  It  has  been  suggested  by 
a  very  influential  paper  in  this  city  that  we  ought  to  devote 
our  attention  only  to  the  relief  of  distress,  and  that  we  should 
only  join  the  committee  which  has  been  proposed  by  the  New 
York  Herald  for  the  relief  of  distressed  Irish  landlords  and 
the  British  government  in  general.  But  if  we  accepted  the 
very  good  advice  that  has  been  so  charitably  extended  to  us 
in  the  shape  of  words  within  the  last  few  days,  I  am  afraid  we 
should  incur  the  imputation  of  putting  the  cart  before  the 
horse.'] 

"Newark,  January  6th. — Opera-house.  Escorted  to  the 
hall  by  three  American  military  companies.  Governor  of 
State  present.     Chairman,  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  E.  Forrester. 

'''Jersey  City,  January  8th. — Great  meeting,  Catholic  Insti- 
tute. Escorted  by  a  procession  of  Irish  societies  of  Ancient 
Order  of  Hibernians,  a  detachment  of  the  Ninth  Regiment, 
and  a  platoon  of  police. 

"Stock  Exchange,  Wall  Street,  New  York,  January  gth. — In- 
troduced by  President  Ives,  and  addressed  an  assembly  of 
five  hundred  stockbrokers. 

"  Sauie  Date. — We  formed  Irish  Famine-relief  Fund — sec- 
retary, Mr.  John  E.  Develin — and  issued  address. 

"Brooklyn,  January  gth. — Meeting,  Mayor  Howell  in  chair. 
Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  spoke.  Called  at  his  house  and 
had  long  interview  with  him. 

"  Letters  approving  meeting  read  from  the  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage 
and  others.  [The  Rev.  Henry  Ward  Beecher's  speech  at  the 
meeting  was  as  follows: 

"  '  ...  I  am  in  favor  of  the  most  serious,  prolonged,  and  ear- 
nest agitation  of  public  sentiment  in  America  for  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  Irish  peasantry  from  their  present  condition. 

"'There  is  no  other  subject  that  is  more  important  to  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  than  the  question  of  land.  There  are 
a  great  many  ways,  gentlemen,  by  which  oppression  can  make 

194 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

itself  felt.  It  may  take  possession  of  the  government,  and  by- 
arms  despoil  the  citizens — take  their  rights  from  them,  im- 
prison them,  slay  them. 

" '  It  may  be  that  there  shall  arise  in  the  midst  of  the  state 
such  power  in  wealth,  such  combinations  of  capital  and  mo- 
nopolies, that  the  great  thoroughfare  shall  be  choked  up  by 
the  few,  and  prevent  the  passage  of  the  million  many,  and  so 
oppression  may  take  place  in  the  community. 

"'That  may  be  more  mild  in  its  aspects,  but  it  is,  never- 
theless, oppression.  And  there  is  another  oppression  quite 
possible,  by  which  the  rights,  happiness,  and  the  life  of  the 
people  may  be  sucked  out,  and  that  is  the  possession  of  land. 
The  time  is  coming  when  the  world  is  to  have  a  new  agitation 
on  the  subject  of  land.  He  that  possesses  the  land  possesses 
the  people.  You  cannot  put  the  land  of  any  nation  into  the 
hands  of  a  few  men  and  not  make  them  the  despots  over 
the  many.'] 

''Philadelphia,  January  loth. — Meeting  held  in  Academy 
of  Music — largest  theatre  in  the  world.  La  Scala  of  Milan 
alone  excepted. 

"Afterwards  accompanied  Governor  Curtin,  General  Pat- 
terson, and  Colonel  McClure  to  a  reception  at  the  Saturday 
Club. 

"Letters  were  received  from  Hon.  S.  Randall,  United 
States  House  of  Representatives,  the  Governor,  and  a  check 
from  G.  W.  Childs,  the  editor  of  the  Public  Ledge?-,  for 
$1000. 

"Boston,  January  i2tJi. — Meeting  in  the  Music  Hall.  Re- 
ceived by  P.  A.  Collins,  J.  J.  Hayes,  and  Judge  Fallow.  Es- 
corted to  meeting  by  the  Ninth  Regiment  of  Massachusetts. 
Platform  occupied  by  over  two  hundred  of  the  leading  citi- 
zens of  Boston,  together  with  the  presidents  of  the  various 
Catholic  Irish  societies  of  the  city.  Mayor  Prince  in  the 
chair. 

"Mr.  Wendell  Phillips  was  among  the  speakers.  He 
said: 

" '  I  come  here,  as  you  have  done,  from  a  keen  desire  to  see 
the  man  that  has  forced  John  Bull  to  listen.  Half  the  battle 
is  won  when  the  victim  forces  his  tyrant  to  listen,  gains  his 
attention,  and  concentrates  on  his  wrongs  the  thought  of 
Christendom  and  the  civilized  world.  It  took  O'Connell  a 
quarter  of  a  century  to  gain  the  ear  of  the  British  people  and 
the  House  of  Commons.  Our  guest,  more  fortunate,  after  a 
few  patient  but  persistent  years,  has  brought  the  English 
nation,  if  not  to  terms,  at  least  he  has  stunned  her  into  so- 
briety. .  .  . 

195 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"'Do  you  believe  in  agitation  in  Ireland?  Do  you  believe 
it  is  wise  and  best  for  them  to  have  insurrection  organized  and 
armed  bodies  of  men?  I  do  not  propose  to  give  any  counsel 
on  that  subject.  But  without  expressing  any  opinion  in  favor 
of  organized  opposition  and  insurrection,  I  call  your  attention 
to  one  fact  in  history,  that  amelioration  of  the  condition  of 
Ireland  has  followed  the  outbreak  of  violence  in  Ireland.  It 
is  not  the  business  of  to-night  to  say  what  I  think  of  Great 
Britain,  but  simply  to  argue  my  views  of  her  in  connection 
with  the  Irish  people.  I  say  her  government  is  torpid  and 
slow,  and,  like  many  a  strong  horse  upon  the  road,  travels 
faster  with  spurs  than  without  them.  So  that  while  I  do  not 
counsel  bloodshed,  I  do  say  that  I  honor  citizens  that  won't 
lie  down  tamely  under  wrong  and  oppression.  I  do  not  coun- 
sel organized  insurrection  or  war,  but  I  do  honor  the  eflfort  to 
make  the  government  so  uncomfortable  that  it  at  last  consents 
to  make  the  people  comfortable.  It  is  said  emigration  is  the 
only  cure  for  Irish  grievances — that,  so  far  as  we  are  con- 
cerned, let  them  come  here — we  want  them.  And,  so  far  as 
they  are  concerned,  that  a  government  which  does  not  know 
how  to  manage  its  people,  except  by  taking  them  out  of  the 
nation,  is  a  government  that  ought  not  to  stand.' 

"Lawrence,  Massachusetts,  January  75///. — Military  and 
torchlight  procession;  windows  illuminated  and  streets  lined 
with  people.     Meeting,  Town-hall,  Mayor  vSimpson  presiding. 

''Lynn,  Massachusetts,  January  i6th. — Meeting,  Methodist 
Church,  Mayor  Saunderson  presiding. 

''Providence,  Rhode  Island,  January  lyth. — Received  by  the 
mayor  [Mayor  Doyle],  Colonel  Spooner,  late  Governor  How- 
ard, and  other  prominent  citizens. 

"The  mayor  in  the  chair      Meeting  held  in  Music-hall. 

"Washi)igton,  January  igth. — A  resolution  was  passed  to- 
day by  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  American  Con- 
gress, by  96  votes  to  42,  giving  the  use  of  the  House  to  Mr. 
Parnell  on  February  2d  to  deliver  an  address. 

"Indianapolis,  January  21st. — Met  at  railway  -  station  by 
Governor  Williams,  the  governor  of  the  State  of  Indiana,  and 
a  reception  committee. 

"Addressed  meeting,  Grand  Opera-house,  Mayor  Cavan 
in  the  chair.     Governor  Williams  also  spoke. 

"Springfield,  Ohio,  Jamiary  21st  and  2^d.  —  Two  meet- 
ings, presided  over  by  Mayor  Wallace. 

"  Toledo,  Ohio,  Jamiary  2 2d. — Addressed  meeting  in  Opera- 
house. 

"Procession.  Thousands  lined  the  streets.  Salute  of 
twenty-one  guns  fired  from  a  battery  of  artillery.     Mayor 

196 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

Romes  presided;  Bishop  Gilmore  and  Senator  Hurd  wrote 
approving. 

"Cleveland,  January  24th. — Great  crowd  at  station;  mili- 
tary procession ;  fifty  thousand  people  in  streets.  Ex-Mayor 
Rose  presided  at  meeting  in  Tabernacle. 

"Buffalo,  January  2jtJi. — Freedom  of  city  presented.  Mili- 
tary escort  and  procession  to  Academy  of  Music,  where  meet- 
ing was  held. 

"Judge  Clinton  took  chair,  son  of  New  York's  greatest 
governor,  DeWitt  Clinton. 

"  Albany,  New  York,  Jantiary  26th.  —  Welcomed  by  Gov- 
ernor Cornell,  Mayor  Nolan,  Speaker  Sharpe,  and  Erastus 
Corning.  Military  companies  and  procession  escorted  us  to 
meeting.  Visit  to  Assembly  Chamber.  Introduced  to  House 
by  Speaker  Sharpe. 

"Rochester,  New  York,  January  2/th. — Mayor  presiding. 
Meeting  City  Hall. 

"  Troy,  January  28th. — Procession.  Reception  Committee : 
Mayor  Murphy,  General  Carr,  Judge  Strait,  Hon.  Francis  N. 
Mann,  Surrogate  Rogers,  etc.     Crowded  meeting. 

"New  Haven,  January  2gth.  —  Meeting  in  Grand  Opera- 
house.     Chairman  Mayor  Bigelow. 

"Washington,  February  2d.  —  Addressed  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives." 

[The  privilege  of  addressing  Congress  has  only  been  con- 
ferred upon  a  few  distinguished  strangers.  The  first  who 
was  thus  honored  had  well  merited  that  distinction  in  de- 
voted service  to  the  republic  in  its  struggle  for  independence. 
General  Lafayette  was  followed  a  generation  later  by  Louis 
Kossuth,  and  the  grandson  of  Commodore  Charles  Stewart, 
as  the  representative  of  the  country  which  had  contributed 
more  soldiers  to  Washington's  armies  than  any  other  European 
people,  was  a  worthy  successor  in  the  exercise  of  this  privilege 
to  the  defender  of  Hungarian  nationality. 

The  original  motion  to  grant  this  honor  to  Mr.  Parnell  had 
been  challenged  by  some  pro-English  Congressmen,  but  was 
overwhelmingly  defeated,  and  the  galleries  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  were  crowded  early  on  the  day  when  the 
Irish  envoy  was  announced  to  speak.  Slight  as  the  opposition 
had  been,  it  created  much  indignation  among  the  friends  of 
Ireland,  and  induced  hundreds  to  wend  their  steps  to  the 
Capitol  who  might  otherwise  have  remained  away.] 

The  regular  session  of  February  2d  was  suspended  in  order 
that  the  members  might  hear  Mr.  Parnell,  and  on  the  House 
meeting  again  the  speaker  called  the  assembly  to  order,  and 
introduced  the  envoy  in  these  few  words: 

197 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"In  conformity  with  the  terms  of  the  resolution,  I  have 
the  honor  and  pleasure  to  introduce  to  you  Charles  Stewart 
Parnell,  of  Ireland,  who  comes  among  us  to  speak  of  the 
distress  of  his  country." 

[Mr.  Parnell,  whose  address  occupied  about  half  an  hour  in 
delivery,  spoke  as  follows:] 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Represent- 
atives, I  have  to  thank  you  for  the  distinguished  honor  you 
have  conferred  upon  me  in  permitting  me  to  address  this 
august  assembly  upon  the  state  of  affairs  in  my  unhappy 
country.  The  public  opinion  of  the  people  of  America  will 
be  of  the  utmost  importance  in  enabling  us  to  obtain  a  just 
and  suitable  settlement  of  the  Irish  question.  I  have  seen 
since  I  have  been  in  this  country  so  many  tokens  of  the 
good  wishes  of  the  American  people  towards  Ireland,  I  feel 
at  a  loss  to  express  my  sense  of  the  enormous  advantage  and 
service  which  is  daily  being  done  to  the  cause  of  my  country. 
We  do  not  seek  to  embroil  your  government  with  the  govern- 
ment of  England,  but  we  claim  that  the  public  opinion  and 
sentiment  of  a  free  country  like  America  is  entitled  to  find 
expression  wherever  it  is  seen  that  the  laws  of  freedom  are 
not  observed.  (Applause.)  Mr.  Speaker  and  gentlemen, 
the  most  pressing  question  in  Ireland  is,  at  the  present 
moment,  the  tenure  of  land.  That  question  is  a  very  old 
one.  It  dates  from  the  first  invasions  of  Ireland  from 
England. 

"The  struggle  between  those  who  'owned'  the  land  on  one 
side,  and  those  who  tilled  it  on  the  other,  has  been  a  constant 
one,  and  up  to  the  present  moment  scarcely  any  ray  of  light 
has  ever  been  let  in  upon  the  hard  fate  of  the  tillers  of  the 
soil  in  that  country. 

"But  many  of  us  who  are  observing  now  the  course  of 
events  believe  that  the  time  is  fast  approaching  when  the 
artificial  and  cruel  system  of  land  tenure  prevailing  in  Ireland 
is  bound  to  fall  and  be  replaced  by  a  more  natural  and  a  more 
just  one.  (Applause.)  I  could  quote  many  authorities  to  show 
you  what  this  system  is.  The  feudal  tenure  has  been  tried 
in  many  countries,  and  it  has  been  found  wanting  every- 
where, but  in  no  country  has  it  wrought  so  much  destruction 
and  proved  so  pernicious  as  in  Ireland.  We  have,  as  the 
result  of  that  feudal  tenure,  constant  and  chronic  poverty. 
We  have  our  people  discontented  and  hopeless.  Even  in 
the  best  years  the  state  of  the  people  is  one  of  constant 
poverty,  and  when,  as  on  the  present  occasion,  the  crops  fail 
and  a  bad  year  comes  round,  we  see  terrible  famines  sweep- 
ing across  the  face  of  our  island,  and  claiming  their  victims 

198 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

in  hundreds  and  thousands.  Mr.  Froude,  the  distinguished 
EngHsh  historian,  gives  his  testimony  with  regard  to  this 
land  system  in  the  following  words: 

"'But  of  all  the  fatal  gifts  which  we  bestowed  upon  our 
unhappy  possession  was  the  English  system  of  owning  land. 
Land,  properly  speaking,  cannot  be  owned  by  any  man.  It 
belongs  to  all  the  human  race.  Laws  have  to  be  made  to 
secure  the  profits  of  their  industry  to  those  who  cultivate  it, 
but  the  private  property  of  this  or  that  person,  which  he  is 
entitled  to  deal  with  as  he  pleases,  land  never  ought  to  be, 
and  never,  strictly  speaking,  is.  In  Ireland,  as  in  all  primi- 
tive associations,  the  land  was  divided  among  the  tribes. 
Each  tribe  owned  its  own  district.  Under  the  feudal  system 
the  property  was  held  by  the  Crown,  as  representing  the 
nation,  while  the  subordinate  tenures  were  held  with  duties 
attached  to  them,  and  were  liable,  on  non-fulfilment,  to  for- 
feiture.' 

"Now,  I  look  upon  this  testimony  of  Mr.  Froude's  as  a 
most  important  and  valuable  one,  coming  as  it  does  from 
an  English  source,  and  a  source  which  cannot  be  called  prej- 
udiced in  favor  of  Ireland.  As  Mr.  Froude  says,  property 
has  its  duties  under  the  feudal  system  of  tenure,  as  well  as 
its  rights,  but  in  Ireland  those  enjoying  the  monopoly  of  the 
land  have  only  considered  that  they  had  rights,  and  have 
always  been  forgetful  of  their  duties,  so  that,  bad  as  this 
feudal  tenure  must  be,  it  has  worked  in  a  way  to  intensify 
its  evils  tenfold.  I  find  that  a  little  farther  on  Mr.  Froude 
again  speaks  to  the  following  effect : 

"'If  we  had  been  more  faithful  in  our  stewardship,  Ire- 
land would  have  been  as  wealthy  and  as  prosperous  as  the 
sister  island,  and  not  at  the  mercy  of  the  potato  blight. 
We  did  what  we  could.  We  subscribed  money,  we  laid  a 
poor-law  tax  upon  the  land,  but  all  to  no  purpose.  The 
emigrants  went  away  with  rage  in  their  hearts  and  a  longing 
hope  of  revenge  hereafter  with  America's  help.'     (Applause.) 

"I  could  multiply  the  testimony  of  distinguished  sources  and 
distinguished  men  to  the  same  effect,  but  I  shall  content  my- 
self by  quoting  from  one  more.  Professor  Blackie,  the  Pro- 
fessor of  Greek  in  Edinburgh  University,  who,  in  the  Con- 
temporary Revieiv  of  this  month,  writes  as  follows: 

"'Among  the  many  acts  of  baseness  branding  the  English 
character  in  their  blundering  pretence  of  governing  Ireland, 
not  the  least  was  the  practice  of  confiscating  the  land,  which 
by  real  law  belonged  to  the  people,  and  giving  it,  not  to  the 
honest  resident  cultivators,  which  might  have  been  a  politic 
sort  of  theft,  but  to  cliques  of  greedy  and  grasping  oligarchs, 

199 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

who  had  done  nothing  for  the  country  they  had  appropriated 
but  suck  its  blood  in  the  name  of  land  rent  and  squander 
its  wealth  under  the  name  of  fashion  and  pleasure  in  London.' 

"Now,  we  have  been  told  by  the  landlord  party,  as  their 
defence  of  this  system,  that  the  true  cause  of  Irish  poverty 
and  discontent  is  the  crowded  state  of  that  country ;  but  the 
fertile  portions  of  Ireland  maintain  scarcely  any  population 
at  all,  and  remain  as  vast  hunting-grounds  for  the  pleasure 
of  the  landlord  class.  Before,  then,  we  talk  of  emigration 
as  the  cure  for  all  the  ills  of  Ireland,  I  should  like  to  see  the 
rich  plains  of  Meath,  Kildare,  Limerick,  and  Tipperary,  in- 
stead of  being  the  desert  wastes  that  they  are  to-day,  sup- 
porting the  teeming  and  prosperous  population  that  they  are 
so  capable  of  maintaining.  You  may  drive,  at  the  present 
moment,  ten  or  twenty  miles  through  these  great  and  rich 
counties  without  meeting  a  human  being  or  seeing  a  single 
house;  and  it  is  a  remarkable  testimony  to  the  horrible  way  in 
which  the  land  system  has  been  administered  in  Ireland  that 
the  fertile  country  has  proved  the  destruction  of  the  popula- 
tion instead  of  being  their  support.  Only  on  the  poor  lands 
have  our  people  been  allowed  to  settle. 

"I  have  noticed  within  the  last  two  or  three  days  a  very 
remarkable  testimony  to  this  question  of  overcrowding  in  one 
of  the  newspapers  of  this  country,  the  New  York  Xatioji,  a 
journal,  I  believe,  distinguished  in  the  walks  of  literature,  and 
whose  opinion  is  entitled  to  every  weight  and  consideration. 
The  Nation  says  that  the  best  remedy  for  Irish  poverty  is 
to  be  found  in  the  great  multiplication  of  peasant  properties, 
and  not  by  emigration,  as  many  suppose.  There  is  little 
question  that  emigration  is  good  for  those  who  emigrate,  but 
it  leaves  gaps  in  the  home  population  which  are  soon  filled 
up  by  a  fresh  poverty-stricken  mass. 

"  A  writer  in  the  London  Times,  giving  an  account  of  the 
island  of  Guernsey,  shows  that  it  supports,  in  marvellous 
prosperity,  a  population  of  eighty  thousand  on  an  area  of 
sixteen  thousand  acres,  while  Ireland  has  a  cultivable  area 
of  fifteen  million  five  hundred  thousand  acres,  and  would,  if 
as  densely  peopled  as  Guernsey,  support  a  population  of 
forty-five  million,  instead  of  only  five  million,  as  at  present. 
The  climate  of  Guernsey,  too,  is  as  moist  as  that  of  Ireland, 
and  the  island  is  hardly  any  nearer  to  the  great  markets, 
but  nearly  every  man  in  it  owns  his  own  farm,  and  the  law 
facilitates  his  getting  a  farm  on  easy  terms. 

"Now,  Mr.  Speaker  and  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, the  remedy  that  we  propose  for  the  state  of 
affairs  in  Ireland  is  an  alteration  of  the  land  tenure  prevailing 

200 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

there.  We  propose  to  imitate  the  example  of  Prussia  and 
of  other  continental  countries  where  the  feudal  tenure  has 
been  tried,  found  wanting,  and  abandoned;  and  we  propose 
to  make  or  give  an  opportunity  to  every  tenant  occupying  a 
farm  in  Ireland  to  become  the  owner  of  his  own  farm.  This 
may,  perhaps,  at  first  seem  a  startling  proposition,  and  I  shall 
be  told  about  the  rights  of  property  and  vested  interests  and 
individual  ownership,  but  we  have  the  high  authority  of  Mr. 
Froude,  the  English  historian,  which  I  have  just  quoted  to 
you,  that  land,  properly  speaking,  cannot  be  owned  by  any 
man.  'It  belongs  to  all  the  human  race.  Laws  have  to  be 
made  to  secure  the  profits  of  their  industry  to  those  who 
cultivate  it,  but  the  private  property  of  this  or  that  person, 
which  he  is  entitled  to  deal  with  as  he  pleases,  land  ought 
never  to  be,  and  never,  strictly  speaking,  is.'  We  say  that 
if  it  can  be  proved,  as  it  has  been  abundantly  proved,  that 
terrible  suffering  and  constant  poverty  are  inflicted  upon 
millions  of  the  population  of  Ireland,  that  then  we  may 
reasonably  require  from  the  Legislature  that,  paying  the  due 
regard  to  vested  interests  and  giving  them  fair  compensation, 
they  should  terminate  the  system  of  ownership  of  the  soil 
by  the  few  in  Ireland  and  replace  it  by  one  giving  the  owner- 
ship of  the  soil  to  the  many.  We  have,  as  I  have  pointed 
out,  historical  precedents  for  that  course.  The  King  of 
Prussia  in  1811,  by  royal  edict,  seeing  the  evils  of  the  feudal 
tenure,  transferred  all  the  land  of  his  country  from  the  nobles 
to  the  tenants. 

"  In  a  cable  from  London  I  find  that,  speaking  at  Birming- 
ham the  other  day,  Mr.  Bright  proposes  to  appoint  a  govern- 
ment commission  to  go  to  Dublin  with  power  to  sell  lands  of 
landlords  to  tenants  wishing  to  buy,  and  advance  them  three- 
fourths  of  the  purchase  money,  principal  and  interest  to  be 
repaid  in  thirty-five  years.  Such  a  measure,  Mr.  Bright 
believed,  would  meet  the  desire  of  the  Irish  people.  The 
commission  should  assist  the  tenant  to  purchase  when  the 
landlord  was  willing  to  sell.  He  recommended  compulsory 
sale  only  where  the  land  was  owned  by  London  companies,  as 
in  the  case  of  large  tracts  near  Londonderry.  He  expressed 
the  belief  that  self-interest  and  the  force  of  public  opinion 
would  soon  compel  the  landlords  to  sell  to  the  tenants. 

"Now,  this  proposal  is  undoubtedly  a  very  great  reform, 
and  an  immense  advance  upon  the  present  state  of  affairs, 
and  while  we  could  not  accept  it  as  a  final  settlement  of  the 
land  question,  yet  we  should  gladly  welcome  it  as  an  ad- 
vance in  our  direction,  and  be  willing  to  give  it  a  fair  trial. 
The  radical  difference  between  our  proposition  and  that  of 

201 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Mr.  Bright  is  that  we  think  that  the  state  should  adopt  the 
system  of  compulsory  expropriation  of  the  land,  whereas  Mr. 
Bright  thinks  that  it  may  be  left  to  self-interest  and  the  force 
of  public  opinion  to  compel  the  landlord  to  sell.  That  is  the 
word  he  uses — 'compel.'  While  I  agree  with  Mr.  Bright  in 
thinking  that,  in  all  probability,  if  his  proposal  were  adopted, 
the  present  land  agitation  in  Ireland,  if  maintained  at  its 
present  vigor,  would  compel  the  landlords  to  sell  to  the 
tenants  at  fair  prices,  I  ask  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
America  what  would  they  think  of  a  statesman  who,  while 
acknowledging  the  justness  of  a  principle,  as  Mr.  Bright 
acknowledges  the  justness  of  our  principle  that  the  tenants 
in  Ireland  ought  to  own  the  land,  shrinks  at  the  same  time 
from  asking  the  Legislature  of  his  country  to  sanction  that 
principle,  and  leaves  to  an  agitation  such  as  is  now  going  on 
in  Ireland  the  duty  of  enforcing  that  which  the  Parliament 
of  Great  Britain  should  enforce.  I  think  that  you  will  agree 
with  me  that  this  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment to  transfer  its  obligations  and  its  duties  to  the  helpless, 
starving  peasantry  of  Connemara  is  neither  a  dignified  nor 
a  worthy  one,  and  the  sooner  our  Parliament  comes  to  rec- 
ognize its  duties  in  this  respect  the  better  it  will  be  for  all 
parties  and  the  government  of  Great  Britain. 

"  Mr.  Speaker  and  gentlemen,  I  have  to  apologize  for  having 
trespassed  upon  your  attention  for  such  a  great  length,  and 
to  give  you  my  renewed  and  heartiest  thanks  for  the  very 
great  attention  and  kindness  with  which  you  have  listened 
to  my  feeble  and  imperfect  utterances  in  reference  to  this 
question.  I  regret  that  this  cause  has  not  been  pleaded  by 
an  abler  man,  but  at  least  the  cause  is  good,  and  although 
put  before  you  imperfectly,  it  is  so  strong  and  so  just  that 
it  cannot  fail  in  obtaining  recognition  at  your  hands,  and  at 
the  hands  of  the  people  of  this  country.  It  will  be  a  proud 
boast  for  America  if,  after  having  obtained,  secured,  and 
ratified  her  own  freedom  by  the  force  of  her  public  opinion 
alone,  by  the  respect  with  which  all  countries  look  upon  any 
sentiment  prevailing  in  America,  if  she  were  now  to  obtain 
for  Ireland,  without  the  shedding  of  one  drop  of  blood,  with- 
out the  drawing  of  the  sword,  without  one  threatening 
message,  the  solution  of  this  great  question.  For  my  part,  I, 
who  boast  of  American  blood,  feeling  proud  of  the  importance 
which  has  been  universally  attached  on  all  sides  to  American 
opinion  with  regard  to  this  matter,  I  feel  proud  in  saying  and 
believing  that  the  time  is  very  near  at  hand  when  you  will  be 
able  to  say  that  you  have,  in  the  way  I  have  mentioned, 
and  in  no  other  way,  been  a  most  important  factor  in  bringing 

202 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

about  a  solution  of  the  Irish  land  question.  And  then,  Mr. 
Speaker  and  gentlemen,  these  Irish  famines,  now  so  periodical, 
which  compel  us  to  appear  as  beggars  and  mendicants  before 
the  world — a  humiliating  position  for  any  man,  but  a  still 
more  humiliating  position  for  a  proud  nation  like  ours — 
these  Irish  famines  will  have  ceased  when  the  cause  has  been 
removed.  We  shall  no  longer  be  compelled  to  tax  your 
magnificent  generosity,  and  we  shall  be  able  to  promise 
you  that,  with  your  help,  this  shall  be  the  last  Irish  famine."  ' 

"Richmond,  Virginia,  February  6th. — The  State  Senate  and 
House  of  Representatives  of  Virginia  extended  invitation  to 
address  the  members  in  joint  meeting.  Large  public  meeting 
subsequently. 

"  Hazelton,  Pennsylvania,  February  8th. — Crowded  meeting. 

"Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  February  gth. — Crowded  meet- 
ing. 

'' Scranton,  Pennsylvania,  February  loth. — Great  street  pro- 
cession and  big  meeting. 

"  Altoona,  Pennsylvania,  February  12th. 

''Baltimore,  February  14th.  —  Reception  committee,  com- 
posed of  most  of  the  prominent  citizens,  including  the  mayor, 
Ferdinand  C.  Latrobe,  Governor  William  J.  Hamilton. 

"Pittsburgh,  February  15th. — Procession  through  city. 
Crowds  lined  streets.  Meeting.  Following  day  were  enter- 
tained by  mayor  and  city  authorities. 

"Pittston,  February  i6th. — Military  procession.  Meeting 
Music-hall.  Rev.  N.  G.  Parks,  Protestant  clergyman,  de- 
livered the  address  of  welcome. 

"Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  February  lyth. — Governor  Mat- 
thews, chairman  reception  committee;  Mayor  Sweeny  and 
most  of  the  prominent  citizens  members.  Addressed  meet- 
ing. 

"Next  day  was  granted  use  of  executive  mansion  by  the 
governor,  where  we  held  reception. 

"Frankfort,  February  i8th. — Received  at  railway-station  by 
his  Excellency  the  Governor  of  Kentucky,  Governor  Black- 
burn, the  mayor,  and  board  of  councilmen  of  Frankfort. 

"Received  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Kentucky, 
then  in  session,  and  addressed  both  Houses,  and  received  their 
thanks  for  my  address.  The  following  joint  resolution,  of- 
fered by  Mr.  Allnut,  of  the  House,  was  adopted: 

"  '  That  the  thanks  of  the  members  of  the  General  Assembly 
be  tendered  to  Charles  Stewart  Parnell  for  the  able  and  effec- 


'  Revised  liy  Mr.  Parnell  for  the  use  of  counsel  at  the  Special  Com- 
mission. 

203 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tive  address  delivered  before  them,  and  that  we  deeply  sym- 
pathize with  and  desire  to  encourage  him  in  his  efforts  on  be- 
half of  suffering  Ireland.' 

"  Loiiisville,  February  igtJi. — Spoke  at  great  meeting  in 
Liederkranz  Hall,  where  addresses  were  also  delivered  by 
General  Preston  and  Mr.  Watterson.  Presented  with  free- 
dom of  the  city. 

"Cincinnati,  February  20th. — Met  by  immense  crowd  at 
station  and  escorted  to  hotel.  Introduced  to  the  Stock  Ex- 
change and  made  speech.  Great  meeting  at  Music-hall; 
speakers  escorted  from  hotel  by  military  companies.  Mayor 
Charles  Jacob  in  the  chair.  Judge  Fitzgerald  chairman  com- 
mittee." 

[It  was  at  this  meeting  Mr.  Pamell  delivered  what  was  after- 
wards known  as  "the  last-link  speech."  The  words  he  was 
charged  by  the  Times  with  using  were  these:  "And  let  us  not 
forget  that  this  is  the  ultimate  goal  at  which  all  we  Irishmen 
aim.  None  of  us — whether  we  are  in  America  or  in  Ireland, 
or  wherever  we  may  be — will  be  satisfied  until  we  have  de- 
stroyed the  last  link  which  binds  Ireland  to  England."] 

"  On  February  19th  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  unani- 
mously adopted  the  following  resolution: 

"'  Resolved,  By  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
that  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  be,  and  he  is  hereby  authorized 
to  employ  any  ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  the  navy  of  the 
United  States  best  adapted  to  such  service  for  the  purpose 
of  transporting  to  the  famishing  poor  of  Ireland  such  contri- 
butions as  may  be  made  for  their  relief;  or  to  charter  or  to 
employ  under  the  authority  of  the  United  States  a  suitable 
American  ship  or  vessel  for  that  purpose.  Any  sum  of  money 
necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this  resolution  is 
hereby  appropriated.' 

"Chicago,  February  21st. — Freedom  of  city  presented  to  us 
by  the  mayor  and  city  council.  We  were  received  by  the 
board  of  trade.  Escorted  by  numerous  societies  and  mili- 
tary bodies  from  hotel  to  Exposition  Building,  where  about 
ten  thousand  people  were  assembled.  Governor  Cullom  pre- 
sided. Door  receipts,  $10,000.  Largest  meeting  of  the 
mission. 

"Detroit,  February  22d. — Escorted  to  the  Opera-house, 
where  the  meeting  was  held,  by  the  National  Guards,  Mont- 
gomery Rifles,  the  Hibernian  benevolent  societies,  and  total 
abstinence  societies.    Governor  B agley  was  among  the  speakers. 

"St.  Paul,  February  26th.  —  Great  meeting  in  Opera- 
house.  The  mayor,  Mr.  Dawson,  presided.  Speech  by 
Bishop  Ireland. 

204 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

"Dubtique,  Iowa,  February  28tJi. — Met  at  railway  depot  by 
mayor  and  city  council. 

"  Des  Moines,  March  2d. — Legislature  in  session.  Was  in- 
troduced to  both  Houses  by  the  Hon.  C.  C.  Cole,  and  addressed 
them.     Governor  Gear,  of  Iowa,  presided  at  meeting. 

"Peoria,  Illinois,  March  jd. 

"Springfield,  Illinois,  March  4th. — Received  by  the  whole 
city  government,  and  was  tendered  the  freedom  of  the  city. 
Addressed  great  meeting  at  Opera-house.  The  governor  of 
the  State  of  Illinois,  Governor  Cullom,  presiding. 

"St.  Louis,  March  jth.  —  Addresses,  parades,  and  recep- 
tions. Enormous  meeting  in  the  Merchants'  Exchange.  Next 
largest  success  after  Chicago." 

[Attacked  by  the  New  York  Herald,  Mr.  Parnell  replied  as 
follows  at  the  St.  Louis  meeting: 

'"They  say  there  are  two  things  which  no  man  can  forgive 
if  he  is  accused  of  them.  They  say  that  every  man  objects 
to  being  told  that  he  is  not  a  good  judge  of  a  woman  or  of  a 
horse  (laughter),  but  I  am  sure  that  every  Irishman  objects  to 
being  told  that  he  is  a  coward.  (Applause.)  A  New  York 
paper,  in  a  recent  issue,  says:  'Commodore  Stewart,  from 
whom  Parnell  boasts  his  descent,  was  brave  enough,  and  had 
the  runaway  demagogue  been  either  a  pure  American  or  a  pure 
Irishman,  he  might  not  have  fled  from  his  country  when  his 
comrades  were  indicted. '  Well,  now,  what  are  the  facts  of  the 
case?  In  the  middle  of  October  I  publicly  announced  that  I 
would  leave  for  America  on  November  20th.  On  November 
igth  Michael  Davitt  was  arrested,  and,  so  far  from  running 
away,  I  remained  expressly  six  weeks  beyond  my  time  in  Ire- 
land in  order  to  see  if  the  government  dared  to  treat  me  as 
they  treated  Michael  Davitt.  I  went  over  to  Liverpool  and  I 
repeated  the  speech  of  Michael  Davitt,  for  which  he  was  in- 
dicted for  sedition,  and  I  adopted  his  words  as  mine,  and  I 
gave  that  government  every  opportunity  to  arrest  me.  And 
then  the  Herald  goes  on  to  say  that  I  would  not  dare  to  make 
my  American  speeches  in  Ireland.  Well,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
I  have  spoken  far  more  strongly  in  Ireland  than  I  have  ever 
spoken  in  America.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  far  more  neces- 
sary to  speak  strongly  to  the  Irish  people  in  Ireland  than  it  is 
to  speak  strongly  to  them  in  America.  In  Ireland  they  re- 
quire to  be  encouraged  and  lifted  up,  because  they  are  op- 
pressed and  beaten  down;  in  America  they  require  to  have 
cold  water  thrown  upon  them.  (Laughter.)  And  as  regards 
my  being  afraid  ot  what  is  worse  than  a  government  prosecu- 
tion for  sedition,  I  was  not  afraid  to  go  down  to  the  Balla 
eviction,  although  I  was  warned  by  the  officer  in  charge  of  the 

205 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

constabulary  on  that  occasion  that  the  police  had  received 
secret  orders  to  shoot  me  in  case  there  was  any  disturbance, 
and  if  the  military  fired  that  the  bullets  would  go  to  the  lead- 
ers.    (Cries  of  "Shame,"  and  hisses.")] 


CANADA 

"Toronto,  March  yth.  —  Meeting  in  Royal  Opera-house. 
Chairman,  Hon.  John  O'Donoghue. 

"Montreal,  March  8th. — Received  on  arrival  by  committee 
and  escorted  to  hotel  by  torch-light  procession.  Meeting  in 
Theatre  Royal.  Speech  by  Healy.  Last  meeting  of  mission. 
On  following  day  sent  this  message  to  Mr.  Patrick  Ford : 

"' Montreal,  il/arc/f  9,   1880. 
"  'Patrick  Ford: 

"'Will  be  leaving  on  Thursday  for  Ireland  in  the  Baltic. 
Shall  of  course  return  to  America  after  the  elections.  The 
work  here  is  vitally  important    and  must  go  on. 

"'Tell  my  friends  to  keep  the  good  work  going  and  the 
flag  flying,  and  we  shall  come  back  with  victory  shining  on 
our  banners  to  complete  a  labor  in  America  that  is  yet  scarcely 
begun. 

Dillon  remains  here  on  guard,  and  will  keep  the  ball  roll- 
ing till  my  return. 

"'Canada  has  welcomed  us  magnificently,  and  Montreal 
turned  out  in  a  style  that  shows  to  our  enemies  that  Irish 
hearts  are  Irish  everywhere. 

"'Men  of  America,  keep  on  forming  land  leagues,  and, 
above  all,  sustain  the  men  at  home  in  the  present  crisis. 

"'Have  called  by  telegraph  a  hurried  conference  of  Irish 
leaders  at  the  New  York  Hotel  on  the  morning  of  my  depart- 
ure.    Hope  for  your  presence. 

"'Charles  S.  Parnell.'" 

The  reception  given  to  Messrs.  Parnell  and  Dillon  during 
their  tour  was  all  that  could  be  desired.  It  only  realized  ex- 
pectations, however.  Parnell's  mixed  American  and  Irish 
blood,  and  the  son  of  John  Blake  Dillon,  the  '48  political  refu- 
gee, rendered  them  ideal  envoys  for  such  a  mission,  even 
apart  from  their  records  in  the  movement  for  which  they  were 
sent  to  seek  the  material  help  of  Irish  and  the  moral  support 
of  American  citizens. 

The  correspondence  work  of  the  mission  utterly  broke  down 
in  a  short  time.     Invitations  poured  in  from  all  the  States  in 

206 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

the  Union  for  meetings  and  requests  for  dates.  Dozens  of 
telegrams  from  "Springfield"  insisted  upon  a  prompt  visit  to 
that  city.  A  date  was  fixed  for  this  engagement,  and  duly- 
published,  with  the  result  that  cities  of  that  name  in  three 
different  States  (one  over  a  thousand  miles  from  Springfield, 
Massachusetts)  announced  the  coming  visit  of  the  envoys  on 
the  same  day.  To  cope  with  this  state  of  things,  Mr.  Parnell 
cabled  to  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  then  employed  as  a  clerk  in  a  Lon- 
don warehouse,  to  come  to  the  rescue;  a  summons  which  was 
immediately  responded  to,  and  thus  began  the  public  career 
of  one  of  the  many  able  and  remarkable  men  whom  the  Land 
League  movement  recruited  for  the  nationalist  service  of  Ire- 
land. 

Mr.  Healy  was  at  this  time  younger  in  appearance  than  in 
years,  though  still  actually  youthful,  but  no  youngster  ever 
wore  the  marks  and  guarantee  in  temperament  and  manner 
of  being  father  to  the  coming  politician  and  parliamentarian 
more  conspicuously  than  the  bright  and  brainy  young  fellow 
who  sped  across  the  Atlantic  at  Mr.  Parnell's  call. 

Mr.  Parnell's  speeches  in  America  differed  very  little  in 
phrasing  or  in  spirit  from  those  he  had  delivered  in  Ireland. 
They  were  clear  in  language  and,  like  all  his  utterances,  un- 
ambiguous in  meaning.  His  address  to  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives at  Washington  was  the  corpus  of  his  utterances  else- 
where, varied  occasionally  by  local  references,  and  more  so  in 
St.  Louis  and  a  few  other  cities  where  he  had  to  reply  to  the 
hostile  comments  of  unfriendly  critics.  His  style  of  speaking 
did  not  find  favor  with  the  American  press  or  public.  It 
lacked  the  declamatory  power,  the  elocutionary  polish,  and 
search  after  epigram  which  make  carefully  prepared  oratory 
in  the  United  States  more  pleasing  to  the  organs  of  entertain- 
ment than  to  those  of  the  understanding  —  of  visitors  from 
Europe.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  he  made  the  best  possible 
general  impression  upon  his  audiences,  and  aroused  in  the 
memories  of  his  listeners  of  Celtic  birth  or  parentage  a  hopeful 
hatred  of  Irish  landlordism. 

Socially  he  was  not  a  success.  He  accepted  an  invitation 
to  dine  with  a  number  of  Catholic  clergymen  in  New  York, 
and  turned  up  two  hours  late  for  dinner.  His  apology  only 
added  amazement  to  injury:  Denis  Kearney,  the  Sand  Lots 
agitator  from  San  Francisco,  had  called  at  his  hotel  that 
very  evening,  and  had  remained  too  long! 

America  had  on  two  occasions  almost  rescued  Mr.  Parnell 
from  the  fate  which  ultimately  wrecked  his  brilliant  career 
and  inflicted  a  ten  years'  national  agony  on  Ireland  and  lost 
us  Home  Rule  for  the  time.     I  once  heard  him  say  that  he 

207 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

had,  when  younger,  been  "badly  jilted."  It  was,  I  think,  dur- 
ing his  first  visit  to  the  United  States.  "  I  proposed,  but  she 
refused."  Little  did  this  young  lady,  whoever  she  was,  im- 
agine the  wrong  she  was  thus  unthinkingly  committing  against 
Ireland  and  its  people. 

Again,  early  in  1880,  after  his  return  from  the  transatlan- 
tic mission,  a  young,  accomplished,  and  very  wealthy  Irish- 
American  lady  came  to  London  and  Ireland,  attracted  by  the 
handsome  Irish  leader  and  the  romance  of  his  public  life. 
There  could  be  no  doubt  about  the  trend  of  her  wishes  in  re- 
gard to  him.  She  and  her  father  put  up  in  Morrison's  Hotel, 
where  Parnell  always  had  his  quarters  when  in  Dublin.  Un- 
fortunately there  was  no  response  on  his  part  to  this  delicate 
but  obvious  attention.  Soon  after  other  eyes  only  too  easily 
conquered  and  led  him  captive  into  the  snares  of  a  fatal  affec- 
tion. 

No  man  in  public  life  could  have  a  more  complete  control 
over  temper  and  expression  than  Mr.  Parnell  had  in  those 
early  years  of  his  political  career.  He  was  very  rarely  be- 
trayed into  the  use  of  angry  words,  no  matter  how  provoking 
the  temptation  to  say  "damn"  might  be  in  many  a  trying 
moment.  On  one  occasion  this  self-mastery  broke  down,  and 
there  was  a  volcanic  eruption  and  an  overflow  of  lava-like 
language  which  swept  everything  before  it. 

It  happened  as  a  result  of  an  incident  at  the  Chicago  demon- 
stration. The  parade  through  the  streets  of  that  city  was  a 
huge  affair,  and  the  procession  and  speakers  reached  the  place 
of  meeting  over  an  hour  late.  There  was  a  vast  audience, 
restive  and  impatient,  full  of  eagerness  to  hear  the  envoys. 
But  if  the  organizers  of  receptions  in  the  United  States  are 
loyal  to  any  American  institution  more  than  another,  it  is  to 
that  of  ceremony,  as  becomes  a  democratic  nation.  Among 
the  items  on  the  programme  which  preceded  the  introduction 
of  the  speakers  was  the  recitation  of  a  long  poem  of  welcome 
written  by  a  gifted  lady.  It  had  to  be  read  to  Messrs.  Parnell 
and  Dillon,  and  this  task  was  to  be  performed  by  a  dramatic 
artiste,  a  young  lady  of  exceptional  talent  in  that  line,  and 
who,  together  with  other  striking  attractions,  stood  over  six 
feet  high.  The  envoys  were  compelled  to  stand  in  the  front 
of  the  platform  in  the  face  of  eight  or  ten  thousand  people 
while  the  handsome  young  giantess  poured  into  them  and 
over  them  for  nearly  half  an  hour  an  elocutionary  torrent  of 
praise  and  worship  which  the  talented  authoress  had  ex- 
pressed in  resounding  verse.  It  was  an  agonizing  ordeal  to 
Mr.  Parnell,  who  on  this  occasion  lacked  the  stoical  philoso- 
phy of  Mr.  Dillon,  upon  whom  the  histrionic  infliction  had  no 

208 


THE    AMERICAN    MISSION 

other  effect  than  to  beget  a  feeHng  of  sorrow  over  so  much 
wasted  talent.  On  returning  to  his  hotel  and  finding  the 
freedom  and  refuge  of  a  locked  room,  which  is  so  precious  a 
retreat  for  the  honored  victim  of  popular  receptions,  Mr.  Par- 
nell  had  much  to  say,  in  very  strong  language,  about  tall 
women,  public  reciters,  and  versified  welcomes  which  cannot 
possibly  be  recorded.  His  speech  on  these  topics,  with  Mr. 
Dillon  as  an  audience,  and  no  reporters,  was  quite  warm 
enough  even  for  the  region  of  Chicago. 

In  another  city  he  attempted,  for  the  first  and  last  time,  to 
call  upon  the  poets  for  an  adornment  of  speech.  He  was  en- 
gaged in  what  is  frequently  the  agony  of  winding  up  a  speech 
with  a  suitable  peroration,  and  essayed  to  lay  Moore  under 
contribution  to  this  end:  "And  then,  when  we  have  abolished 
landlordism  and  struck  down  the  evil  of  Castle  rule,  Ireland 
will  realize  the  dream  of  the  poet  and  become  again,  what  she 
once  was: 

"  '  First  flower  of  the  earth  and  first  jewel  of  the  sea.'  " 

And  the  orator  sat  down  alongside  of  Mr.  Healy. 

"You  should  have  said  'gem,'  Parnell,  in  that  line  of 
Moore's." 

"Yes,"  was  the  slow  and  dubious  reply,  "but  then  '  jewel' 
is  a  better  word." 

The  tour  which  was  suddenly  interrupted  by  the  general 
election  of  1880  was  largely  under  the  direction  of  some 
members  of  the  Clan-na-Gael.  It  had  been  arranged,  without 
Parnell's  knowledge,  that  it  was  in  a  measure  to  be  so,  when 
it  was  first  decided  upon,  but  not  in  any  sense  compromising 
to  him  or  to  Mr.  Dillon.  Neither  of  them  was  then,  or  had  at 
any  time  been,  a  member  of  any  secret  organization.  They 
were,  however,  certain  to  be  closely  shadowed  by  secret  agents 
of  the  British  government  while  in  the  United  States,  and  it 
was  arranged  that,  though  the  Clan  was  to  act  to  some  extent 
in  the  capacity  of  a  conducting  agency  in  the  getting  up  of 
meetings,  it  was  not  to  be  done  to  the  exclusion  of  other  so- 
cieties of  a  non-revolutionary  character  from  a  like  function. 
All  such  bodies,  religious,  philanthropic,  and  temperance, 
were  to  be  invited  to  participate  in  every  city,  while  public 
men  of  repute,  and  municipal.  State,  and  federal  officers  of 
American  or  Irish- American  origin,  irrespective  of  party 
politics,  were  to  be  invited  to  the  receptions  and  meetings. 
It  is  only  right  to  add  that  no  attempt  was  made  to  misuse  in 
any  way  the  power  which  was  thus  given  to  the  Clan.  Not  a 
cent  of  the  moneys  raised  by  Messrs.  Parnell  and  Dillon  was 
14  209 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

either  asked  for  or  appropriated,  nor  was  there  an  act  done 
by  the  secret  body  during  the  sojourn  of  the  envoys  in  America 
to  which  reasonable  exception  could  be  taken.  Great  pres- 
tige was  undoubtedly  gained  by  the  Clan  through  the  unique 
opportunity  which  the  new-departure  mission  had  given  to  it 
in  return  for  the  assistance  of  its  members  to  the  land  move- 
ment in  Ireland,  but  no  other  immediate  advantage  followed. 

The  financial  results  of  the  mission  totalled  ;i^5o,ooo.  Most 
of  this  money  was  expended  by  the  Land  League  in  the  relief 
of  distress  from  December,  1879,  until  April,  1880,  including 
some  ;^io,ooo  for  the  purchase  of  new  seed-potatoes  for  the 
poorest  of  the  Western  peasantry.  The  political  value  of 
the  mission  to  the  league  movement  was  enormous.  Active 
sympathy  for  its  objects  was  awakened  throughout  America, 
and  all  the  bitter  memories  of  landlord  oppression  and  inso- 
lence were  revived  in  the  hearts  of  our  exiled  people,  soon  to 
help  us  to  enlist  the  active  co-operation  of  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  Irish- American  Land-Leaguers  in  the  combat  against 
the  landlord  and  Castle  enemy  of  the  old  country. 

Mr.  Parnell  summoned  a  hurried  conference  in  New  York 
of  those  who  had  been  identified  with  the  reception  of  the 
envoys  in  that  city,  and  submitted  to  the  meeting  the  outline 
of  an  auxiliary  organization.  His  proposals  were  agreed  to, 
and,  leaving  Mr.  Dillon  behind  to  carry  on  the  work,  he  sailed 
home  with  Mr.  Healy,  and  landed  at  Queenstown  on  the  eve 
of  the  general  election  of  1880. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

GROWTH     AND     PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

During  the  early  months  of  the  year  1880,  while  Messrs. 
Parnell  and  Dillon  were  rousing  Irish-America  in  support  of 
the  league,  its  progress  in  Ireland  was  rapid  and  continuous. 
The  distribution  of  relief  and  of  seed-potatoes  in  the  most 
distressed  districts  gave  the  organization  a  growing  prestige, 
especially  among  the  clergy.  Most  of  the  opposition  from 
that  quarter  had  died  out  in  presence  of  the  prompt  and  effec- 
tive measures  which  were  taken  by  the  league  executive  to 
cope  with  the  partial  famine.  Where  no  league  organization 
existed  the  parish  priest,  or  curate,  was  made  the  medium  for 
the  distribution  of  grants,  the  result  being,  in  most  instances 
of  this  kind,  the  formation  of  a  branch  of  the  movement,  so 
that  the  work  of  combination  kept  pace  with  the  relief  opera- 
tions among  the  people. 

The  undeniable  existence  of  distress  and  the  daily  labors 
of  four  separate  relief  committees — the  Land  League,  Duchess 
of  Marlborough,  Dublin  Mansion  House,  and  New  York  Her- 
ald funds — made  no  appeal  either  to  the  sense  of  justice  or  to 
the  feeling  of  humanity  of  a  certain  class  of  landlords,  chiefly 
in  the  West  of  Ireland,  to  forego  evictions  for  non-payment  of 
rents.  They  clamored  for  their  rights  and  for  police  with 
which  to  enforce  them.  The  majority  of  landlords,  in  other 
parts  of  Ireland,  had  given  abatements,  in  obedience  to  the 
necessity  of  the  situation.  No  rents  had  been  earned  by  land 
under  crops,  and  none  could  be  paid  except  out  of  borrowed 
money,  and  credit  with  the  local  banks  in  seasons  of  distress 
is  not  an  asset  in  the  solvency  of  Western  tenants.  Shop- 
keepers and  dealers  had,  in  marked  contrast,  acted  most  hu- 
manely. They  refused  to  press  for  a  payment  where  it  was 
obvious  no  money  could  be  obtained  from  people  in  receipt  of 
public  charity.  Not  so  the  owners  of  rent.  The  grocer  who 
had  given  food  on  credit  for  six  months  to  a  tenant  might  go 
without  his  money,  but  the  landlord  whose  land  had  not 
earned  a  penny  of  rent  must  be  paid,  even  if  the  money  was 
to  come  out  of  what  was  subscribed  by  the  public  to  prevent 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

starvation.  And  in  obedience  to  this  unconscionable  claim, 
so  characteristic  of  this  system  under  which  similar  callous 
demands  were  made  and  complied  with  in  the  great  famine 
of  '47,  showers  of  ejectment  processes  for  arrears  of  rent 
fell  upon  the  homes  of  the  poorer  class  of  tenants  in  Mayo, 
Gal  way,  and  other  Western  counties  where  the  Land  League 
had  its  strongest  following — that  is,  the  ejectments  were  ob- 
tained from  the  courts  by  the  landlords,  but  they  were  not  to 
be  quite  as  easily  and  as  inexpensively  served  as  heretofore. 
That  legal  outrage  upon  a  poverty-stricken  people  would  no 
longer  be  tamely  endured. 

This  action  of  the  class  of  landlord  referred  to  was  a  direct 
challenge  to  the  tenants'  combination,  and  it  was  so  accepted 
by  the  league. 

In  accordance  with  the  plan  of  campaign  adopted  at  the 
formation  of  the  Mayo  Land  League,  in  August,  1879,  all 
process-serving  and  evictions  were  to  be  "witnessed  "  by  gath- 
erings of  the  people  organized  for  that  purpose.  These  things 
were  not  to  be  done  in  the  dark  any  more.  Homes  were  not  to 
be  so  willingly  surrendered  for  arrears  of  rents  as  formerly. 
An  unwritten  homestead  law,  supported  by  popular  combina- 
tion, was,  as  far  as  possible,  to  be  insisted  upon  as  against  the 
legal  vandalism  of  the  landlord's  right  to  wreck  his  tenants' 
homes  for  a  civil  debt.  England  might  and  would  lend  her 
police  and  authority  to  the  landlord  to  obtain  his  pound  of 
flesh  in  the  shape  of  rent  for  reclaimed  bog  or  a  one-time 
barren  mountain-side,  in  defiance  of  all  the  laws  of  political 
economy  and  of  all  the  protests  of  reason  and  justice.  On  ^ 
the  other  hand,  it  was  resolved  to  create  a  Land  League  court  -^ 
of  equity  in  defiance  of  the  tenants'  unrecognized  interest  in 
his  holding  just  as  partisan  in  spirit  and  purpose  as  the  Castle 
law  was  for  the  owner  of  the  rent,  and  every  force  and  influ- 
ence which  the  public  conscience  would  approve  and  support 
as  auxiliary  to  the  Land  League  were  to  be  employed  to  frus- 
trate the  authority  and  defeat  the  ends  of  the  landlord  code. 

The  league's  plan  of  opposition  comprised:  the  greatest 
publicity  possible  to  be  given  to  all  process-serving  opera- 
tions and  evictions;  the  support  and  sheltering  of  families 
evicted  for  non-payment  of  unjust  rents;  the  embargo  upon 
evicted  farms;  the  social  excommunication  of  land-grabbers; 
and  the  defence  in  the  courts  of  such  persons  as  should  be  pros- 
ecuted for  resisting  the  legal  agencies  set  in  motion  by  the 
landlords  against  the  homes  of  the  tenantry. 

Early  in  1880  we  were  already  obtaining  from  America 
the  monetary  assistance  without  which  this  whole  plan  could 
not  have  been  operated,  and  with  this  help  at  the  league's  dis- 


GROWTH  AND  PLANS  OF  THE  LEAGUE 

posal  an  active  campaign  of  resistance  against  evictions  was 
begun. 

The  Balla  meeting,  in  November,  was,  as  Mr.  Parnell  pre- 
dicted, a  turning-point  in  the  fortunes  of  the  new  movement. 
It  gave  the  Western  peasants  confidence  in  their  own  organ- 
ized strength,  and  greatly  weakened  the  prestige  of  the  land- 
lords and  their  Castle  allies.  Process-serving,  being  the  pre- 
liminary legal  step  to  eviction,  was  necessarily  obnoxious  to 
the  tenants.  It  was  the  dreaded  herald  of  ejectment,  of  the 
driving  of  a  family  from  its  home  and  means  of  labor  and  sub- 
sistence, and  the  "process-server"  has  always  been,  next  to 
the  "informer,"  a  detested  instrument  of  landlord  oppression 
and  of  English  law  in  Irish  peasant  feeling.  It  required  no 
outside  influence,  therefore,  to  rouse  a  village  or  a  town-land 
in  opposition  to  the  mission  of  this  hated  emissary  of  exter- 
mination when  the  courts  had  granted  the  landlord's  applica- 
tion for  the  decree.  His  advent  was  looked  for  by  sentinels 
on  hill-tops  and  other  places  of  observation,  and,  when  his 
police  escort  would  be  seen  approaching,  horns  would  be 
sounded  or  other  signals  be  given  which  would  summon  all 
within  hearing  to  repair  to  the  scene  of  the  process-server's 
work. 

According  to  the  law  of  eviction,  at  this  period,  the  process- 
server  was  required  to  hand  the  document  containing  the 
court's  decree  to  the  head  of  the  family,  or,  failing  this,  to 
fasten  it  upon  the  door  of  the  dwelling,  or  otherwise  to  deliver 
it  inside  the  habitation.  Little  or  no  resistance,  except  on 
rare  occasions,  had  hitherto  been  offered  to  this  legal  proceed- 
ing, the  process-server  being  fully  protected  in  the  execution 
of  his  task  by  a  constabulary  guard.  It  was  now  resolved 
to  have  every  opposition  possible  offered  to  this  service  short 
of  an  actual  conflict  with  the  police,  with  the  double  object  of 
drawing  public  attention  to  the  evils  of  the  system  and  of 
intimidating  the  class  of  persons  who  volunteered  to  be  the 
agents  of  the  law  in  this  phase  of  its  operations. 

The  first  successful  encounter  of  this  kind  occurred  in  a 
wild  Connemara  district  called  Carraroe  early  in  January, 
1880.  The  conflict  and  victory  of  the  resisters  created  a  wide- 
spread interest  at  the  time  both  in  Ireland  and  in  America, 
and  as  the  incidents  of  the  "battle  of  Carraroe  "  were  common 
to  subsequent  proceedings  of  the  kind,  the  following  account 
of  the  affair,  written  by  me  for  the  American  press  just  twen- 
ty-four years  ago,  will  offer  my  younger  readers  some  idea  of 
the  early  struggles  of  the  Land  League  movement : 

"  From  commanding  ledges  of  rock  women  and  children,  in 
their  bawneens  and  red  petticoats,  would  eagerly  scan  the  in- 

213 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

truder,  and  conjecture  whether  I  was  a  friend  or  foe,  and 
greet  me  by  kindly  glance  or  scowling  looks,  according  to  the 
impression  which  my  appearance  created.  Evidence  of  the 
disturbance  of  the  previous  days  began  coming  under  my 
notice  after  passing  the  chapel  of  Knock,  a  few  miles  from 
Spiddal.  On  the  Friday  previous  the  people  of  the  district 
assembled  outside  the  little  place  of  worship  and  prepared  to 
meet  the  enemy.  The  parish  priest.  Father  Lyons,  attempted 
to  disperse  them,  but  found  the  task  beyond  his  influence,  and, 
headed  by  their  leaders,  they  marched  to  meet  the  Carraroe 
boys.  Midway  between  Knock  and  the  head  of  Costello  Bay 
the  narrow  mountain-road  cuts  in  two  a  small  sheet  of  water 
called  Lough-an-Urla  (the  eagle's  lake),  and  I  observed  the 
road  had  been  dug  across  some  six  feet  of  its  width,  with  the 
evident  intention  of  cutting  off  communication  between  Spid- 
dal, the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  base,  and  Carraroe.  I 
was  more  than  delighted  to  observe  by  this  that  the  moun- 
taineers had  some  practical  ideas  of  warfare,  a  fact  which  was 
impressed  forcibly  upon  me  when  I  met  some  of  their  guid- 
ing spirits  a  few  hours  later  on. 

"  The  legal  time  within  which  the  processes  for  the  present 
session  of  Galway  had  to  be  served  would  expire  on  Tuesday, 
January  6th,  and  if  the  enemy  could  be  harassed  or  obstructed 
until  the  evening  of  that  day  the  people's  battle  would  be 
won  and  their  homesteads  freed  from  agent  or  process-server 
for  the  next  three  months. 

"Hence  their  plans  were  admirably  arranged  for  the  pur- 
pose of  creating  delay,  and  if  one  or  two  of  the  priests  had  not 
interfered,  not  only  would  the  road  have  been  completely 
cut,  but  the  bridge  which  crosses  the  head  of  Costello  Bay,  at 
the  village  of  Derina,  some  two  miles  from  Carraroe,  would 
have  been  thrown  down  and  all  communication  by  car  or 
wagon  would  be  intercepted.  I  observed,  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
farther  on,  that  a  huge  rock  had  been  rolled  down  from  the 
precipice  upon  the  road  passing  at  its  base,  which  must  have 
given  considerable  annoyance  to  the  peelers'  convoys.  At 
last,  after  seventeen  miles  of  as  wretched  a  road  and  desolate 
a  country  as  I  ever  beheld  had  been  traversed,  I  siglited  the 
slated  roof  of  the  Catholic  chapel  of  Carraroe. 

"On  Sunday  week  this  little  chapel  was  the  scene  of  an  in- 
cident which  marked  the  spirit  in  which  the  coming  conflict 
was  to  be  fought  out.  When  mass  was  just  over  a  rush  was 
made  to  a  seat  in  the  chapel  where  sat  a  young  man,  the  son 
of  the  local  process-server  Fenton,  pale  and  apprehensive  from 
the  scowling  looks  which  were  cast  upon  him  by  the  whole 
congregation.      He  was  then  and  there  seized  and  dragged  to 

214 


GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

a  cross,  and  made  swear  that  he  would  serve  no  process  during 
the  coming  week.  This  the  half-terrified  fellow  willingly  did, 
and  was  then  compelled  to  swear  for  his  father  also. 

"The  elder  Fenton  did  not  feel  bound  by  his  son's  oath,  as 
he  attempted  to  'do  service'  afterwards,  until  the  more  po- 
tent agency  of  punishment  and  fear  compelled  him  to  refuse 
performance  of  a  task  which  is  second  only  in  abhorrence  to 
that  of  executioner  to  the  Irish  people. 

"The  scene  from  the  rising  ground  upon  which  the  chapel 
of  Carraroe  stands  is  one  of  'the  wildest  desolation,  and  is  re- 
lieved only  from  utter  and  painful  dreariness  by  a  view  of  the 
Atlantic  to  the  right,  where  it  runs  into  the  land  and  forms 
an  immense  sheet  of  water  called  Great  Man's  Bay.  To  the 
left,  looking  down  the  mountain-road  by  which  I  had  come, 
some  fifty  miserable  hovels  could  be  discerned  scattered  over 
a  few  miles  of  rocky  ground  sloping  down  from  the  mountains 
which  divide  Connemara  proper  from  the  Oughterard  and 
Clifden  road.  While  compelled  to  wonder  at  the  tenacity 
with  which  the  people  clung  to  such  homes,  surrounded  by 
nothing  which  was  not  repugnant  to  the  eye,  unrelieved  by 
even  a  tree  or  shrub,  there  could  be  no  mistaking  the  sense  of 
independence  which  such  a  wild,  rugged  country  would  en- 
gender in  the  breasts  of  those  who  inhabit  it,  and  a  look  at  the 
erect  and  manly  forms  which  came  in  view  as  I  mounted  the 
road  to  the  head  of  the  bay  convinced  me  that  the  men  of 
Carraroe  were  all  that  mountaineers  are  generally  found  to  be. 
A  little  beyond  the  chapel,  on  the  right,  stood  three  houses, 
better  looking  than  the  hovels  standing  in  from  the  highway, 
the  first  of  which  was  the  'post-ofhce,'  the  next  the  'Carraroe 
Dispensary,'  and  the  third  Mrs.  Mackle's  homestead,  in  front 
of  which,  in  an  effort  by  Fenton  to  'do  service'  upon  it,  the 
fight  proper  took  place  on  the  Friday  previous.  A  hundred 
yards  higher  up  the  road,  and  at  a  turn  leading  to  the  landing- 
place  of  the  bay,  stood  a  large,  square  house  with  iron-barred 
windows  and  the  etceteras  which  make  up  a  country  con- 
stabulary barracks. 

"I  pulled  up  my  car  and  saluted,  in  Irish,  about  a  dozen 
men  who  had  been  watching  my  progress  up  the  steep  and 
tortuous  boreen,  and  I  immediately  found  myself  in  the  midst 
of  the  men  who  had  been  arrested  as  the  ringleaders  of  the 
people  who  had  thwarted  Fenton  and  thrashed  his  escort  of 
armed  police,  and  who  had,  the  day  previous  to  my  visit,  been 
let  out  on  bail  after  the  charge  had  been  formally  preferred 
against  them.  Dismissing  my  car  and  giving  my  traps  in 
charge  of  the  men  I  came  to  see,  we  proceeded  down  the  slope 
to  the  little  creek  which  does  duty  as  a  landing-place  for  the 

215 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

boats  that  ply  on  Great  Man's  Bay.  Seating  myself  on  a  rock 
which  happened  to  be  near,  I  pulled  out  my  note-book  and 
took  down  the  following  particulars  from  the  little  group  by 
which  I  was  surrounded.  The  advent  of  a  stranger  had 
brought  some  dozen  women  and  children  from  a  few  hovels 
in  the  neighborhood,  and  these,  together  with  my  dozen  heroes, 
formed  quite  a  picturesque  group,  the  men  with  their  fine, 
manly  forms  clad  in  'bawneens,'  and  the  women  dressed  in 
their  red  petticoats  (the  universal  Connemara  wear)  and 
shawls  twisted  round  the  neck  arid  waist.  Only  a  few  of  the 
men  could  converse  in  English,  and  that  tongue  was  unknown 
to  the  women — at  least  as  a  medium  of  conversation.  The 
following  are  the  names  of  the  men  who  had  been  arrested  and 
by  whom  I  was  surrounded:  Stephen  O'Brien,  Coleman  Wal- 
lace, Donald  Mullan,  John  Mullan,  Patrick  Sanly,  Coleman 
Conneally,  and  Patrick  Kane. 

"A  few  facts  about  the  conduct  of  the  landlords  towards 
these  men's  families  will  show  how  much  brave  men  can  suffer 
ere  they  are  driven  to  desperation.  The  landlord's  name  is 
Kirwan,  who  resides  near  Tuam,  and  his  agent,  the  well-known 
Mr.  Robinson.  Berridge,  a  retired  London  brewer,  who  is 
now  the  owner  of  the  great  Martin  estate,  has  some  land  rented 
in  Carraroe  also,  and  has  for  his  agent  this  same  Robinson. 
The  rent  upon  Kirwan's  and  Berridge's  estate  is  double  the 
ordinance  valuation.  The  tenants  (in  Carraroe)  have  to 
bring  their  turf  across  two  lakes  from  the  base  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  have  to  pay  the  bailiff  a  certain  sum  for  turbary. 
Until  recently  a  certain  number  of  days'  'duty  work'  had  to 
be  performed  —  of  course,  for  nothing — -during  the  year. 
John  McDonogh's  son  got  married  a  few  years  ago,  and  be- 
cause Robinson,  the  agent,  was  not  consulted  on  the  matter 
the  father's  rent  was  raised  ;^5  '  as  a  fine.'  Andrew  McDonogh 
had  two  sons  married,  and  because  he  allowed  them  to  live  in 
the  outhouse  attached  to  his  home  his  rent  was  raised  from 

£3°     to    ;^40. 

"Some  twenty  families  in  this  vicinity  have  been  'fined' 
in  a  similar  manner  by  the  landlord's  agent  for  marriages  tak- 
ing place  without  his  permission  having  been  obtained.  An- 
drew Connella's  father  had  a  holding  for  ;^5  which  Berridge, 
through  Robinson,  raised  to  £10.  Connella's  brother  had  an 
adjoining  holding,  and,  having  experienced  heavy  loss  one  year, 
he  failed  to  pay  the  rent  and  was  evicted,  when  Andrew  was 
given  the  alternative  of  paying  his  brother's  ;;^io  in  addition 
to  his  own  or  ejectment.  These  facts,  together  with  the  hard- 
ships of  this  year  and  the  more  than  probable  starvation  of 
the  coming  spring,  determined  the  people  to  resist  the  service 

216 


GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

of  ejectment  processes   and   keep  a  grip  of  their  mountain 
cabins. 

"News  of  the  intended  visit  of  Fenton  and  the  constabulary- 
was  sent  from  Galway  to  the  Carraroe  people  the  morning  of 
the  day  selected  for  the  service  of  the  papers,  and  they  were 
consequently  on  the  alert  and  ready  for  action  when  the  home- 
destroyers  filed  up  the  road  to  Fenton 's  house  to  afford  him 
guard  and  protection.  Messages  had,  in  the  mean  time,  been 
sent  to  all  the  neighboring  islands  and  inland  to  Bossmuck 
and  the  western  part  of  the  Joyce  country  for  aid,  but  no  re- 
inforcement from  these  quarters  arrived  until  after  the  men 
and  women  of  Carraroe,  north  and  south,  had  dispersed  the 
process-serving  force  in  the  first  day's  encounter.  The  first 
paper  to  be  delivered  was  for  Mrs.  Mackle,  whose  house  stood 
some  couple  of  hundred  yards  below  the  constabulary  bar- 
racks. All  the  available  police  from  Galway  and  the  sur- 
rounding districts  were  formed  round  the  place  where  Fenton 
was  to  emerge  from  to  perform  his  perilous  task,  and  opposite 
the  barracks,  ranged  in  double  lines,  were  some  five  hundred 
of  the  mountaineers,  with  some  few  hundred  boys  and  women 
in  the  rear,  all  resolutely  bent  upon  determined  opposition  to 
the  work  about  to  be  attempted  in  the  name  of  authority  and 
law.  The  moment  Fenton  emerged  from  the  barracks  he  was 
received  with  showers  of  stones  and  yells,  under  which  he  beat 
a  hasty  retreat,  but,  encouraged  by  the  ring  of  bayonets  out- 
side, he  again  ventured  forth,  and,  surrounded  by  his  guard, 
proceeded  down  the  road  towards  the  house  of  a  man  named 
Faherty.  The  opposing  forces  flanked  the  constabulary  on 
the  march,  while  the  women  and  boys  doubled  in  front  in 
order  to  reach  the  place  before  the  peelers. 

"On  Fenton  attempting  to  approach  the  house  he  was  set 
upon  by  the  women  and  the  process  snatched  from  his  hand 
and  torn  to  pieces.  A  skirmish  ensued  in  which  a  few  bayonet 
wounds  were  received  by  boys  and  women, but  the  body  of  men, 
who  marched  as  'lookers-on,'  took  no  part  in  the  first  onset. 

"The  force  next  marched  to  Mrs.  Mackle's,  and  received 
such  a  warm  reception  that  bayonets  were  freely  used  by 
the  police  in  efforts  to  protect  Fenton.  Mrs.  Mackle  succeed- 
ed in  throwing  a  shovelful  of  burning  turf  upon  Sub-Inspector 
Gibbons,  and  thereby  driving  him  from  the  house.  A  fierce 
fight  now  commenced,  in  which  the  constabulary  used  their 
bayonets,  but  not  in  any  savage  manner. 

"This  attack  upon  the  women  roused  the  men  to  action, 
and  in  a  second  the  police  were  surrounded  and  attacked  with 
stout  blackthorns  and  stones  and  compelled  to  retire  from  the 
front  of  the  house. 

217 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"They  reformed  again  on  the  road  and  fired  a  volley  over 
the  heads  of  the  people,  but  this,  instead  of  having  the  desired 
effect,  only  excited  those  the  more  who  were  thought  to  be  in- 
timidated, and  they  rushed  upon  the  constabulary  and  drove 
them  completely  before  them,  pursuing  the  flying  peelers  and 
Fenton  to  the  doors  of  the  barracks.  The  victory  was  de- 
cidedly with  the  people,  and  so  much  determination  had  been 
shown  that  Sub-Inspector  Gibbons  and  his  eighty  men  did  not 
venture  to  court  defeat  a  second  time,  so  no  further  attempt 
was  made  to  '  do  service '  either  that  or  the  following  day.  In 
the  mean  time,  constabulary  were  being  telegraphed  for  from 
various  stations  in  the  South  and  East,  and  by  Monday  morn- 
ing some  two  hundred  and  fifty  had  reached  the  scene  of 
action. 

"The  mountaineers  were  equally  active,  and  succeeded  in 
bringing  in  reinforcements  from  all  the  islands  off  the  coast  as 
well  as  from  the  interior  of  the  mountains,  mustering  alto- 
gether some  two  thousand  men  in  front  of  the  constabulary 
barracks  on  Monday  morning.  They  formed  in  companies 
and  marched  round  the  '  enemy,'  shouting  defiance  and  asking 
the  '  woman-beaters '  to  come  forth.  But  Fenton  had  received 
quite  enough  of  it  on  Friday,  and  refused  to  attempt  the  serv- 
ing of  any  more  papers,  and  his  guard  of  peelers  had  had  quite 
enough  also,  and  were  no  way  displeased  at  being  saved  from 
an  encounter  with  the  men  who  had  shown  such  pluck  and 
threatened  to  fight  to  the  last  in  resistance  to  the  purpose 
which  brought  such  a  force  against  their  homes. 

"The  legal  time  for  serving  the  processes  for  this  sessions  of 
Galway  having  expired  the  following  day,  the  constabulary 
started  for  Spiddal,  and  the  mountaineers  and  their  island 
allies  returned  to  their  villages,  elate  with  the  victory  they 
had  achieved  over  the  landlords  and  the  power  which  backs 
them  in  their  warfare  against  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the 
country. 

"During  the  early  part  of  Monday,  while  there  was  uncer- 
tainty as  to  whether  there  was  to  be  a  fight  or  not,  a  body  of 
select  men  from  the  Joyce  country  were  observing  the  situa- 
tion from  a  height  overlooking  Carraroe,  and  I  am  informed 
that  if  the  contest  of  Friday  was  renewed  this  body  would 
have  descended  upon  the  scene  and  given  a  good  account  of 
the  Connemara  home-destroyers." 

Had  the  fight  been  renewed  on  the  Monday,  it  was  the  in- 
tention of  the  leaders  of  the  peasants  to  destroy  the  bridge 
south  of  the  village,  cut  off  communications  between  the  police 
and  their  base,  and  overwhelm  them  with  superior  numbers. 
Fenton 's  surrender  of  his  post  prevented  what  would  have 

218 


GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

been  the  most  desperate  and  sanguinary  conflict  of  the  whole 
league  movement. 

During  the  stay  of  the  police  in  the  village  no  food  of  any 
kind  was  sujjplied  to  them.  Nothing  could  be  purchased  by 
them  from  the  poorest  of  the  community,  no  matter  what 
sum  of  money  was  offered  for  a  cup  of  milk,  the  hire  of  a  car, 
or  for  any  other  service.  The  law  was  thus  completely  de- 
feated in  its  attempt  to  assert  its  own  and  the  landlord's  au- 
thority. 

These  tactics  were  not  always  as  successfully  employed  as 
in  Carraroe,  and  other  and  more  legal  methods  had  to  be  re- 
sorted to  in  order  to  carry  out  the  same  policy — namely,  to 
make  it  more  profitable  to  the  landlord  to  give  an  abatement 
in  rent  than  to  resort  to  the  costly  process  of  eviction.  The 
league  singled  out  a  few  landlords  for  attack  in  this  way,  and 
succeeded  in  deterring  many  from  proceeding  to  eviction  by 
inflicting  a  heavy  fine  upon  some  of  the  would-be  evictors. 
The  plan  resorted  to  for  this  purpose  was  as  follows: 

Processes  of  ejectment  for  arrears  of  rent  had  hitherto  been 
granted  as  a  matter  of  course  whenever  applied  for  to  the 
county  court.  The  existence  of  arrears  was  proved  ex  parte, 
no  appearance  was  made  in  behalf  of  the  tenant  for  want  of 
means  to  fee  a  solicitor,  and  the  machinery  of  the  law  was 
easily  and  at  little  cost  put  in  motion.  It  was  decided  to 
provide  the  necessary  legal  help  for  tenants  in  as  many  cases 
as  possible,  in  order  to  put  the  landlord  to  expense,  and  to 
bring  before  the  public  the  facts  relating  to  the  rents  levied 
by  him.  This  action  on  the  part  of  the  league  was  followed 
by  a  still  more  costly  process  of  law  for  the  would-be  evictor. 

Under  the  Land  Act  of  1870  a  tenant  against  whom  a  proc- 
ess of  eviction  had  been  obtained  was  entitled  to  apply  to  a 
county  court  judge  for  a  stay  of  proceedings,  in  order  to 
file  a  claim  for  compensation  for  disturbance  under  the  pro- 
visions of  a  certain  section  of  that  act.  The  law  in  this  sec- 
tion gave  power  to  the  court  to  award  compensation  to  the 
occupier  of  the  holding,  provided  a  case  was  made  out  proving 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  judge  that  an  exorbitant  rent  had 
been  exacted  by  the  landlord.  Little  or  no  advantage  had 
been  taken  since  the  passing  of  this  act  of  this  Gladstonian 
protection  for  tenants,  owing  to  the  cost  involved  in  feeing  a 
lawyer.  The  league  resolved  to  provide  the  required  assist- 
ance now,  and  in  several  cases  judgments  were  obtained  en- 
titling the  tenants  to  receive  from  the  landlord,  if  he  pro- 
ceeded to  eviction,  sums  three  or  four  times  in  excess  of  the 
total  arrears  of  rent  claimed  by  him.  By  these  means  a  great 
number  of  owners  in  the  West  were  induced  to  come  to  rea- 

219 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

sonable  terms  with  their  tenantry  rather  than  incur,  not  alone 
the  popular  odium  caused  by  evictions,  but  the  costly  ex- 
pense of  fighting  the  tenants'  organization  at  each  of  these 
stages  of  legal  procedure. 

Where  evictions  were  carried  out  on  a  failure  of  all  the  ex- 
pedients of  opposition,  immediate  aid  was  given  by  the  league 
in  money  and  in  the  provision  of  shelter  where  this  could  be 
obtained.  If,  as  frequently  happened,  three  or  four  families 
were  turned  out  in  a  town-land,  we  paid  the  rent  in  one  of 
these  cases,  and  supported  the  others,  who  obtained  accom- 
modation on  the  redeemed  tenancy,  and  remained  near  their 
holdings  so  as  to  be  close  at  hand  in  the  event  of  a  "grabber" 
casting  covetous  eyes  upon  the  vacant  land.  The  armed 
forces  of  the  law  and  landlord  in  conjunction  might  empty  a 
cabin  home  of  its  inmates,  but  the  league  and  popular  senti- 
ment combined  would  see  to  it  that  the  land  should  earn  no 
further  rent  for  the  owner. 

Speaking  in  Birmingham  on  January  26,  1880,  the  late 
Mr.  John  Bright  made  the  Irish  land  question  the  subject  of 
his  address,  and  bore  the  following  testimony  to  the  progress 
of  the  social  revolution  which  the  Land  League  was  steadily 
creating  in  Ireland  at  this  very  time: 

"We  have  on  an  island  close  to  our  own  doors  a  people 
whose  grievances  are  notorious  and  admitted,  whose  suffer- 
ings are  extraordinary  and  not  denied  by  any  acquainted 
with  their  condition,  and  whose  general  state  is  one  of  dis- 
content and  disloyalty,  calling  for  the  attention  of  the  im- 
perial government  of  this  kingdom  a  thousand  times  more 
loudly  than  any  voice  which  speaks  to  them  from  Cyprus  or 
Asia  Minor. 

"Now,  what  is  its  position i*  This,  I  think,  will  meet  with 
no  contest  whatsoever.  That  there  is  in  Ireland  this  moment 
an  amount  of  discontent  and  suffering,  and  what  we  call  dis- 
loyalty, such  as  we  have  not  found  in  any  other  portion  of  the 
kingdom.  As  to  the  question  of  land — land  -  holding,  land- 
occupying,  and  the  tenure  of  land — the  discontent  may  be 
said  to  be  absolutely  universal  in  the  West  of  Ireland — that  is, 
in  the  province  of  Connaught.  You  find  there  is  something 
like  a  general  social  revolution;  rents  are  refused  to  be  paid 
even  by  tenants  who  could  pay  them,  and  this  course  is  recom- 
mended and  encouraged  by  multitudes.  If  evictions  take 
place,  if  notices  are  given  that  unless  the  tenants  pay  they 
will  be  ejected,  then  the  officers  who  serve  the  processes  are 
met  by  crowds  of  men  and  women  prepared  to  hoot  them,  to 
condemn  them,  and  in  some  cases,  by  force,  to  resist  them. 
The  police  are  there  in  hundreds.     You  hear  of  their  marches 


GROWTH  AND  PLANS  OF  THE  LEAGUE 

throughout  the  country  and  of  a  commissariat,  and  its  being 
necessary  to  transport  quantities  of  food  that  the  police  may 
be  able  to  live  in  the  remote  districts  in  which  they  are  placed ; 
and  you  see  in  the  papers  that  the  police,  in  military  terms, 
have  made  a  splendid  charge  against  men  and  women  assem- 
bled. [Hear,  hear.]  The  revolt  is  really  against  the  proprie- 
tor, but  acts  also  against  the  tenants — that  is,  the  tenant  pays 
the  rent  he  pays  under  the  condemnation  of  his  fellow-tenants,' 
and  if  a  tenant  be  evicted  and  a  farm  become  vacant,  and  an- 
other farmer  enters  upon  it,  his  peace  and  even  his  life  is  en- 
dangered, and  farms  that  are  em.ptied  can  no  longer  be  occu- 
pied without  the  danger  to  which  I  have  referred  and  which 
I  have  described." 

A  few  of  the  many  great  meetings  held  at  this  period  were 
landmarks  in  the  progress  of  the  movement,  and  possessed 
some  features  which  gave  them  an  added  interest.  On  New 
Year's  Day  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton  opened  the  campaign  for 
1880,  in  a  speech  at  a  meeting  held  at  Rathdrum,  close  to 
Avondale,  Mr.  Parnell's  home.  It  was  not  Mr.  Sexton's  first 
Land-League  meeting.  He  had  accompanied  Mr.  Parnell  to  the 
famous  anti-eviction  demonstration  at  Balla,  in  the  previous 
November,  and  had  entered  the  fray  there  under  the  excep- 
tional circumstances  which,  as  explained  by  Mr.  Parnell  at 
St.  Louis,  had  rendered  an  attendance  at  that  gathering  a 
dangerous  act  for  a  speaker.  Mr.  Sexton  had  been  a  loyal 
worker  in  the  Home-Rule  movement  prior  to  the  starting  of 
the  Land  League.  As  journalist  and  speaker  he  was  promi- 
nently identified  with  the  promotion  of  all  work  in  Dublin 
which  tended  to  advance  the  popular  cause.  He  took  a  lead- 
ing part  in  preparing  the  country  for  the  first  convention, 
after  the  abolition  of  the  law  which  prohibited  any  such  as- 
semblage in  Ireland,  but  as  the  Mayo  Land-League  convention 
in  the  August  previous  and  the  National  Land-League  conven- 
tion, held  in  April,  1880,  in  the  Rotunda,  Dublin,  had  occupied 
the  ground,  the  special  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Sexton  had 
been  secretary,  was  not  called  upon  to  carry  out  its  programme. 

His  speech  at  the  Rathdrum  meeting  marked  him  out  at 
once  as  one  qualified  in  every  way  for  a  successful  public 
career.  Like  Mr.  Dillon  and  Mr.  Healy,  he  became  "ear- 
marked" in  popular  selection  as  a  coming  lieutenant  of  Mr. 
Parnell's,  and  more  than  one  constituency  claimed  him  as  a 
candidate,  in  view  of  the  approaching  general  election.  Much 
as  those  who  knew  of  his  exceptional  ability  expected  from 
him  at  this  time,  none  of  his  friends  anticipated  the  brilliant 
career  of  parliamentary  success  and  of  public  eminence  which 
lay  before  him  in  the  path  of  service  for  Ireland. 

221 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

A  meeting  which  took  place  at  the  little  hamlet  of  Straide, 
County  Mayo,  on  February  ist  of  this  year  has  been  errone- 
ously confounded  in  many  journalistic  references  with  the 
Irishtown  meeting  of  far  more  historic  interest.  The  gath- 
erings were  a  year  apart,  in  point  of  time,  and  fifteen  or 
twenty  miles  in  the  matter  of  distance.  Straide  was  my 
birthplace,  and  almost  my  first  -  remembered  experience  of 
my  own  life  and  of  the  existence  of  landlordism  was  our 
eviction  in  1852,  when  I  was  about  five  years  of  age.  That 
eviction  and  the  privations  of  the  preceding  famine  years, 
the  story  of  the  starving  peasantry  of  Mayo,  of  the  deaths 
from  hunger  and  the  coffinless  graves  on  the  roadside — 
everywhere  a  hole  could  be  dug  for  the  slaves  who  died  be- 
cause of  "God's  providence" — all  this  was  the  political  food 
seasoned  with  a  mother's  tears  over  unmerited  sorrows  and 
sufferings  which  had  fed  my  mind  in  another  land,  a  teach- 
ing which  lost  none  of  its  force  or  directness  by  being  im- 
parted in  the  Gaelic  tongue,  which  was  almost  always  spoken 
in  our  Lancashire  home.  My  first  knowledge  and  impres- 
sions of  landlordism  were  got  in  that  school,  with  an  assistant 
monitor  of  a  father  who  had  been  the  head  of  some  agrarian 
secret  society  in  Mayo  in  1837,  and  who  had  to  fly  to  England 
in  that  year  to  escape  a  threatened  prosecution  for  Ribbon- 
ism. 

The  Land-League  gathering  in  Straide  had  this  little  dra- 
matic interest  for  me — the  platform  was  erected  over  the 
very  spot  on  which  my  father's  cabin  had  stood  thirty  years 
previously,  and  in  which  I  had  been  born,  and  these  facts 
may,  perhaps,  excuse  my  recalling  some  prophetic  words 
spoken  at  this  meeting  in  1880: 

"The  destroying  hand  of  rack-renting  and  eviction  was 
stricken  down  by  the  influence  of  the  agitation,  and  the  farm- 
ers of  Ireland  were  spared  some  two  or  three  millions  with 
which  to  meet  the  danger  now  looming  over  their  families  and 
country,  while  the  roof-trees  of  thousands  of  homesteads  were 
protected  from  the  crowbar  brigade;  and  the  civilized  world 
has  been  appealed  to  against  the  existence  of  a  land  monopoly 
which  is  responsible  for  a  pauperized  country,  a  starved  and 
discontented  population,  and  every  social  evil  now  afflicting  a 
patient  and  industrious  people,  until  a  consensus  of  home  and 
foreign  opinion  has  been  evoked  in  favor  of  the  abolition  of 
such  a  system  and  the  substitution  of  a  lasting  and  efficacious 
remedy  for  its  evils.  With  these  services  rendered  to  Ireland, 
with  the  resolve  to  do  the  utmost  possible  to  save  our  people 
from  the  danger  immediately  threatening  them,  the  'heartless 
agitators'  will  not  relax  a  single  effort  or   swerve  one  iota 

222 


GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

from  their  original  purpose — to  haul  down  the  ensign  of  land 
monopoly  and  plant  the  banner  of  '  the  land  for  the  people ' 
upon  the  dismantled  battlements  of  Irish  landlordism. 
Against  what  have  we  declared  this  unceasing  strife,  and 
whence  the  justification  for  the  attitude  we  are  calling  upon 
the  people  to  assume  ?  The  resolution  so  eloquently  proposed 
by  my  friend  Mr  Brennan  declares  that  the  present  land  code 
had  its  origin  in  conquest  and  national  spoliation,  and  has  ever 
since  been  the  curse  of  our  people  and  the  scourge  of  Ireland. 
Does  not  the  scene  of  devastation  now  spread  before  this  vast 
meeting  bear  testimony  to  the  crimes  with  which  landlordism 
stands  charged  before  God  and  man  to-day?  Can  a  more 
eloquent  denunciation  of  an  accursed  land  code  be  found  than 
what  is  witnessed  here  in  this  depopulated  district?  In  the 
memory  of  many  now  listening  to  my  words  that  peaceful 
little  stream  which  meanders  by  the  outskirts  of  this  multitude 
sang  back  the  merry  voices  of  happy  children  and  wended  its 
way  through  a  once  populous  and  prosperous  village.  Now, 
however,  the  merry  sounds  are  gone,  the  busy  hum  of  hamlet 
life  is  hushed  in  sad  desolation,  for  the  hands  of  the  home- 
destroyers  have  been  here  and  performed  their  hellish  work, 
leaving  Straide  but  a  name  to  mark  the  place  where  happy 
homesteads  once  stood,  and  whence  an  inoffensive  people 
were  driven  to  the  four  corners  of  the  earth  by  the  ruthless 
decree  of  Irish  landlordism.  How  often  in  a  strange  land  has 
my  boyhood's  ear  drunk  in  the  tale  of  outrage  and  wrong  and 
infamy  perpetrated  here  in  the  name  of  English  laws  and  in 
the  interest  of  territorial  greed;  in  listening  to  the  accounts 
of  famine  and  sorrow  of  deaths  by  starvation,  of  coffinless 
graves,  of  scenes 

"  '  On  highway  side,  where  oft  was  seen 
The  wild  dog  and  the  vulture  keen 
Ttig  for  the  limbs  and  gnaw  the  face 
Of  some  starved  child  of  our  Irish  race.'  " 

...  It  is  no  little  consolation  to  know,  however,  that  we  are 
here  to-day  doing  battle  against  a  doomed  monopoly,  and  that 
the  power  which  has  so  long  domineered  over  Ireland  and  its 
people  is  brought  to  its  knees  at  last,  and  on  the  point  of  being 
crushed  forever,  and  if  I  am  standing  to-day  upon  a  platform 
erected  over  the  ruins  of  my  levelled  home,  I  may  yet  have 
the  satisfaction  of  trampling  on  the  ruins  of  Irish  landlord- 
ism." 

There  arrived  in  Ireland,  in  this  month  a  noted  American 
who  was  to  render  great  help  to  "  the-land-f or-the-people " 
agitation.     This  was  Mr.  James  Redpath.     He  came  to  rep- 

223 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

resent  the  New  York  Tribune,  as  a  result  of  the  interest  in 
Irish  affairs  awakened  in  the  United  States  by  the  Parnell- 
Dillon  mission.  Mr.  Redpath  was  a  man  with  a  romantic 
history.  He  had,  in  his  time,  been  an  agitator  in  a  great  cause, 
and  had  risked  Hfe  and  Hberty  in  its  service.  In  company 
with  Colonel  Hinton,  who  has  only  recently  died,  he  joined 
the  small  band  of  heroes  who  aided  the  great  anti-slavery 
reformer  John  Brown,  and  shared  in  their  many  thrilling  ad- 
ventures before  the  tragedy  of  Harper's  Ferry.  Redpath  and 
Hinton  had  gone  on  the  track  of  John  Brown's  band  of  hu- 
manitarian outlaws  as  pressmen,  in  the  interest  of  New  York 
papers,  but  allowed  their  warm  sympathies  for  a  noble  cause 
to  enlist  them  on  its  side  as  active  adherents.  The  two  friends 
escaped  the  fate  of  the  armed  apostle  of  abolition  and  lived 
to  champion  other  good  causes  in  later  times. 

Redpath  was  an  intensely  interesting  personality.  He  was 
under  medium  height,  with  a  face  full  of  character,  from 
which  two  large,  gray  eyes  looked  out  at  you  with  a  deep, 
penetrating  expression  of  suffering  and  sympathy.  It  was  a 
strong  but  sad  face — one  of  those  faces  which  appear  to  be 
forever  searching  after  a  something  that  is  not  to  be  enjoyed 
in  this  life — a  place  of  rest  where  no  wrong  is  to  be  found  and 
into  which  no  tale  of  human  misery  could  come.  He  had,  in 
a  marked  degree,  the  typical  American  manner  of  independent 
bearing  and  frank  speech,  with  a  dry,  caustic  humor.  He 
introduced  himself  at  the  Land-League  offices  one  day,  saying 
he  wished  to  look  at  our  books  and  correspondence  in  order 
to  find  out  where  "the  distress,  if  any,"  was  located.  To  his 
manifest  surprise  his  request  was  immediately  granted,  and  a 
somewhat  sceptical  inquirer  was  disarmed  by  this  show  of 
confidence,  and  was  soon,  as  he  himself  expressed  it,  turned 
into  a  convinced  Land-Leaguer.  An  important  meeting  was 
to  be  held  in  Queen's  County  on  the  day  following  Redpath 's 
arrival,  and  as  its  object  was  to  denounce  an  eviction  our 
visitor  was  induced  to  accompany  Mr.  John  Ferguson,  of 
Glasgow,  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  the  writer  to  the  Knockaroe 
demonstration. 

The  memory  of  this  meeting  still  lingers  in  the  centre  of 
the  Leinster  counties.  It  was  called  to  focus  public  atten- 
tion upon  the  fate  of  Malachi  Kelly,  a  respectable  and  indus- 
trious tenant,  who,  having  in  a  tenancy  of  thirty  years  paid 
his  landlord  an  aggregate  rent  of  £3800 — a  rent  which  had 
been  raised  more  than  once  upon  the  value  of  his  own  im- 
provements— was  evicted  for  a  year  and  a  half's  arrears. 
The  gathering  was  very  large  and  enthusiastic,  and  as  the 
meeting  was  about  to  begin  a  body  of  armed  constabulary, 

224 


GROWTH    AND    PLANS    OF    THE    LEAGUE 

escorting  a  government  reporter,  marched  into  the  crowd  and 
grounded  their  rifles. 

"Who  are  these?"  asked  Redpath. 

"Royal  Irish  Constabulary  representing  the  powers  that 
be." 

"  Do  you  allow  them  to  attend  peaceful  meetings  like  this?" 

"Well,  tell  us  how  we  can  prevent  it  and  we  will  see  what 
can  be  done.  They  have  arms  and  we  have  not,  and  they 
are  sent  here  by  that  England  which  you  Americans  are 
taught  to  believe,  before  you  cross  the  Atlantic,  gives  this 
country  as  much  freedom  as  Englishmen  themselves  enjoy." 

Redpath  was  furious,  and  wanted  to  make  a  speech  to  at- 
tack the  government  responsible  for  such  an  outrage,  but  was 
prevailed  upon  to  wait  to  see  more  of  the  country  and  of  the 
conduct  of  our  rulers,  and  then  to  deliver  his  speeches  to  the 
American  readers  of  his  letters  from  Ireland. 

The  meeting  had  one  remarkable  result.  A  speaker  in 
closing  his  address  used  these  words: 

"  The  landlord  has  thrown  Malachi  Kelly  and  his  family  out 
of  their  home  and  holding,  but  to-day  you  and  I  draw  a  line 
round  this  farm,  and  let  no  man  dare  to  cross  it  with  covetous 
intent  if  he  wishes  to  live  in  peace  within  this  county." 

Twenty-three  years  have  rolled  by  since  the  day  of  the 
meeting  on  the  hill  of  Knockaroe.  Malachi  Kelly  has  gone 
to  his  last  account,  but  no  man  has  yet  been  found  to  cross 
that  line  and  rent  his  farm  for  more  than  a  short  time. 

Redpath  was  dubious  about  the  ultimate  success  of  a  move- 
ment which  could  permit  a  body  of  forty  police  to  insult  a 
meeting  with  the  presence  of  an  armed  force.  He  lived  to 
change  that  view.  With  us  on  that  platform,  on  February 
22,  1880,  was  Mr.  J.  P.  Meehan,  of  Maryborough,  merchant,. 
a  stanch  Land-Leaguer  and  nationalist.  He  is  to-day  chair- 
man of  the  Queen's  County  county  council.  He  and  the  or- 
ganizers of  that  and  of  subsequent  meetings  are  now  the 
local  governors  of  a  county  which  was  notorious  for  its  anti- 
national  grand  jury  and  rampant  landlordism  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago.  The  landlords  ruled  the  county  and  owned  the 
land  then.  The  nationalists  have  supplanted  their  enemies 
in  county  administration  since  1898,  and  the  tenants  will 
soon  replace  them  in  the  ownership  of  the  soil. 

IS 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

The  Freeman's  Journal,  the  leading  Irish  daily  newspaper, 
still  held  out  against  the  league.  It  upheld  Mr.  Shaw's  chair- 
manship of  the  Home-Rule  party,  denounced  Mr.  Parnell's 
speeches  in  the  United  States,  and  carried  its  opposition  so 
far  that  the  names  of  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan, 
and  the  present  writer  were  not  to  be  mentioned  in  Mr.  Dwyer 
Gray's  paper.  This  hostility  was  in  some  sense  due  to  rivalry 
between  the  Mansion  House  Relief  Fund  Committee  (Mr. 
Gray  being  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin  at  the  time)  and  the  Land- 
League  executive.  The  rivalry  had  its  source  in  political 
differences,  however,  and  the  distribution  of  assistance  to 
the  victims  of  distress  had  only  the  relation  of  accident  to  the 
real  cause  of  antagonism.  It  was  evident  to  Mr.  Gray,  and 
to  all  whom  it  might  concern,  that  the  league  was  preparing 
the  country  for  Parnell's  national  leadership,  and  that  a  far 
more  vigorous  policy  than  that  supported  by  the  Freeman's 
Journal  would  build  a  platform  upon  which  Mr.  Shaw  and 
his  nominal  Home-Rulers  would  not  stand.  This  was  the 
league's  real  quarrel  with  Mr.  Gray,  and  it  was  on  this  issue 
that  the  contest  was  waged  which  soon  brought  both  himself 
and  his  paper  to  terms. 

The  opposition  of  Dublin's  chief  daily  paper  was  a  serious 
hinderance  to  the  movement  in  the  national  capital,  and  as  the 
league  had  already  fought  and  beaten  several  formidable  an- 
tagonists its  leaders  were  not  averse  to  trying  conclusions  with 
Mr.  Gray.  He  had  openly  attacked  the  league's  president, 
while  on  Ireland's  service  across  the  Atlantic,  and  this,  too, 
at  a  time  when  prominent  Land-Leaguers  at  home  were  under 
the  legal  ban  of  a  state  prosecution.  So  plans  were  carefully 
prepared,  and  the  duel  with  our  formidable  newspaper  an- 
tagonist was  fought  out  in  this  way; 

Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  treasurer  of  the  Land  League,  was  at 
this  time  the  most  active  and  able  of  the  nationalist  leaders 
of  Dublin.  He  was  a  prominent  city  merchant,  a  man  of 
conspicuous  integrity,  very  popular  with  all  who  knew  him, 

226 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

and  as  full  of  organizing  resourcefulness  as  of  courage  and 
capacity  in  dealing  with  opposing  forces,  qualities  which  were 
conspicuously  displayed  in  subsequent  years,  under  most 
crucial  conditions,  when  he  was  United  States  minister  at 
Chili  during  the  Balmaceda  crisis.  It  was  arranged  by  the 
league  that  a  huge  demonstration,  ostensibly  as  a  protest 
against  the  prosecution  of  Messrs.  Brennan,  Daly,  Killeen, 
and  the  writer,  should  take  place  in  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin, 
and  that  advantage  should  be  taken  of  this  great  gathering 
to  deal  with  the  attitude  of  the  Freeman.  An  eflfigy  of  Mr. 
Dwyer  Gray,  dressed  in  copies  of  his  paper,  was  to  be  burned 
in  a  boat  on  the  Liffey  during  the  passage  of  the  procession 
along  the  quays,  while  the  crowds  were  to  be  marched  back 
to  the  city  from  the  park,  after  the  meeting,  so  as  to  pass  the 
Freeman  office  and  make  a  hostile  demonstration  against  it. 
All  these  plans  were  carefully  and  purposely  communicated  to 
Mr.  Gray  through  his  managing  editor,  who  was  most  effu- 
sively assured  by  Mr.  Egan  that,  "whatever  might  be  done 
or  said  opposite  the  office  of  the  paper  by  the  mob,  no  notice 
would  be  taken  of  the  Sir  John  Gray  monument,"  which  stood 
in  the  lower  centre  of  O'Connell  Street.  These  diplomatic 
warnings  sufficed,  and  the  day  before  the  great  Park  meeting, 
at  which  fully  eighty  thousand  persons  were  present,  the 
Freeman  had  most  complimentary  references  to  the  league 
and  its  executive,  its  work  and  power.  Mr.  Gray  sent  for 
the  writer  subsequently,  and  told  him  frankly  that  the 
Freeman  was  beaten,  that  the  country  was  in  full  sympathy 
with  the  programme  and  policy  of  the  new  movement, 
and  that  consequently  his  paper  would  henceforth  give 
the  league  a  fair  support.  This  it  continued  to  do  from 
the  period  of  the  league  convention  until  the  catastrophe 
of  1890,  when  it  did  more  than  all  other  agencies  of  mis- 
chief combined  to  divide  the  national  ranks.  Mr.  Gray  had, 
however,  died  a  short  time  previously,  and  this  bad  work  of 
his  paper  must  be  put  down  to  other  names  and  influences. 

Flinging  wide  the  net  of  the  movement,  the  Land  League 
of  Great  Britain  was  formed  out  of  the  organization  of  the 
Home  Rule  Confederation  in  1880.  Branches  of  the  old  body 
had  existed  in  London,  Birmingham,  Manchester,  Bradford, 
Leeds,  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  and  Dundee 
for  some  few  years,  and  these  now  volunteered  to  merge  them- 
selves in  the  new  organization.  Mr.  John  Barry,  a  national- 
ist of  the  advanced  school  (subsequently  member  of  Parlia- 
ment for  County  Wexford)  was  the  leading  spirit  in  the  m.ove- 
ment  in  Great  Britain  at  this  period.  He  was  a  business  man 
of  conspicuous  ability,  open-handed  and  generous  to  a  fault, 

227 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  was  very  popular  among  all  sections  of  Irishmen  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland.  Mr.  Parnell  had  been  elected  president 
of  the  Home  Rule  Confederation  mainly  through  Mr.  Barry's 
exertions,  and  it  was  chiefly  due  to  the  exercise  of  the  same 
influence  that  the  branches  of  this  organization  were  included 
in  the  Land-League  system.  Mr.  Barry's  efforts  in  this  di- 
rection were  supported  by  Mr.  John  Ferguson  and  Mr.  Michael 
Clarke,  of  Glasgow;  Mr.  Barney  McAnulty,  of  Newcastle;  Mr. 
John  Walsh,  of  Middlesboro';  Mr.  John  Denvir,  of  Liverpool; 
Mr.  John  Ryan,  of  Chelsea,  and  other  influential  nationalists 
who  tad  been  identified,  some  with  Fenianism  and  some  with 
Mr.  Butt's  Home-Rule  movement.  League  branches  soon 
multiplied  in  Great  Britain,  and  an  auxiliary  organization 
thus  initiated  has  continued  during  the  past  twenty-three 
years  to  extend  a  powerful,  generous,  and  most  loyal  service 
to  the  parent  movement  in  Ireland. 

Steps  were  likewise  taken  to  carry  the  Land-League  prop- 
aganda into  the  Highlands  in  order  to  stir  up  a  crofter 
revolt  against  Scottish  landlordism.  Mr.  Edward  McHugh, 
then  of  Glasgow,  a  man  of  remarkable  ability  and  an  ideal 
propagandist  to  any  just  cause  that  captures  his  adhesion, 
was  commissioned  by  the  league  executive  in  Dublin  to  make 
a  tour  of  the  Island  of  Skye  and  other  Highland  districts 
as  an  emissary  of  the  anti-landlord  movement.  Mr.  McHugh, 
being  able  to  converse  in  Gaelic,  perfonned  his  task  with 
marked  success.  In  a  short  time  the  mission  showed  results 
in  the  formation  of  a  Highland  league,  which,  though  inde- 
pendent in  its  organization  and  government  from  that  of 
Ireland,  was  allied  in  a  bond  of  sympathy  and  purpose  to  the 
movement  in  the  sister  Celtic  country. 

When,  in  some  subsequent  troubles  between  crofters  and 
an  extensive  owner  of  Highland  grazing  lands,  the  world  of 
(London)  sport  was  horrified  at  the  slaughter  of  some  deer  by 
half-starving  peasants,  as  a  means  of  compelling  public  atten- 
tion to  be  given  to  their  condition  and  claims,  the  indignant 
sporting  brewers  and  lords  of  Cockneydom  were  unaware  of 
the  fact  that  the  guns  which  enabled  the  crofters  to  kill  some 
venison  for  their  own  use  once  in  a  time  were  bought  for 
them  out  of  the  funds  of  the  wicked  Land  League  of  Dublin. 

In  this  connection  mention  must  be  made  of  a  veteran 
Highland  anti-landlord  reformer  and  truest  of  true  Celts, 
the  late  John  Murdoch,  once  editor  of  a  now  defunct  paper, 
The  Highlander,  of  Inverness.  Murdoch  had  been  a  resident 
of  Dublin  in  1847-48,  as  an  employe  of  the  excise,  and,  being 
in  hearty  sympathy  with  the  Young  Irelanders,  he  attended 
meetings    of  the    national    confederation    and   imbibed   the 

228 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

Fintan  Lalor  ideas  of  land  reform.  He  remained  true  to 
these  principles  in  after  years,  and  expounded  them  in  his 
paper  during  its  existence.  He  was  a  stanch  ally  of  the 
Irish  Land  League,  and  accompanied  Messrs.  Parnell  and 
Dillon  to  some  of  the  meetings  addressed  by  them  during  the 
American  mission.  The  late  Professor  John  Stuart  Blackie, 
of  Edinburgh,  who  knew  Murdoch  intimately,  and  was,  like 
himself,  a  thorough  Celt,  wrote  these  well-merited  lines  of 
praise  and  esteem  of  the  stout-hearted  opponent  of  the  whole 
landlord  system: 

"God  bless  thee,  Murdoch!     Thou'rt  a  man  to  stand 

On  thine  own  legs — and  very  good  legs  they  be! 
Like  a  strong  swimmer,  thou  hast  gained  the  land, 

When  wave  on  wave  yawn'd  wide  to  swallow  thee. 
Time  was  when  only  valiant  men  might  show 

Their  face  on  Highland  hills;  a  baser  brood 
Now  to  the  Saxon  lordling  duck  them  low. 

With  fashioned  smiles  of  smooth-lipped  flunkyhood. 
Not  in  this  school  was  Murdoch  bred,  who  wears 

His  manhood  on  his  front,  and  in  his  breast 
The  memory  of  high-hearted  fathers  bears. 

Who  never  crook'd  the  knee  or  droop'd  their  crest; 
True  to  whose  blood  he  battles  in  the  van, 
For  Truth  and  Right,  and  fears  no  face  of  man." 

It  was  in  the  midst  of  organization  and  propaganda  work 
of  this  wide -reaching  character,  in  March,  1880,  that  Lord 
Beaconsfield  launched  his  historic  indictment  of  the  whole 
Irish  movement,  in  his  famous  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough, the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  soon  after  dis- 
solved Parliament.  Mr.  Parnell  was  instantly  cabled  for  by  the 
league,  and  he  landed  in  Queenstown,  as  already  mentioned, 
on  the  eve  of  the  general  election. 

Nothing  has  been  more  consistent  in  the  policy  of  British 
statesmen  in  their  rule  of  Ireland  than  their  inconsistency. 
There  has  not  been  a  prime-minister  from  Pitt  to  Arthur  James 
Balfour  who  did  not  apply  principles  of  government  to  the 
rule  of  the  Irish  people  at  complete  variance  with  his  own 
convictions,  spoken  or  written,  on  some  contingency  or  oc- 
casion. Reforms,  political,  social,  educational,  and  religious, 
advocated  in  England's  Parliament,  press,  and  pulpit,  in  vir- 
tue of  England's  self-proclaimed  prerogative  as  the  teacher 
of  liberty  to  all  peoples,  were  expressly  repudiated  as  being 
at  all  applicable  to  the  case  of  Ireland.  Not  alone  this,  but 
there  has  scarcely  been  a  premier  of  England  since  the  Act  of 
Union  who  has  not,  in  some  moment  free  from  anti-Irish 
prejudice,  voiced  the  truth  about  the  wrong,  stupidity,  and 
failure  of  the  English  system  of  governing  the  Irish  people. 

229 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

The  consensus  of  English  opinion  quoted  in  the  first  chapter 
of  this  book  amply  supports  this  contention.  It  offers  an 
overwhelming  proof  of  the  incapacity  of  those  who  for  eighty 
vears  or  more  passed  almost  as  many  coercion  acts  through 
the  British  Parliament,  in  vain  attempts  to  prevent  those 
very  reforms  being  conceded  to  our  people  which  English 
statesmen  in  opposition,  or  in  candid  moments,  admitted  to 
be  just  and  necessary,  but  which  the  very  same  statesmen, 
when  in  office,  and  responsible  for  Irish  misgovernment,  ig- 
nored or  denounced  when  demanded  by  Irish  leaders. 

It  was  in  strict  accordance  with  this  spirit  of  cynical  incon- 
sistency and  persistent  wilful  blindness  as  to  the  causes  and 
remedies  for  Ireland's  discontent  that  the  people  of  Great 
Britain  were  appealed  to  in  the  following  electioneering  mani- 
festo in  March,  1880: 

"  10  Downing  Street,  March  8,  1880. 

"My  Lord  Duke, — The  measures  respecting  the  state  of 
Ireland  which  her  Majesty's  government  so  anxiously  con- 
sidered with  your  Excellency,  and  in  which  they  were  much 
aided  by  your  advice  and  authority,  are  now  about  to  be 
submitted  for  the  ro3^al  assent,  and  it  is  at  length  in  the 
power  of  the  ministers  to  advise  the  Queen  to  recur  to  the 
sense  of  her  people.  The  arts  of  agitators  which  represented 
that  England,  instead  of  being  the  generous  and  sympathizing 
friend,  was  indifferent  to  the  dangers  and  the  sufferings  of 
Ireland,  have  been  defeated  by  the  measures,  at  once  liberal 
and  prudent,  which  Parliament  have  almost  unanimously 
sanctioned. 

"During  the  six  years  of  the  present  administration  the 
improvement  of  Ireland  and  the  content  of  our  fellow-country- 
men in  that  island  have  much  occupied  the  care  of  the 
ministry,  and  they  may  remember  with  satisfaction  that  in 
this  period  they  have  solved  one  of  the  most  difficult  prob- 
lems connected  with  its  government  and  its  people  by  es- 
tablishing a  system  of  public  education  open  to  all  classes 
and  all  creeds. 

"Nevertheless  a  danger,  in  its  ultimate  results  scarcely  less 
disastrous  than  pestilence  and  famine,  and  which  now  engages 
your  Excellency's  anxious  attention,  distracts  that  country. 
A  portion  of  its  population  is  attempting  to  sever  the  con- 
stitutional tie  which  unites  it  to  Great  Britain  in  the  bond 
which  has  favored  the  power  and  prosperity  of  both. 

"It  is  to  be  hoped  that  all  men  of  light  and  leading  will 
resist  this  destructive  doctrine.  The  strength  of  this  nation 
depends  on  the  unity  of  feeling  which  should  pervade  the 
United  Kingdom  and  its  wide  -  spread  dependencies.     The 

230 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

first  duty  of  an  English  minister  should  be  to  consolidate 
that  co-operation  which  renders  irresistible  a  community, 
educated  as  our  own,  in  an  equal  love  of  liberty  and  law. 

"And  yet  there  are  some  who  challenge  the  expediency 
of  the  imperial  character  of  this  realm.  Having  attempted 
and  failed  to  enfeeble  our  colonies  by  their  policy  of  decom- 
position, they  may,  perhaps,  nov/  recognize  in  the  disintegra- 
tion of  the  United  Kingdom  a  mode  which  will  not  only  ac- 
complish but  precipitate  their  purpose. 

"The  immediate  dissolution  of  Parliament  will  afford  an 
opportunity  to  the  nation  to  decide  upon  a  course  which  will 
materially  influence  its  future  fortunes  and  shape  its  destiny. 

"Rarely  in  this  century  has  there  been  an  occasion  more 
critical.  The  power  of  England  and  the  peace  of  Europe  will 
largely  depend  on  the  verdict  of  the  country.  Her  Majesty's 
present  ministers  have  hitherto  been  enabled  to  secure  that 
peace  so  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  all  civilized  countries 
and  so  peculiarly  the  interest  of  our  own.  But  this  ineffable 
blessing  cannot  be  obtained  by  the  passive  principle  of  non- 
interference. Peace  rests  on  the  presence,  not  to  say  the 
ascendency,  of  England  in  the  councils  of  Europe.  Even 
at  this  moment  the  doubt  supposed  to  be  inseparable  from 
popular  election,  if  it  does  not  diminish  certainly  arrests  her 
influence,  and  is  a  main  reason  for  not  delaying  an  appeal  to 
the  national  voice. 

"Whatever  may  be  its  consequence  to  her  Majesty's  present 
advisers,  may  it  return  to  Westminster  a  Parliament  not  un- 
worthy of  the  power  of  England  and  resolved  to  maintain  it. 

"I  have  the  honor  to  be,  my  Lord  Duke, 

"Your  faithful  servant,  Beaconsfield. 

"His  Excellency  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  K.G." 

Six  years  only  previous  to  this  insulting  manifesto,  the 
same  English  statesman,  then  in  opposition,  described  the 
existing  government  of  Ireland  by  England  in  these  words: 

"  Neither  liberty  of  the  press  nor  liberty  of  the  person  exists 
in  Ireland.  Arrests  are  at  all  times  liable.  It  is  a  fact  that 
at  any  time  in  Ireland  the  police  may  enter  into  your  house, 
examine  your  papers  to  see  if  there  is  any  resemblance  be- 
tween the  writing  and  that  of  some  anonymous  letter  that  has 
been  sent  to  a  third  person.  In  Ireland,  if  a  man  writes  an 
article  in  a  newspaper,  and  it  offends  the  government,  he  has 
a  warning,  and  if  he  repeats  the  offence  his  paper  may  be 
suppressed.  They  say  Ireland  is  peaceful.  Yes,  but  is  she 
so,  not  because  she  is  contented,  but  because  she  is  held  un- 
der by  coercive  laws?     These  laws  may  be  necessary.     I  am 

231 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

not  here  objecting  to  them.  I  am  a  Tory,  and  as  such  I  might 
favor  severer  laws  myself.  But  I  say  it  isn't  honest  in  the 
Liberals,  while  denouncing  us,  to  imitate  our  ways."^ 

This  was  on  the  eve  of  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Gladstone  on  the 
question  of  university  education  for  Ireland.  The  Tories  were 
returned  to  power  in  1874,  and  Mr.  Disraeli  became  prime- 
minister,  in  his  second  administration.  No  English  states- 
man of  his  time  understood  the  Irish  question  better  than 
the  extraordinary  man  who  had  first  entered  the  House  of 
Commons  as  an  English  Radical,  virtually  under  the  patron- 
age of  Daniel  O'Connell,  to  terminate  his  political  career  as 
the  founder  of  imperial  toryism  and  petted  premier  of  Queen 
Victoria.  As  early  as  1844  Disraeli  had  given  perhaps  the 
best  exposition  of  the  Anglo-Irish  question  ever  spoken  by  an 
English  statesman.  On  February  i6th,  in  that  year,  he  said, 
from  his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons: 

"I  want  to  see  a  public  man  come  forward  and  say  what  the 
Irish  question  is.  One  says  it  is  a  physical  question;  another 
a  spiritual.  Now  it  is  the  absence  of  the  aristocracy;  now 
the  absence  of  railways.  It  is  the  Pope  one  day  and  potatoes 
the  next.  A  dense  population  in  extreme  distress  inhabit 
an  island  where  there  is  an  established  Church  which  is  not 
their  Church ;  and  a  territorial  aristocracy,  the  richest  of  whom 
live  in  a  distant  capital.  Thus  they  have  a  starving  popula- 
tion, an  absentee  aristocracy,  an  alien  Church,  and  in  addition 
the  weakest  executive  in  the  world. 

"Well,  what  then  would  honorable  gentlemen  say  if  they 
were  reading  of  a  country  in  that  position?  They  would  say 
at  once,  'The  remedy  is  revolution.'  But  the  Irish  could  not 
have  a  revolution,  and  why?  Because  Ireland  is  connected 
with  another  and  a  more  powerful  country.  Then  what  is  the 
consequence?  The  connection  with  England  became  the 
cause  of  the  present  state  of  Ireland.  If  the  connection  with 
England  prevented  a  revolution,  and  a  revolution  was  the  only 
remedy,  England  logically  is  in  the  odious  position  of  being 
the  cause  of  all  the  misery  of  Ireland.  What,  then,  is  the 
duty  of  an  English  minister?  To  effect  by  his  policy  all 
those  changes  which  a  revolution  would  do  by  force.  That 
is  the  Irish  question  in  its  integrity." 

The  statesman  who  knew  and  felt  all  this  to  be  true  was 
twice  in  power  after  the  horrible  climax  of  alien  and  un- 
sympathetic English  rule  in  the  great  famine,  and  the  above 
letter  to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  which  was  an  attempt 
to  rouse  English  racial  and  political  hatred  against  Ireland 

'  House  of  Commons,  February  10,   1874. 
232 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

for  party  purposes,  was  his  contribution  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem  he  had  so  clearly  understood  and  so  sanely  defined. 

One  of  the  measures  referred  to  in  the  letter  of  the  Tory 
leader  was  passed  in  March,  under  the  name  of  a  relief  of 
distress  bill.  It  provided  for  the  appropriation  of  ;^i,ooo,ooo 
out  of  the  Irish  Church  surplus  fund,  which  was  to  be  loaned 
to  Irish  landlords,  free  of  interest  for  two  years,  and  to 
bear  two  per  cent,  interest  afterwards.  This  was  to  enable 
landlords  to  provide  some  employment  for  their  tenants. 
Numbers  of  these  landlords  reloaned  some  of  this  money  to 
tenants  for  the  improvement  of  their  holdings,  and  charged 
from  four  to  seven  per  cent,  interest  on  the  loans.  Others 
employed  their  tenants  on  wages,  and  paid  them  in  a  reduction 
of  their  arrears  of  rent.  The  bill  was  more  a  landlords'  than 
a  tenants'  relief  measure. 

The  general  election  of  1880  was  to  be  fought  on  the  Irish 
policy  of  the  Beaconsfield  government,  and  on  the  tinsel 
diplomatic  triumphs  which  the  prime  -  minister  and  Lord 
Salisbury  had  brought  back  with  them  from  the  Berlin 
Conference — the  "Peace  with  Honor"  achievement  which  has 
been  directly  responsible  since  then  for  Turkish  atrocities  in 
Armenia  and  for  the  infamies  of  the  Sultan's  rule  in  Macedonia. 
The  insulting  allusions  to  Ireland  were  a  welcome  stimulant 
to  the  labors  of  the  Land  League,  and  no  time  was  lost  after 
Mr.  Parnell's  return  in  preparing  for  the  first  democratic 
parliamentary  campaign  yet  fought  in  Ireland. 

The  most  troublesome  difficulty  in  a  modern  Irish  election- 
eering contest  is  money  A  candidate's  principles  may  be  as 
pure  as  crystal,  and  his  patriotism  as  undoubted  as  Robert 
Emmet's,  but  unless  he  can  provide  the  sheriff's  fees  on  the 
day  of  nomination  he  has  no  chance  with  any  opponent,  no 
matter  how  wanting  in  these  qualities,  who  can  obtain  half  a 
dozen  signatures  to  a  piece  of  paper  and  pay  the  cost  of  the 
election.  This  is  the  result  of  landlord  and  capitalistic  sway 
in  British  public  life.  These  classes  owned  the  legislature  in 
the  days  when  the  British  Constitution  was  in  the  making, 
and  care  was  taken  that  the  owners  of  land  should  also  own 
the  House  of  Lords,  while  capital  and  land  combined  would 
monopolize  the  House  of  Commons.  The  cost  of  elections 
and  of  attendance  on  parliamentary  duties  could  only  be  borne 
by  men  of  means,  thus  securing  the  monopoly  of  law-making 
to  the  wealthy.  These  conditions  applied  to  Ireland  as  well  as 
to  Great  Britain.  Mr.  Butt  had  to  recruit  his  party  in  the 
seventies  chiefly  out  of  landlord,  merchant,  and  professional 
classes,  who  were  able  to  defray  election  expenses,  and  most 
of  these  were  so  opposed  to  the  Land-League  platform  that 

233 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

it  would  be  necessary  to  replace  them  with  supporters  of  Mr. 
Pamell's  views  and  leadership  if  the  national  organization 
was  to  carry  out  the  programme  of  the  new  departure. 

Mr.  Parnell's  mission  to  America  was  primarily  undertaken 
for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  political  fund  for  the  Land  League, 
but  the  prevalence  of  distress  in  Ireland  compelled  him  to 
make  an  appeal  for  relief  the  main  purpose  of  the  tour.  The 
moneys  raised  for  this  object  could  not  be  used  for  other  pur- 
poses. He  had,  however,  succeeded  in  obtaining  some  fifteen 
or  twenty  thousand  dollars  for  Land-League  work,  apart  from 
its  relief  operations,  and  this  was  the  only  fund  available  for 
the  general  election.  Even  as  to  this  a  difficulty  arose  owing 
to  the  terms  of  the  final  resolution  in  the  Land-League  pro- 
gramme of  October,  1879,  which  prohibited  Land  -  League 
funds  being  used  for  parliamentary  purposes.  Mr.  Parnell 
referred  to  this  resolution,  in  his  evidence  before  the  special 
commission,  as  "the  policy  of  starving  the  parliamentary 
party."  It  certainly  was  open  to  that  interpretation,  though, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  policy  itself  was  not  resolved  upon 
with  that  object  in  view.  The  explanation  of  it  was  this; 
It  was  felt  by  the  then  active  organizers  of  the  league  that 
it  would  be  an  appropriate  division  of  financial  responsibility 
for  the  new  movement  to  devote  all  funds  contributed  by 
America  to  the  support  of  the  combat  against  landlordism  in 
Ireland,  while  throwing  upon  Ireland  herself  the  cost  of  elect- 
ing and  maintaining  a  parliamentary  representation  which 
was  to  be  a  nationalist  and  democratic  delegation  to  the  House 
of  Commons. 

This  policy  required  an  electioneering  fund  as  well  as 
money  for  organizing  purposes,  and  Mr.  Parnell  and  the 
league  were  confronted,  in  April,  1880,  with  the  expensive 
task  of  changing  the  political  character  of  the  parliamentary 
representation  with  a  slender  exchequer  and  a  prohibitive 
league  resolution.  It  was  felt  that  the  circumstances  war- 
ranted a  departure  from  the  spirit  of  this  resolution,  and 
;^2ooo  were  "loaned"  out  of  the  league  treasury  to  Mr. 
Parnell  for  the  expenses  to  be  incurred  in  contesting  seats 
held  by  landlords  in  constituencies  which  the  league  policy 
would  be  likely  to  carry. 

An  address  was  issued  to  the  farmers  of  Ireland  calling 
upon  them  not  to  vote  for  any  landlord  candidate.  It  was 
pointed  out  how  suicidal  the  policy  would  be  of  sending 
supporters  of  the  system  which  was  a  curse  to  the  country  to 
make  laws  for  the  protection  of  rents  and  other  landlord  in- 
terests in  Westminster.  In  thus  making  the  issue  of  the 
elections  an  anti  -  landlord  cry,  the  position  in  Ulster  was 

234 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

considered.  Home  Rule  would  not  be  likely  to  make  any 
impression  upon  the  Protestant  farmers  of  the  North,  while 
an  appeal  to  their  interests  as  rent-paying  tenants  would 
not  fail  to  exercise  considerable  influence  upon  them..  In  the 
other  provinces  the  league  candidates  were  accepted  as 
supporters  of  Mr.  Parnell,  being  mainly  recommended  or 
selected  by  him  to  stand  for  the  movement  against  land- 
lordism and  as  supporters  of  the  strenuous  Home  -  Rule 
policy  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

Mr.  Parnell  proved  himself  again  to  be  a  superb  fighter  and 
leader.  His  activity  during  the  general  election  left  nothing 
to  be  desired  by  his  warmest  admirer.  He  was  nominated 
for  three  constituencies — his  own  (Meath),  Mayo,  and  Cork 
City.  In  addition  to  addressing  meetings  in  counties  wide 
apart,  he  rushed  to  the  assistance  of  candidates  in  other 
sections  of  the  country  where  a  formidable  opponent  had 
to  be  fought  or  where  a  weak  standard-bearer  required  the 
support  of  the  man  whom  popular  feeling  had  designated  as 
the  coming  national  leader. 

During  the  elections  a  meeting  was  held  in  Enniscorthy. 
Mr.  Parnell  atteaided  to  promote  the  candidature  of  Mr.  John 
Barry  and  Mr.  Garret  Byrne  as  new  members  for  the  county, 
a  Sir  George  Bowyer,  an  Englishman  and  a  Catholic,  refusing 
to  stand  again  in  the  hopeless  prospect  of  being  elected,  and 
Mr.  O'Clery,  the  other  old  member,  being  objected  to  by  Mr. 
Parnell  as  out  of  sympathy  with  the  obstructionist  policy. 
O'Clery  and  his  friends  captured  the  meeting,  the  assailants 
comprising  a  strong  body  of  Fenians.  The  active  leaders  of 
the  attack  were  two  priests,  who  were  resolved  to  prevent  Mr. 
Parnell  from  speaking  unless  he  declared  himself  in  favor  of 
O'Clery.  The  anti-Parnellites  seized  and  held  the  platform 
before  Mr.  Parnell's  friends  arrived,  and  then  attempted  to 
prevent  these  from  mounting  it.  A  desperate  fight  ensued 
as  the  Land-League  contingent  reached  the  place  of  meeting. 
They  were  assailed  with  sticks  and  other  weapons,  the  mob 
being  encouraged  by  their  clerical  leaders  in  every  way  and 
in  every  form  of  violence.  Mr.  Parnell  showed  great  courage, 
advancing  to  the  platform  at  the  head  of  his  smaller  force,  and 
climbing  up  the  steps  despite  physical  attempts  to  pull  him 
down.  These  efforts  failed;  but  no  sooner  had  he  gained  the 
level  of  the  structure,  where  a  reverend  gentleman  command- 
ed, than  he  was  seized  by  his  opponents  with  the  intention  of 
flinging  him  off.  He  clung  to  the  side  railing  of  the  platform, 
being  struck  repeatedly,  while  men  from  below  seized  his  legs, 
ripping  one  side  of  his  trousers  open  from  the  boot  to  the 
waist.     Here  his  friends,  led  by  Mr.  James  O'Kelly,  Mr.  John 

235 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

E.  Redmond,  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  Dr.  Cardiff,  and  others,  suc- 
ceeded in  forming  a  body-guard  round  him  and  in  protecting 
him  from  further  violence. 

Several  men  who  had  stood  by  Pamell  in  his  struggle  to 
get  to  the  platform  were  struck  down  and  disabled,  the  police 
rushing  in  to  rescue  them  from  further  injury.  One  of  the 
opposing  mob,  armed  with  a  huge  stick,  went  behind  Pamell 
while  he  was  in  the  hands  of  several  assailants  and  aimed  a 
deliberate  blow  at  his  head,  which  would  have  crushed  his 
skull  had  it  went  home.  Mr.  Jack  Hall,  reporter  for  the  Free- 
man's Journal,  seeing  the  deadly  purpose  of  the  man,  seized 
the  stick  from  behind  as  its  owner  was  in  the  act  of  swinging 
it  from  the  shoulder,  and  thus  saved  Mr.  Parnell  from  what 
was  intended  to  be  a  murderous  blow.  All  this  time  the  rev- 
erend chairman,  with  his  huge  blackthorn,  directed  the  row, 
and  encouraged  the  backers  of  O'Clery  "to  put  down  dicta- 
tion." But  neither  blows  nor  insults  would  deter  Mr.  Pamell 
from  attempting  to  address  the  meeting.  He  had  faced  as 
noisy  but  not  as  desperate  a  crowd  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  had  compelled  them  to  listen,  and  he  was  not  going  to  be 
silenced  by  a  mob  of  his  own  countrymen.  The  press  report 
of  the  proceedings  here  records  that: 

"Mr.  Pamell  then  came  forward.  He  was  frequently  and 
persistently  interrupted,  but  maintained  his  position,  and  at 
every  interruption  simply  suspended  his  voice.  He  said:  'I 
have  travelled  over  twenty  thousand  miles  by  sea  and  land 
[interruption]  since  last  I  stood  in  this  historic  [renewed  inter- 
ruption, which  lasted  some  time]  town,  and  I  think  I  may  say 
that  during  the  whole  of  that  time  [great  disorder  near  the 
platform]  I  have  done  nothing  but  that  which  merits  the  ap- 
proval of  my  fellow-countrymen  and  the  people  of  this  town. 
[Hearty  cheers,  and  cries  of  "Hear  him,  hear  Parnell,"  and 
"Go  on,  Parnell."]  Now  you  are  called  upon  to  choose  the 
men  [renewed  interruption,  and  cries  of  "We  have  chosen 
them  "]  to  represent  Wexford  in  Parliament.  [Great  disorder.] 
I  have  been  invited  here  to-day  [disorder,  and  cries  of  "We 
didn't  invite  you"]  to  express  my  opinion  [renewed  interrup- 
tion] of  the  men  who  have  come  before  you  as  candidates  for 
your  suffrages.  I  came  to  support,  as  your  representatives, 
Mr.  John  Barry  and  Mr.  Garret  Byrne.  [Disorder;  cries  of 
"Cheers  for  Barry,"  "Down  with  Byrne."  Renewed  disorder, 
amid  which  several  persons  in  the  crowd  attempted  to  pull 
Mr.  Parnell  off  the  platform  by  the  legs,  and  large  numbers 
shouted,  "We  won't  hear  any  more  from  you."] 

"Father  Murphy  {to  Mr.  Parnell).  'Let  us  get  on  with  the 
meeting.     They  won't  hear  you.' 

236 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

" Mr.  Parnell.  'I  will  say  a  word  for  John  Barry  if  I  have 
to  stand  here  all  day.'" 

The  meeting  was  finally  broken  up  by  Mr.  Parnell's  assail- 
ants, who  followed  him  through  the  streets,  knocking  down 
his  supporters  and  making  repeated  efforts  to  strike  him 
with  sticks.  He  had  been  hit  with  rotten  eggs.  His  clothes 
were  also  torn,  and  the  rough  usage  he  had  received  combined 
to  give  him  a  most  battered  appearance  as  he  reached  the  rail- 
way station  to  return  by  train  to  Dublin. 

I  met  him  on  his  arrival  at  Morrison's  Hotel  that  night. 
He  was  in  a  state  of  intense  passion  at  the  insults  he  had  re- 
ceived, and  he  at  once  asked  me  to  go  down  to  Wexford  and 
organize  the  whole  county  for  a  meeting  in  Enniscorthy  to  be 
held  on  the  following  Sunday,  "strong  enough  and  deter- 
mined enough  to  deal  with  O'Clery  and  his  gang." 

The  commission  was  accepted,  and  on  the  following  evening 
I  experienced  for  the  first  time  in  my  then  short  public  career 
the  novelty  of  being  hissed — an  experience  to  which  one 
grows  familiar  as  he  gets  politically  older  in  Irish  public  life. 
Mr.  O'Clery 's  friends  were  no  more  inclined  to  treat  me  with 
tenderness  than  Mr.  Parnell  with  respect.  But,  after  visiting 
various  tovv^ns  and  villages  in  the  county,  and  finding  a  fero- 
cious spirit  abroad  in  favor  of  wrecking  Enniscorthy — many 
Catholic  clergymen,  it  is  only  right  to  say,  being  the  most 
eager  to  volunteer  to  wipe  out  the  disgrace  inflicted  upon  the 
brave  old  '98  county  by  the  insult  to  Parnell — I  decided  not 
to  encourage,  but  in  every  way  possible  to  prevent,  the  re- 
taliatory meeting  being  held.  I  was  assured  that  revolvers 
would  be  used  on  the  other  side  if  there  was  any  attempted 
invasion  of  the  town,  and  I  returned  to  Dublin  to  inform  Mr. 
Parnell  that  no  demonstration  would  take  place,  except  on 
the  polling  day,  when  O'Clery  would  be  effectively  rejected. 
He  was  greatly  and  manifestly  displeased,  and  for  a  time  at- 
tributed my  action  to  other  motives,  but  after  learning  all  the 
facts  that  were  in  my  possession  he  afterwards  thanked  me 
for  "havmg  had  the  courage  not  to  fight"  against  honest 
nationalists  who  were  only  misled  into  opposition  for  the 
time  being. 

On  the  counting  of  the  votes  on  election  day  the  figures 
stood:  Barry,  head  of  the  poll;  Garret  Byrne,  2879;  Mr. 
O'Clery,  457.  This  was  by  far  a  more  satisfactory  reply  to 
the  rotten  eggs  of  the  Enniscorthy  meeting  than  any  revenge- 
seeking  operations  could  be,  no  matter  how  many  heads  might 
have  been  broken  in  the  fray. 

The  meeting  which  had  this  sequel  was,  I  believe,  the  first 
occasion  on  which  Mr.  John  E.  Redmond  appeared  on  a  na- 

237 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

tionalist  platform.  It  was  in  every  sense  a  warm  introduc- 
tion into  the  arena  of  Irish  pubHc  Hfe. 

Another  contest  of  this  general  election  which  was  marked 
by  memorable  incidents  was  that  of  Cork  City.  Mr.  Pamell 
was  nominated  for  the  borough,  in  addition  to  being  put  for- 
ward for  the  counties  of  Meath  and  Mayo.  He  was  to  run 
with  Mr.  John  Daly,  a  very  popular  citizen  of  Cork,  for  that 
city  against  the  late  Mr.  N.  D.  Murphy,  an  Irish  Whig  of  the 
most  reactionary  kind.  Mr.  Murphy  had  the  zealous  support 
of  the  Catholic  bishop  and  of  the  active  clerical  influence  of 
the  city.  Having  been  member  for  Cork  for  a  long  time,  his 
hold  upon  it  was  deemed  to  be  impregnable.  The  bishop 
openly  denounced  Mr.  Pamell  as  a  stranger  who  was  intro- 
ducing himself  upon  a  constituency  that  knew  its  own  busi- 
ness. Altars  rang  with  warnings  against  Fenianism  and  so- 
cialism, and  all  the  other  wicked  things  which  frighten  the 
virtuous  political  vision  of  some  politicians  when  a  wealthy 
Catholic  is  being  opposed  for  his  spurious  nationalism  or 
some  job-finding  supporter  of  a  ministry  is  fought  by  the  peo- 
ple on  principle. 

The  Tories,  likewise,  ran  a  candidate,  hoping  to  secure  one 
of  the  two  seats  for  the  city  in  a  triangular  fight.  They  did 
more:  they  paid  the  expenses  of  Mr.  Parnell's  contest,  so  con- 
fident were  they  that  he  would  only  detach  enough  of  votes 
from  the  Whig  side  to  insure  a  Tory  gain.  But  the  league  en- 
thusiasm and  the  support  of  the  surrounding  agricultural  in- 
fluence, won  for  Mr.  Parnell  by  the  Cork  Farmers'  Club,  carried 
Cork,  and  defeated  both  Whig  and  Tory,  the  president  of  the 
Land  League  polling  two  hundred  votes  more  than  the  Tory 
candidate  and  over  live  hundred  above  the  Whig  nominee  of 
the  bishop,  who  was  left  at  the  bottom  of  the  poll. 

The  Land  League  made  a  clean  sweep  in  the  general  election 
of  its  landlord  enemies  in  three  provinces,  defeating  O 'Conor 
Don  and  his  clerical  support  in  Roscommon,  and  Mr.  Kava- 
nagh  and  Mr.  Bruen,  of  Carlow,  three  of  the  strongest  land- 
lord candidates  in  Ireland.  In  Wicklow,  Queen's  County, 
Kildare,  Mayo,  Limerick,  Cavan,  Monaghan,  Clare,  Kilkenny, 
Tipperary,  and  Louth  the  league  also  triumphed  by  smashing 
its  pro-landlord  opponents.  It  was  a  revolution,  complete 
and  overwhelming,  in  the  parliamentary  position  of  the  coun- 
try, and  resulted  as  well  in  giving  Mr.  Parnell  a  following  of 
thirty-six  nationalist  members  out  of  a  total  Home-Rule  dele- 
gation of  sixty -four  elected  by  the  whole  country.  The  "new 
departure"  had  only  been  in  operation  twelve  months,  and 
upon  the  first  anniversary  of  the  Irishtown  meeting  the  land- 
lord garrison,  in  its  political  outworks  at  Westminster,  was 

238 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

driven  from  the  field  and  replaced  in  the  representation  of  the 
three  more  or  less  Celtic  provinces  by  men  elected  on  the  cry  of 
"Down  with  landlordism!" 

It  was  the  final  and  successful  political  revolt  against  the 
land-owners  by  their  tenants;  the  fall  from  power  of  a  domi- 
neering aristocracy  at  the  hands  of  the  peasantry  upon  whose 
rights  and  homes  they  had  trampled  in  the  spirit  of  insolent 
power  and  remorseless  greed.  The  evictors  of  families  w^ere 
themselves  politically  evicted;  the  class  who  had  driven  their 
tenants  to  the  polls  in  former  days,  as  slaves  were  driven  to  a 
plantation,  were  chased  out  of  Parliament,  humbled  in  the 
dust  of  defeat,  and  forever  politically  dethroned  in  Ireland. 
Because,  with  a  Liberal  party  returned  to  power  armed  with 
an  overwhelming  majority  and  pledged  to  a  reform  of  the 
county  franchise,  the  electors  in  Ireland  would  be  more  than 
doubled  when  next  the  voters  would  be  asked  to  create  a  new 
Parliament  at  Westminster. 

The  results  of  the  Irish  elections  of  1880,  therefore,  wrote 
the  political  doom  of  Irish  landlordism.  The  handwriting 
was  that  of  the  Celtic  peasantry,  against  whose  happiness 
and  very  existence  this  callous  system  had  employed  all  the 
acts  and  agencies  of  oppression  known  in  the  history  of  a  two 
hundred  years'  record  of  unparalleled  suffering  and  of  wrong. 
And  on  the  night  when  the  final  figures  flew  over  the  wires, 
telling  of  the  defeat  of  the  enemy  of  Irish  homes  and  earnings, 
it  was  arranged  by  the  league  that  bonfires  should  fling  forth 
their  beacon-lights  of  triumph  from  hill  to  hill,  until  the  island 
from  Croagh  Patrick  to  Howth,  and  from  Cruaghaughrim, 
in  Donegal,  to  Cape  Clear,  in  County  Cork,  should  be  ablaze 
with  the  tidings  of  great  joy  that  would  tell  of  the  birth  of  a 
new  hope  for  Ireland  in  the  fall  of  her  most  traitorous  and 
most  malignant  foes. 

Among  the  men  elected  by  the  league  movement  as  up- 
holders of  Mr.  Parnell's  parliamentary  policy  were  most  of 
his  subsequent  and  ablest  lieutenants  and  leaders  of  the 
agitation  who  have  figured  prominently  since  then  in  Irish 
public  life.  John  Dillon,  in  Tipperary  (absent  in  Amer- 
ica at  the  time,  engaged  in  organizing  an  auxiliary  Land 
League);  Thomas  Sexton,  in  Sligo;  James  O'Kelly,  in  Ros- 
common; T.  P.  O'Connor,  in  Galway  city;  Justin  McCarthy, 
in  Longford;  Joseph  G.  Biggar,  in  Cavan;  John  Barry,  in 
Wexford;  John  E.  Redmond,  in  New  Ross;  Arthur  O'Connor 
and  Richard  Lalor,  in  Queen's  County;  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan, 
in  Westmeath;  Mr.  Edmund  Leamy  and  Mr.  Richard  Power, 
in  Waterford;  with  able  and  older  parliamentarians,  like 
John  O'Connor  Power,  A.  M.  Sullivan,  F.  H.  O'Donnell,  E. 

239 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Dwyer  Gray,  and  a  few  others,  who,  though  not  strictly  Land- 
League  adherents,  were  warm  supporters  of  the  land-for-the- 
people  movement,  and  backers  of  Mr.  Pamell  rather  than 
supporters  of  Mr.  Shaw. 

There  were  three  prominent  Land-Leaguers  whom  several 
constituencies  wished  to  elect  if  they  would  consent  to  stand — 
Thomas  Brennan  and  Patrick  Egan,  of  the  executive,  and 
John  Ferguson,  of  Glasgow,  the  "father  of  all  the  Irish  land 
reformers,"  as  he  has  been  named  by  some  of  his  legion  of 
admirers.  Messrs.  Brennan  and  Egan  would  not  consent  to 
enter  the  British  Parliament,  and  Mr.  Ferguson's  business 
would  not  permit  him  to  make  the  necessary  personal  sacrifice. 
These  men  would  have  powerfully  reinforced  Mr.  Parnell's 
party  had  circumstances  permitted  their  entry  into  the  House 
of  Commons.  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  was  on  the  eve  of  joining  the 
parliamentary  league  contingent,  while  Mr.  William  O'Brien 
and  Mr.  T.  Harrington  were  soon  to  add  their  special  qualifica- 
tions to  those  of  the  able  and  earnest  band  of  men  who  were 
destined  under  Mr.  Parnell's  lead  to  do  more  for  Ireland 
than  all  previous  Irish  parliamentary  parties  combined  had 
accomplished  in  Westminster. 

The  power  and  prestige  of  the  league  were  enormously 
enhanced  by  its  triumph  over  the  landlords  at  the  polls.  It 
was  now  the  unquestioned,  dominating  influence  in  the 
political  life  of  Ireland.  It  had  elected  Mr.  Pamell  for  three 
separate  constituencies,  while  the  following  which  remained 
to  Mr.  Shaw,  the  late  chairman  of  the  Home-Rule  party,  was  a 
kind  of  consolation  contingent  left  to  melt  away  as  oppor- 
tunities should  offer  to  replace  these  nominal  Home-Rulers 
with  pronounced  Land-Leaguers. 

The  league  grew  apace,  in  branches  and  in  meetings. 
A  larger  staff  had  to  be  employed  to  deal  with  the  great  in- 
crease of  correspondence.  Organizers  were  engaged  to  work 
up  branches  throughout  the  country,  while  Mr.  Thomas 
Brennan  was  induced  to  give  up  his  business  situation  to 
take  charge  of  the  headquarters  of  the  league  as  general 
secretary  of  the  national  organization.  The  executive,  which 
had  consisted  up  to  the  general  election  of  Messrs.  Parnell, 
Egan,  Brennan,  Biggar,  A.  J.  Kettle,  W.  H.  O'Sullivan,  and 
the  present  writer,  was  enlarged  by  the  addition  to  the 
governing  council  of  the  league  of  John  Dillon,  Thomas  Sex- 
ton, T.  D.  SulHvan,  John  Ferguson,  T.  P.  O'Connor,  Mat- 
thew Harris,  and  J.  J.  Louden. 

Attention  had  now  to  be  given  to  the  work  which  should  at 
once  engage  the  efforts  of  the  new  party  in  Parliament,  and  it 
was  decided  to  call  a  national  convention  for  the  consideration 

240 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

and  adoption  of  a  plan  of  legislative  land  reform.  The  con- 
ference was  fixed  to  meet  in  the  Rotunda,  Dublin,  on  April 
29th,  and  a  committee  charged  with  the  work  of  preparing  the 
programme  that  was  to  be  laid  before  the  assembly  of  dele- 
gates was  formed.  It  consisted  of  Messrs.  Parnell,  Egan, 
Kettle,  William  Kelly,  Louden,  T.  M.  Healy  (as  Mr.  Parnell's 
then  secretary),  and  the  present  writer. 

We  had  an  all-night  sitting  in  Morrison's  Hotel  on  the  eve 
of  the  convention,  and  as  a  commentary  upon  Mr.  Parnell's 
then  unfixed  ideas  on  land  reform  it  may  be  mentioned  that 
he  had  not  a  single  suggestion  to  offer  beyond  the  extraor- 
dinary proposal  that  we  should  recommend  Mr.  Butt's  land 
bill  to  the  convention,  as  the  measure  to  be  pressed  for  in 
the  new  Parliament  by  the  league  party !  He  good-naturedly 
resigned  himself  to  the  utter  rejection  of  this  proposal,  say- 
ing he  would  agree  to  anything  upon  which  the  majority 
would  decide.  The  following  programme  was  the  result 
of  our  joint  labors,  Mr.  J.  J.  Louden,  as  a  barrister,  and 
having  a  legal  grasp  of  the  land  question,  being  the  chief 
architect  of  the  scheme,  aided  by  Mr.  Healy 's  sharp  in- 
telligence, and  assisted  by  some  suggestions  on  my  part — the 
"Department  of  Land  Administration "  portion  of  the  plan 
being  my  contribution.  Leaving  out  the  introductory  part 
of  the  programme,  which  was  historical  and  an  adverse 
criticism  upon  Mr.  Butt's  measure,  the  proposals  were  as 
follows : 

"  PROGRAMME    FOR    CONSIDERATION    OF    CONFERENCE 

"Feeling  convinced  that  it  is  inexpedient  to  maintain  and 
impossible  to  amend  the  present  relations  between  landlord 
and  tenant,  the  question  presents  itself.  What  measure  of  land 
reform  do  the  exigencies  of  the  situation  demand  ?  The  land 
question  in  Ireland  is  the  tangled  heritage  of  centuries  of  one- 
sided class  legislation,  the  successful  solution  of  which  will 
necessitate  the  greatest  care  and  investigation,  together  with 
an  anxious  desire  to  do  right  on  the  part  of  all  who  approach 
its  consideration.  Time  will  be  needed  by  the  present  House 
of  Commons  to  inform  itself  as  to  the  merits  of  a  question 
which  is  only  just  commencing  to  be  understood  in  Ireland, 
and  is  scarcely  understood  at  all  in  England. 

"  PROVISIONAL  MEASURE  FOR  SUSPENSION  OF  POWER  OF  EJECT- 
MENT,   ETC.,    FOR    TWO    YEARS 

"We  therefore  recommend  as  an  ad  interim  measure,  in 
view  of  the  desperate  condition  of  the  country,  until  com- 
16  241 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

prehensive  reforms  can  be  perfected,  that  a  bill  should  be 
pushed  forward  with  all  speed  suspending  for  two  years 
ejectments  for  non-payment  of  rent,  and  for  overholding, 
in  the  case  of  all  holdings  valued  at  ;^io  a  year  and  under, 
and  suspending  for  a  similar  period  of  two  years  in  the  case 
of  any  holding  whatsoever  the  right  of  recovering  a  higher 
rent  than  the  poor-law  valuation. 

"  PROPOSALS    FOR    PERMANENT    REFORM 

"  Next,  as  to  the  permanent  reform  of  land  tenure  in  Ireland, 
we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  establishment  of  a  peasant 
proprietary  is  the  only  solution  of  the  question  which  will  be 
accepted  as  final  by  the  country.  The  Land  Act  of  1870 
created,  as  between  landlord  and  tenant,  an  irregular  part- 
nership in  the  ownership  of  the  land,  giving  to  the  former 
a  right  to  rent  for  his  interest  in  the  soil  and  to  the  latter 
a  right  to  compensation  for  the  loss  of  his  property  therein. 
Now  we  venture  to  assert  that  this  system,  whereby  two  op- 
posing classes  have  valuable  interests  in  the  same  property, 
must  cease  to  exist.  The  well-being  of  the  state,  the  preser- 
vation of  the  people,  the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  country 
demand  the  dissolution  of  a  partnership  which  has  made  finan- 
cial ruin  and  social  chaos  the  normal  condition  of  Ireland; 
and  the  time  has  arrived  when  Parliament  must  decide  whether 
a  few  non-working  men  or  the  great  body  of  industrious  and 
wealth-producing  tillers  of  the  soil  are  to  own  the  land. 

"  CREATION  OF  A   DEPARTMENT   OF   LAND   ADMINISTRATION   FOR 

IRELAND 

"To  carry  out  the  permanent  reform  of  land  tenure  re- 
ferred to,  we  propose  the  creation  of  a  department  or  com- 
mission of  land  administration  for  Ireland.  This  depart- 
ment would  be  invested  with  ample  powers  to  deal  with  all 
questions  relating  to  land  in  Ireland: 

"i.  Where  the  landlord  and  tenant  of  any  holding  had 
agreed  for  the  sale  to  the  tenant  of  the  said  holding,  the 
department  would  execute  the  necessary  conveyance  to  the 
tenant  and  advance  him  the  whole  or  part  of  the  purchase 
money,  and  upon  such  advance  being  made  by  the  depart- 
ment such  holding  would  be  deemed  to  be  charged  with  an 
annuity  of  ;;^5  for  every  ;^ioo  of  such  advance,  and  so  in 
proportion  for  any  less  sums,  such  annuity  to  be  limited  in 
favor  of  the  department,  and  to  be  declared  to  be  repayable 
in  the  tenn  of  thirty-five  years. 

242 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

"2.  Where  a  tenant  tendered  to  the  landlord  for  the 
purchase  of  his  holding  a  sum  equal  to  twenty  years  of  the 
poor-law  valuation  thereof,  the  department  would  execute 
the  conveyance  of  the  said  holding  to  the  tenant,  and  would 
be  empowered  to  advance  to  the  tenant  the  whole  or  any 
part  of  the  purchase  money,  the  repayment  of  which  would 
be  secured  as  set  forth  in  the  case  of  voluntary  sales. 

"3.  The  department  would  be  empowered  to  acquire  the 
ownership  of  any  estate  upon  tendering  to  the  owner  thereof 
a  sum  equal  to  twenty  years  of  the  poor-law  valuation  of  such 
estate,  and  to  let  said  estate  to  the  tenants  at  a  rent  equal 
to  three  and  a  half  per  cent,  of  the  purchase  money  thereof. 

"4.  The  department  or  the  court  having  jurisdiction  in 
this  matter  would  be  empowered  to  determine  the  rights  and 
priorities  of  the  several  persons  entitled  to  or  having  charges 
upon  or  otherwise  interested  in  any  holding  conveyed  as 
above  mentioned,  and  would  distribute  the  purchase  money 
in  accordance  with  such  rights  and  priorities;  and  when  any 
moneys  arising  from  a  sale  were  not  immediately  distributable, 
the  department  would  have  a  right  to  invest  the  said  moneys 
for  the  benefit  of  the  parties  entitled  thereto. 

"Provision  would  be  made  whereby  the  treasury  would 
from  time  to  time  advance  to  the  department  such  sums  of 
money  as  would  be  required  for  the  purchases  above  men- 
tioned. 


EASY  TRANSFER    OF    LAND,    COMPULSORY   REGISTRATION,    ETC. 

"To  render  the  proposed  change  in  the  tenure  of  land  ef- 
fectual, it  would  be  necessary  to  make  provision  for  the  cheap 
and  simple  transfer  of  immovable  property.  To  effect  this 
an  organic  reform  of  the  law  of  real  property  would  be  requi- 
site. The  statute  of  uses  should  be  repealed,  distinctions  be- 
tween 'legal  and  equitable'  interests  abolished,  and  the  law 
of  entail  swept  away.  In  short,  the  laws  relating  to  land 
should  be  assimilated  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  laws  relat- 
ing to  personal  property.  The  Landed  Estates  Court  would 
be  transferred  to  the  department  of  land  administration, 
its  system  of  procedure  cheapened  and  improved.  In  each 
county  in  Ireland  there  would  be  established  a  registry  office, 
wherein  all  owners  of  land  would  be  compelled  to  register  their 
titles,  wherein  also  would  be  registered,  mortgages  and  all 
charges  and  interests  whatsoever.  Titles  so  registered  (in 
accordance  with  rules  provided  for  the  purpose)  would  be 
made  indefeasible. 

"With  such  a  system  of  registration  established,  and  legal 

243 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

phraseology  in  conveyancing  abolished,  a  holding  of  land 
might  be  transferred  from  one  owner  to  another  as  cheaply  as 
a  share  in  a  ship  or  money  in  the  funds,  and  thus  no  apparent 
obstacle  would  stand  in  the  way  of  the  department  of  land 
administration  from  carrying  out  the  reforms  which  we  have 
suggested — reforms  which,  it  may  be  hoped,  will  bring  pros- 
perity and  contentment  to  an  impoverished  and  distracted 
coimtry. 

"(Signed) 

"  Charles  S.  Parnell, 
"  J.  J.  Louden, 
"  A.  J.  Kettle, 
"  William  Kelly, 
"  Patrick  Egan." 

This  programme  of  the  Land  League,  adopted  at  the  first 
national  convention  held  in  Ireland  after  the  abolition  of  the 
law  prohibiting  such  assemblies,  has  been,  more  or  less,  the 
foundation  for  the  subsequent  land-purchase  schemes  pro- 
moted by  English  statesmen  and  parties  for  Ireland.  These 
imitation  schemes,  however,  lacked  the  one  league  proposal 
that  could  have  settled  the  Irish  agrarian  war  twenty  years 
ago,  and  would  have  saved  the  country  all  it  has  suffered  and 
lost  since  then — the  element  of  legal  compulsion.  Time  has 
surely  justified  the  legally  penalized  Land  League  in  many 
respects,  but  in  none  more  than  in  the  condemnation  which  it 
passed  upon  those  who,  in  refusing  to  sanction  a  sane  and  just 
scheme  because  proposed  by  Irish  land  reformers,  wilfully  or 
stupidly  prolonged  a  bitter  social  struggle.  This  plan  would 
have  accomplished,  a  score  of  years  ago,  a  great  pacific,  in- 
dustrial change,  which  the  one-time  jailers  of  the  league  lead- 
ers and  all  English  political  parties  now  declare  to  be  abso- 
lutely essential  for  the  tranquillity  and  welfare  of  Ireland. 

I  refused  to  sign  this  proposal  at  the  time,  on  the  ground 
that  the  price  offered  to  the  landlords  was  too  high.  It 
ignored  the  value  of  a  tenant's  improvements  in  his  holding; 
the  threatened  fall  of  agricultural  prices,  owing  to  growing  ex- 
ternal competition;  and  other  facts  which  both  justice  and 
equity  claimed  should  be  taken  into  account  in  behalf  of  both 
country  and  tenants.  But  the  conference  to  which  the 
scheme  was  submitted  accepted  its  suggestions  and  author- 
ized Mr.  Parnell  and  his  party  to  embody  them  in  bills  and  to 
press  their  acceptance  at  once  upon  the  new  Parliament. 

A  public  meeting  which  was  held  in  the  Rotunda,  Dublin,  on 
April  30th,  to  ratify  the  programme  of  land  reform  adopted  at 
the  convention,  was  attacked  by  a  section  of  the  Dublin  Fe- 

244 


VICTORIES    FOR    THE    MOVEMENT 

nians  and  nearly  broken  up.  A  body  of  men,  led  by  a  medi- 
cal student  named  Corbett,  invaded  the  Rotunda,  demanding 
the  right  to  move  a  resolution  of  protest  against  "ex-political 
prisoners  and  others  professing  a  belief  in  extreme  principles" 
taking  part  in  a  moral -force  agitation.  Much  confusion  was 
created,  until  Mr.  Parnell  allowed  the  hostile  element  to  read 
their  resolution,  when  they  withdrew.  There  was  very  little 
violence  on  either  side,  owing  to  the  forbearance  of  those  who 
were  in  sympathy  with  the  objects  of  the  meeting.  This  at- 
tack, however,  following  so  close  after  the  Enniscorthy  row, 
induced  Mr.  Parnell  to  believe  that  the  whole  physical-force 
party  were  hostile  to  the  league  movement.  It  caused  him 
to  say,  subsequently,  in  his  evidence  before  the  special  com- 
mission (vol.  vii.,  p.  88,  Report  of  Special  Commission):  "I 
believe  to  this  day  the  physical-force  organization  has  been 
consistently  hostile  to  us  since  1880."  This  was  an  erroneous 
impression.  It  was  true  only  in  the  sense  previously  ex- 
plained: The  leaders  in  Ireland  were;  those  in  America  were 
not.  Sections  of  the  rank  and  file  in  Ireland  manifested 
hostility  occasionally,  not  always  against  the  league,  more 
frequently  against  individual  leaguers.  The  great  majority 
of  those  who  believed  in  the  final  objects  of  the  revolutionary 
movement  were  more  or  less  in  full  sympathy  with  the  league 
and  its  objects.  The  opposition  to  the  new  departure,  on  the 
ground  of  its  alleged  antipathy  to  revolutionary  principles, 
was  prompted  more  by  jealousy  than  by  any  real  anxiety  for 
the  cause  of  ultimate  independence.  In  the  light  of  the 
events  of  the  past  twenty-five  years,  it  is  not  difficult  to  form 
a  correct  judgment  as  to  which  revolutionary  policy — that  of 
the  Land  League  or  that  of  mere  conspiracy,  followed  by 
nothing — has  achieved  the  greater  results  for  Ireland,  or  done 
most  to  make  the  Irish  question  one  of  the  best-known  of  in- 
ternational problems,  and  to  win  for  it  a  world-wide  attention 
and  sympathy. 

On  Sunday,  May  2d,  the  league  held  an  anniversary  meet- 
ing at  Irishtown,  County  Mayo,  to  commemorate  the  birth  of 
the  new  movement.  Mr.  Parnell  attended,  and  delivered  a 
remarkable  speech.  He  once  again  showed  his  predilection 
for  a  state  ownership  of  the  land  as,  at  least,  a  part  solution 
of  the  question.     He  said: 

"It  would  be  a  folly  and  madness  for  any  man  to  recom- 
mend the  people,  as  a  mass,  to  give  twenty  years'  purchase  of 
the  government  valuation  to-day  for  their  lands  [hear,  hear]. 
Now  they  had  recommended  as  one  of  the  means  to  effect  a 
gradual  transfer  of  the  land  to  those  who  tilled  it,  and  as  a 
further  means  of  obtaining  an  abatement  of  rack-rent,  the 

245 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

appointment  by  the  government  of  a  commission  with  power 
to  do  certain  things — power  to  improve  and  carry  out  the 
Bright  clauses  of  the  Land  Act — power  to  the  department  to 
acquire  the  ownership  of  any  estate  upon  tendering  to  the 
landlord  thereof  a  sum  equal  to  twenty  years  of  the  poor-law 
valuation,  and  to  let  said  estate  to  the  tenants  at  a  rent  equal 
to  three  and  one-half  per  cent,  of  the  purchase  money  thereof. 
This  commission  shall  be  empowered  to  purchase  these  estates 
where  landlords  were  rack-renting  their  tenants — to  acquire 
those  estates  at  twenty  years'  purchase  of  the  valuation,  and 
to  put  in  the  tenants,  either  as  Crown  tenants,  paying  a  rent 
of  three  and  one-half  per  cent,  per  annum  on  the  purchase 
money,  or  as  peasant  proprietors,  paying  a  rent  of  five  per 
cent,  on  the  purchase  money  for  thirty-five  years.  Now  he 
claimed  and  felt  convinced  that  the  appointment  of  a  com- 
mission composed  of  men  who  meant  to  do  right  by  the  people 
of  Ireland,  with  twenty  to  thirty  millions  of  money  at  their 
command,  with  power  to  pounce  down  upon  any  rack-renting 
or  exterminating  landlord  in  any  part  of  Ireland,  and  to  put 
an  end  to  his  '  rights '  over  his  tenants  by  giving  him  twenty 
years'  purchase  upon  the  valuation,  was  a  far  better  means  and 
a  far  more  workable  means  for  protecting  the  Irish  tenant 
than  the  cloud  of  legal  fiction  contained  in  Mr.  Butt's  Fixity 
of  Tenure  Bill  [cheers];  and  as  for  the  rest,  this  Irish  land 
question  had  now  attained  such  proportions  that  it  must  be 
settled,  and  it  could  only  be  settled  in  one  way — by  the  trans- 
fer of  the  land  to  the  people  who  occupied  it."  ^ 

The  report  from  which  this  extract  is  taken  also  records  that 
the  following  resolution  was  proposed  and  adopted: 

"That  in  commemorating  the  initiation  of  the  national 
land  agitation  by  an  anniversary  meeting  in  Irishtown  we  are 
manifesting  the  vitality  of  that  movement  which,  during  the 
past  twelve  months,  has  shaken  the  feudal  system  of  land 
laws  to  its  foundation,  called  forth  the  inherent  and  hitherto 
inert  resoluteness  of  the  people  of  Ireland  in  the  assertion  of 
their  rights,  and  demonstrated  the  power  of  the  democracy 
of  our  country  by  the  triumphs  achieved  over  class  supremacy, 
and  the  intelligence  and  order  exhibited  by  the  people  in  over 
one  hundred  great  demonstrations  during  the  past  year." 

^  Freeman  s  Journal,  May  3,   1880. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE    AMERICAN    LAND    LEAGUE 

Mr.  John  Dillon  remained  behind  after  Mr.  Parnell  re- 
turned from  the  United  States  to  lead  the  country  in  the  gen- 
eral election.  The  new  member  for  Tipperary  (the  con- 
stituency which  his  father  had  previously  represented)  worked 
hard  to  establish  branches  of  the  Land  League  in  New  York. 
In  conjunction  with  kindred  efforts  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Patrick 
Ford,  of  the  Irish  World;  Mr.  Boyle  O'Reilly,  of  the  Boston 
Pilot;  Mr.  John  Devoy,  and  others,  an  auxiliary  organization 
was  formed  in  a  few  cities  by  the  month  of  May  influential 
enough  to  warrant  the  calling  of  a  convention  of  delegates. 
A  call  was  therefore  issued,  and  near  the  end  of  that  month 
the  following  elected  representatives  reported  themselves  at 
Trenor  Hall,  New  York: 

Dr.  W.  B.  Wallace,  M.  D.  Gallagher,  Patrick  Nutley,  John 
F.  Walsh,  Alex.  Patten,  Patrick  Donnelly,  J.  W.  O'Brien, 
Wilham  O'Connell,  S.  J.  Meany,  John  J.  Breslin,  Rev.  Mr. 
McAleer,  Dr.  G.  D.  McGauran,  John  Devoy,  and  J.  M.  Kin- 
neven,  New  York;  J.  C.  Maguire,  D.  T.  Lynch,  and  Judge 
Walsh,  Brooklyn;  John  King,  Passaic,  New  Jersey;  Rev.  Pat- 
rick Cronin,  Buffalo;  J.  B.  O'Reilly  and  P.  A.  Collins,  Boston; 
James  J.  McCafferty,  Lowell,  Massachusetts;  J.  C.  O'Sullivan, 
Hoboken;  Rev.  Lawrence  Walsh,  Waterbury,  Connecticut; 
Denis  R.  Shells,  Westchester,  New  York;  George  Cahill, 
Quincy,  Massachusetts;  Rev.  M.  Lawlor,  Danbury,  Connecti- 
cut; William  Ivory,  Providence,  Rhode  Island;  J.  B.  Reddy, 
Richmond,  Virginia;  Peter  Corbet,  Syracuse,  New  York; 
Lawrence  O'Brien,  New  Haven;  and  Thaddeus  Flanagan,  of 
San  Francisco. 

John  Boyle  O'Reilly  was  elected  temporary  chairman.  He 
delivered  a  brief  address  upon  the  origin  and  objects  of  the 
Land  League,  when  the  committee  on  organization  reported 
Mr.  P.  A.  Collins,  of  Boston,  as  president  of  the  convention, 
with  Father  Cronin,  of  Buffalo,  as  vice-president. 

It  had  been  decided  by  the  home  executive  that  I  should 
proceed  to  America  after  the  Dublin  convention  and  take  up 

247 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  work  of  organizing  the  auxihary  league  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  I  arrived  in  New  York  on  the  second 
day  of  the  Trenor  Hall  conference,  and,  together  with  Mr. 
Dillon,  was  a  party  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution  and 
rules  of  the  American  branch  of  the  league. 

The  task  of  framing  such  rules  occupied  the  time  of  the 
delegates  during  the  second  day's  session.  These  regulations 
were  the  basis  of  subsequent  legislation  by  far  greater  and 
more  important  conventions  for  the  government  of  the  co- 
operating movement  in  America.  It  is  on  this  account  they 
are  deemed  worthy  of  being  put  on  record  in  this  book,  as 
marking  the  initial  stage  of  the  greatest  auxiliary  force  ever 
organized  among  the  Irish  and  friends  of  Ireland  abroad  to 
assist  in  effecting  a  great  reform  in  Ireland. 

"  PURPOSES  FOR  WHICH    ASSISTANCE    IS    ASKED    FROM    AMERICA 

"i.  To  enable  the  league  to  spread  its  organization 
throughout  the  thirty-two  counties  of  Ireland. 

"2.  Pending  the  abolition  of  landlordism,  to  aid  local 
branches  of  the  Land  League  to  defend  in  the  courts  such 
farmers  as  may  be  served  with  processes  of  ejectment,  and 
thus  enable  them  to  obstruct  such  landlords  as  avail  them- 
selves of  the  poverty  of  the  tenantry  and  the  machinery  of 
the  law  to  exterminate  the  victims  of  the  existing  system. 

"3.  To  enable  the  league  to  afford  protection  to  those  who 
are  unjustly  evicted.  Already  the  league  has  been  obliged 
to  undertake  the  support  of  the  families  of  the  men  who  were 
recently  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  resisting  eviction  in 
one  of  the  famine  districts,  and  it  is  now  supporting  evicted 
families. 

"4.  To  oppose  the  supporters  of  landlordism  whenever 
and  wherever  they  endeavor  to  obtain  any  representative 
position  in  Ireland  which  would  be  the  means  of  aiding  them 
in  prolonging  the  existence  of  the  present  land  laws  and 
perpetuating  the  social  degradation  and  misery  of  our  people. 

"5.  As  an  auxiliary  to  the  Land  League  of  Ireland  in  the 
work  it  has  undertaken  to  accomplish,  the  Irish  National 
Land  and  Industrial  League  of  the  United  States  has  been 
organized  upon  an  appeal  from  the  parent  body.  Its  objects 
are  to  render  moral  and  material  assistance  to  the  land 
movement  in  Ireland.  In  the  conviction  that  the  primary 
purpose  of  that  movement  can  be  furthered  and  the  best 
interests  of  Ireland  protected  and  advanced  by  an  equal 
solicitude  for  manufacturing,  mining,  fishery,  and  commercial 
industries,    now   and   for  centuries  past  prostrated  by  de- 

248 


THE    AMERICAN    LAND    LEAGUE 

liberate  and  selfishly  hostile  English  legislation,  we  claim 
it  to  be  a  duty  devolving  upon  all  earnest  Irish  reformers 
to  demand  for  Ireland  the  right  to  regulate  and  protect  the 
various  interests  which  build  up  the  prosperity  of  an  in- 
dustrious people  upon  the  foundation  of  their  country's 
developed  resources. 

"We  have,  therefore,  placed  this  addendum  to  the  platform 
of  the  Land  League  of  Ireland,  and  upon  this  programme  for 
the  social  and  industrial  advancement  of  an  oppressed  and 
poverty-stricken  people  we  rest  our  claim  to  solicit  the  good 
wishes  of  the  American  people,  and  to  ask  for  the  earnest  and 
organized  co-operation  of  the  Irish  race  in  this  country. 
No  movement  for  her  political  or  social  welfare  has  been 
initiated  in  Ireland  for  the  past  fifty  years  which  failed  to 
obtain  the  sympathy  and  support  of  her  exiled  children  here. 
The  chances  of  success  were  never  calculated  in  order  to 
regulate  the  measure  of  assistance  to  be  given.  A  prompt 
and  generous  help  was  the  answer  to  every  appeal  from 
the  motherland,  no  matter  what  party  stretched  forth  its 
hand  across  the  Atlantic  or  what  enterprise  aroused  the 
national  spirit  of  a  banished  people.  The  cumulative  re- 
sults of  unrelinquished  struggles  at  home  and  of  sustained 
generosity  abroad  have  placed  the  land  movement  in  Ireland 
in  the  determined  and  conspicuous  position  it  now  occupies 
before  the  world.  It  wars  only  against  injustice  and  misery 
and  aims  at  accomplishing  only  what  is  in  accord  with  justice 
and  reason.  Its  objects  are  the  uprooting,  by  fair  and 
justifiable  means,  of  the  system  of  Irish  landlordism,  which 
inflicts  famine,  suffering,  and  discontent  upon  a  people  that 
are  entitled  to  a  share  of  that  plenty,  happiness,  and  con- 
tentment which  every  other  civilized  country  has  won  and 
now  enjoys.  It  is  a  movement  which  endangers  no  national 
principle  nor  asks  its  supporters  to  forego  any  reasonable  or 
legitimate  aspiration  for  the  future  of  their  country.  It 
recognizes  no  sectarian  distinctions  and  refuses  no  proffers 
of  assistance  from  any  class  or  any  creed.  It  is  a  movement 
of  Irishmen  for  Ireland  and  humanity,  which  endeavors  to 
unite  upon  one  platform  men  of  all  parties  and  religions,  to 
work  out  the  common  good  of  Ireland  and  its  people.  It  asks 
from  the  Irish  race  the  material  help  which  is  essential  to 
success  and  from  the  civilized  world  the  sympathy  and  moral 
support  which  are  necessary  to  secure  it. 

"  Signed  by  the  Central  Council:  James  J.  McCafferty,  Low- 
ell, Mass.,  President;    William    Purcell,  Rochester, 
N.  Y.,  Vice-President;  Rev.  Lawrence  Walsh,  Water- 
bury,   Conn.,    Treasurer;    Thaddeus   Flanagan,    San 
249 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Francisco;  Lawrence  Harmon,  Peoria,  111.;  James 
Gibson,  Paterson,  N.  J.;  J.  V.  Reddy,  Richmond,  Va. ; 
P.  K.  Walsh,  Cleveland,  Ohio;  M.  E.  Walsh,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.;  Michael  Davitt,  New  York  City  and 
Dublin,  Central  Secretary. 

"Central  Offices,  University  Building, 

Washington  Square,  New  York." 

"  RULES    AND    BY-LAWS    FOR    LOCAL    ORGANIZATIONS 

"i.  Name. — The  name  of  this  branch  shall  be  The  Irish 
National  Land  and  Industrial  League  of  the  United  States. 

"2.  Government. — The  officers  of  this  association  shall  be 
a  president,  vice-president,  secretary,  and  a  treasurer,  to  be 
elected  by  the  general  body. 

"3.  Branch  Organization. — Each  branch  or  organization, 
in  wards  or  otherwise,  to  elect  a  chairman,  secretary,  and 
treasurer,  also  one  delegate  from  their  body  to  represent  the 
branch  on  the  executive  committee,  should  an  executive  com- 
mittee be  resolved  upon. 

"  Ward  Organizers. — Two  members  of  each  branch  shall  be 
appointed  as  ward  organizers  or  canvassers,  whose  duty  shall 
be  to  organize  the  ward  or  division  of  such  branch  and  can- 
vass for  members  or  assistance  for  the  Land  League  of  Ire- 
land. 

"Ward  organizers  can  solicit  subscriptions  from  persons 
who  may  not  desire  to  become  members  of  a  branch  or- 
ganization. Such  subscriptions  to  be  entered  in  the  treas- 
urer's book  as  donations,  and  forwarded,  with  membership 
fees,  etc.,  to  the  central  office. 

"4.  Membership. — Any  person  paying  the  sum  of  $1  tow- 
ards the  objects  of  the  association  becomes  a  member  and  is 
entitled  to  a  card  of  membership.  The  dues  shall  not  be  less 
than  f  I  per  annum. 

"5.  The  various  ward  organizations  shall  report  once  every 
three  months  to  the  central  secretary,  and  produce  their  ac- 
counts whenever  required. 

"6.  The  treasurer  of  each  branch  shall  forward  to  the  treas- 
urer of  the  central  council,  for  transmission  to  the  Land  League 
of  Ireland,  all  moneys  which  may  come  into  his  hands,  less 
necessary  expenses  for  rent,  stationery,  etc. 

"7.  The  treasurer  of  this  branch  shall  pay  all  necessary 
expenses  for  printing,  postage,  stationery,  rent,  and  such 
other  legitimate  expenses  as  may  be  incurred. 

"8.  The  secretary  shall  keep  a  list  of  all  the  members  of  his 
branch,  write  the  minutes  of  branch  meetings,  join  with  the 

250 


THE    AMERICAN    LAND    LEAGUE 

treasurer  in  a  monthly  report  to  the  central  offices,  and  per- 
form the  other  clerical  work  of  the  branch. 

"9.  The  executive  committee,  wherever  organized,  shall 
hold  a  stated  meeting  at  least  once  a  month.  They  shall 
elect  a  chairman  and  secretary  from  their  own  body,  and 
shall  have  the  general  supervision  of  the  branches  in  a  city 
or  county.  The  officers  of  branches  in  a  city  or  county,  in- 
cluding branch  organizers  or  canvassers,  should  form  the  ex- 
ecutive committee. 

"  10.  Each  branch  shall  hold  stated  meetings  at  least  once 
a  month,  and  annual  meetings  on  January  2d,  for  the  election 
of  officers,  and  for  the  transaction  of  such  other  business  as 
may  be  brought  before  it. 

"11.  The  officers  first  elected  by  a  branch  shall  hold  office 
until  the  second  Sunday  of  January,  1881,  or  until  their  suc- 
cessors shall  be  elected. 

"12.  These  rules  and  by-laws  may  be  amended  by  local 
branches  if  so  required,  providing  such  amendment  shall  not 
conflict  with  the  constitution  of  the  central  body. 

"13.  Special  meetings  of  the  branch  may  be  held  on  a  call 
by  one-fifth  of  its  members,  or  by  the  executive  committee, 
and  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  secretary  to  call  such  meetings. 
Three  days'  notice,  at  least,  of  special  meetings  must  be  given. 

"14.  These  rules  and  by-laws  are  issued  subject  to  the  ap- 
proval of  the  central  council  at  its  next  meeting. 

"Michael  Davitt,  Central  Secretary." 

The  central  council  elected  at  this  convention  was  remark- 
able more  for  being  the  first  governing  body  of  the  American 
league  than  for  any  especial  service  rendered  by  it  to  the 
home  movement.  It  was  a  scattered  body,  in  the  sense  of 
its  members  residing  long  distances  from  one  another,  while 
it  had  many  other  difficulties  to  contend  with.  Its  authority 
was  vested  in  the  secretary  and  treasurer,  and,  as  the  only 
work  which  was  required  to  be  done  for  the  time  being  fell 
within  the  scope  of  their  respective  duties  (organizing  league 
branches  and  forwarding  subscriptions  to  Ireland),  Father 
Walsh  and  the  writer  had  neither  ambition  nor  temptation  to 
travel  beyond  the  delegated  power  of  their  respective  offices. 

On  Mr.  James  Redpath's  recommendations  offices  were 
engaged  in  University  Building,  Washington  Square,  New 
York.  A  literary  friend  of  Redpath's,  Mr.  Bacon,  of  Boston, 
consented  to  act  as  assistant  secretary,  while  Miss  Anna 
Parnell,  who  then  resided  near  New  York,  Mr.  John  Devoy, 
and  other  friends  to  the  movement  lent  a  helping  hand 
whenever  called  upon  for  assistance. 

251 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Leaving  the  central  office  in  such  efficient  and  friendly 
care,  I  started  out  on  an  organizing  tour  which,  covered 
the  following  cities:  New  York,  Brooklyn,  Paterson,  New- 
ark, Boston,  Lowell,  Lawrence,  Worcester,  Pawtucket, 
Providence,  Stamford,  Blackstone.  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Washington,  Scranton,  Pittston,  Pittsburgh,  Columbus,  Cin- 
cinnati, Chicago,  Joliet,  Braidwood,  Terre  Haute,  St.  Louis, 
Sedalia,  St.  Joseph,  Kansas  City,  Omaha,  Salt  Lake  City, 
Sacramento,  Oakland,  Stockton,  Vallejo,  San  Jose,  San 
Francisco.  Returning  East,  I  took  in  Virginia  City,  Lead- 
ville,  Denver,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis,  Cleveland,  Toledo,  Buf- 
falo, and  Albany,  reaching  New  York  again  in  time  to  sail 
home  for  Ireland  in  November,  after  establishing  branches  of 
the  Land  League  in  the  above  chain  of  cities  reaching  from 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific. 

The  best  friends  of  the  Land  League  in  these  cities  were 
the  members  of  existing  Irish-American  organizations,  like 
the  Clan-na-Gael  and  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians.  No 
opposition  was  offered  anywhere  by  men  of  extreme  views, 
outside  of  New  York,  where  some  hostility  was  shown  from 
time  to  time,  which,  however,  did  not  count.  The  league 
and  its  mission  for  the  overthrow  of  landlordism  and  the 
general  advancement  of  the  national  cause  were  welcomed  by 
all  who  had  been  born  in  Ireland  and  in  whose  memory  the 
recollection  of  the  evils  of  the  system  were  not  forgotten  in 
the  freer  and  happier  conditions  of  American  life.  The 
American  press  too,  almost  without  exception,  lent  its 
approval  to  the  work,  and  encouraged  the  propaganda  of 
the  Irish  leaders  for  free  government  and  free  land. 

One  or  two  out  of  many  interesting  incidents  in  this  second 
of  a  series  of  subsequent  tours  for  the  Irish  movement  may 
not  be  out  of  place  in  this  narrative. 

I  chanced  to  reach  Chicago  on  my  way  West  on  a  night 
when  the  whole  city  had  been  invaded  by  bodies  of  Free- 
masons from  all  the  States  of  the  Union.  They  were  attend- 
ing a  convention  in  the  big  Lake  city.  There  were  no 
vehicles  to  be  found  at  the  depot  on  my  arrival  and  no 
rooms  in  the  neighboring  hotels.  No  lodgings  could  be  got 
anywhere.  "The  city  was  full."  I  knew  a  few  friends  by 
name  there,  but  had  not  a  single  address  to  which  to  direct 
my  footsteps.  Hotel  after  hotel  was  tried,  but  in  vain.  Not 
a  bed  could  be  got.  I  was  tired  out,  and  not  in  the  best  of 
health  at  the  time,  while  the  carrying  of  a  small  portmanteau 
from  place  to  place  rendered  the  experience  a  trying  one  in 
many  ways.  At  last,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  I  could  walk 
no  more.     Selecting  a  quiet  side  street  and   a   soft-looking 

252 


THE    AMERICAN    LAND    LEAGUE 

door-step — as  soft  as  a  plank  bed  in  Millbank  prison — I  re- 
called the  luxurious  days  of  penal  servitude,  made  a  pillow 
of  my  bag,  a  bed  of  an  inviting  doorway,  and  was  soon 
oblivious  of  Freemasons,  the  noise  of  a  big  city,  and  of  the 
night's  hopeless  search  for  a  room. 

I  had  slept  about  two  hours  when  a  light  flashed  before  my 
eyes  and  a  rough  hand  shook  me  back  from  dreamland  again 
into  consciousness  and  Chicago. 

"What  are  you  doing  there?"  said  a  voice. 

"Sleeping." 

"But  that  is  no  place  to  sleep  in." 

"You  are  wrong;  I  was  sound  asleep  when  you  woke  me 
up." 

"I  am  a  policeman.     You  must — " 

"  Look  here,  my  friend,  I  am  here  because  I  could  not  get  a 
bed  in  Chicago.  Don't  trouble  yourself  about  me;  I  am  all 
right.     I  am  not  a  burglar." 

"What  is  your  name?" 

"Well,  here  is  my  card." 

In  an  instant  my  bag  was  seized  with  a  friendly  hand,  while 
a  kindly  Irish  face  looked  all  kinds  of  apologies  for  Chicago's 
apparent  want  of  hospitality.  I  was  soon  on  the  track  of  a 
German  hotel,  where  I  was  finally  deposited  as  the  fiftieth 
occupant  of  an  outhouse  fitted  up  with  hammocks  for  the 
Freemason  invasion. 

It  was  in  Clan-na-Gael  circles  in  Chicago,  on  the  occasion  of 
this  visit,  that  I  first  met  "Major"  Henri  le  Caron.  No  one 
suspected,  at  that  time,  the  terrible  secret  of  his  life.  He  was 
introduced  to  me  as  one  of  General  O'Neill's  officers,  who  had 
taken  part  in  the  Fenian  invasion  of  Canada  in  1867.  He  was 
a  "  Frenchman  " — so  his  introducers  represented  him — and  his 
manner  and  accent  lent  themselves  to  the  disguise  which  was 
so  vital  to  the  successful  concealment  of  his  character  and  call- 
ing as  a  British  spy.  He  was  of  small  stature,  slender  build, 
gentlemanly  manners,  and  good  address.  His  face  was  a 
complete  mask  in  its  expression,  owing,  doubtless,  to  years  of 
habitual  deception  and  to  the  practised  role  of  subservient 
complacency  he  had  to  assume  in  order  to  please  his  associates 
and  offend  no  one  by  look  or  word  that  could  excite  suspicion. 
The  forehead  was  broad,  the  eyes  deep-set,  dark,  and  strong, 
indicating  great  self-confidence  and  extreme  wariness.  It 
was  not  in  any  sense  a  repulsive  or  a  disagreeable  face,  though 
it  lacked  regularity  of  features  and  was  marked  deeply  with 
careworn  lines.  Altogether  he  struck  one  as  a  rather  com- 
monplace and  a  by  no  means  interesting  personality,  his 
chief  passport  to  unsuspecting  Irish  good-nature  being  bis 

253 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

well-played  pretence  to  French  nationality  and  the  fact  that 
he  had  accompanied  O'Neill  in  his  wild  Canadian  raid. 

Le  Caron  was  a  doctor — that  is,  such  a  doctor  as  passes 
muster  among  miners  at  Braidwood,  Illinois,  where  the  little 
"Major"  lived.  He  invited  me  to  visit  the  place  after  my 
meeting  at  Joliet,  and  as  he  held  a  position  in  the  Clan  I  ac- 
cepted his  offer  to  assist  in  the  formation  of  a  branch  of  the 
league  in  the  mining-town.  In  due  course  I  turned  up  at 
Braidwood,  and  found  the  doctor  to  be  a  very  popular  per- 
sonage among  the  Irish  workers.  He  learned  that  I  was  suf- 
fering from  insomnia  and  other  ailments  peculiar  to  the  toil- 
some and  health-wrecking  work  of  an  Irish  agitator,  and  duly 
prescribed  the  needed  remedies  for  the  claimant  upon  his 
medical  skill. 

We  had  several  hours'  talk  together  during  my  visit  to  his 
town,  and,  while  I  had  not  the  remotest  suspicion  of  the  des- 
perate part  he  was  playing,  it  is  evident  from  the  very  little 
he  knew  about  my  visits  to  Clan-na-Gael  camps  and  connec- 
tion with  the  direction  of  the  revolutionary  movement  at 
the  time,  as  shown  in  his  testimony  before  the  special  com- 
mission eight  years  subsequently,  that  he  had  either  not 
attempted  to  get  into  my  confidence  or  had  failed  to 
do  so. 

Two  other  but  more  personal  incidents  call  for  mere  men- 
tion, just  to  remind  younger  workers  for  the  Irish  cause  of  to- 
day what  older  men  had  to  endure  in  times  of  harder  labors, 
more  danger,  and  less  applause.  I  was  struck  down  with 
malarial  fever  in  a  hotel  in  St.  Louis,  and  was  found  there  by 
Dr.  J.  J.  Kane  of  that  city.  He  took  me  to  his  own  house, 
and  tended  me  so  successfully^  that  I  recovered  in  a  fortnight, 
and  then  went  m}^  way  westward,  on  the  branch-forming  pil- 
grimage. During  a  public  meeting  in  Kansas  City  the  illness 
returned,  and  I  recollect  speaking  to  a  large  audience  for  an 
hour  in  a  high  state  of  fever.  The  journey  was  continued  to 
Omaha,  where  I  was  carried  helpless  from  the  train  to  the 
then  Creighton  House,  and  nursed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Donovan 
for  a  month,  and  rescued  from  death  by  their  kindness  joined 
to  Dr.  Kauffman's  unremitting  care  and  skill. 

When  in  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  Mr.  J.  W.  Mackay,  "the 
Silver  King,"  made  me  his  guest  in  the  hotel.  He  attended 
our  Land  League  meeting,  but  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to 
make  a  speech.  He  did  not  believe  either  in  the  agrarian  or 
any  other  Irish  movem.ent.  It  was  all  a  waste  of  individual 
and  national  energy  and  means.  "Why  not  leave  the  whole 
island  to  England,  bring  your  people  all  over  here,  settle  them 
down  in  Nebraska  or  Colorado,  and  call  the  State  '  New  Ire- 

254 


THE  AMERICAN  LAND  LEAGUE 

land '  or  '  Home  Rule,'  or  whatever  you  like,  and  end  the  whole 
trouble?" 

"And  give  American  millionaires  the  chance  of  buying  up 
the  land  of  'New  Ireland,'  in  advance,  I  suppose?" 

He  laughed  at  the  retort,  but  he  believed  that  nearly  all  the 
Irish  people  would  ultimately  find  their  way  across  the  At- 
lantic. 

On  leaving  Virginia  City  "the  boys"  were  eager  to  know 
how  much  Mackay  had  contributed  to  the  funds  of  the  league. 

"Not  a  cent." 

"Did  you  ask  him?" 

"No." 

"But  what  is  the  blank,  blank  use  of  the  league  sending 
over  a  man  to  beg  money  who  does  not  ask  for  it?" 

And,  I  confess,  I  left  a  very  small  reputation  for  obtaining 
funds  behind  me  in  the  city  of  the  bonanza  mines. 


CHAPTER  XX 
I.  — FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

Miss  Fanny  Parnell,  the  gifted,  poetic  sister  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell,  who  also  resided  in  New  York,  was,  Hke  her  sister,  an 
enthusiastic  leaguer.  She  contributed  powerfully  to  enkin- 
dle Irish-American  feeling  for  the  land  fight  in  Ireland  by  her 
spirited  ballads  in  the  Boston  Pilot.  One  of  these,  "  Coercion 
— Hold  the  Rent,"  which  will  be  found  reproduced  in  the  next 
chapter,  was  widely  quoted  in  the  press  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  for  its  combative  inspiration  at  a  crisis  in  the  anti- 
rent  struggle, 
r  Miss  Parnell  was  a  practical  as  well  as  a  poetic  reformer,  and 
one  of  her  proposals,  a  little  varied  in  its  plan  and  purpose, 
had  probably  more  to  do  with  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Forster's  co- 
ercion policy  than  all  the  other  plans  put  into  action  against 
it  by  the  leaders  at  home.  This  was  a  proposal  to  form  a 
Ladies'  Land  League.  The  object  was  to  enlist  the  services 
of  her  sex  in  money-collecting  in  American  cities,  and  to  this 
end,  aided  by  Miss  Ellen  A.  Ford,  of  New  York,  an  organiza- 
tion of  women  was  formed  in  that  city.  The  idea  lent  itself 
to  further  development,  like  many  a  suggestion  born  of  quite 
another  thought,  but  the  story  of  the  way  in  which  the  Ladies' 
Land  League  of  Ireland,  under  the  direction  of  Miss  Anna 
Parnell,  who  left  for  Dublin  in  December,  1880,  drove  "Buck- 
shot" Forster  out  of  Ireland,  and  out  of  ofhce,  when  all  the 
male  Land  League  leaders  were  in  prison,  belongs  in  the 
order  of  time  to  a  succeeding  chapter. 

While  branches  of  the  Land  League  were  being  organized 
in  the  Western  States  during  the  autumn  months,  Mr.  Patrick 
Ford  was  busy  in  a  like  work  through  the  medium  of  his  paper. 
Irish  World  branches  sprang  into  existence  later  in  the  year  in 
numerous  cities  where  the  paper  had  a  constituency  and  its 
editor  a  body  of  admiring  supporters.  Copies  of  the  rules  and 
constitution  of  the  American  league  were  circulated  through 
the  agency  of  this  the  most  prominent  organ  of  the  movement 
in  the  United  States.    In  this  manner  the  foundation  was  being 

256 


FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

laid  for  the  marvellous  financial  help  which  Mr.  Ford's  paper 
was  enabled  to  render  to  the  league  in  Ireland  during  its 
fight  for  life  against  the  coercive  forces  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
government. 

Some  of  the  friction  inevitable  in  every  popular  organiza- 
tion began  to  manifest  itself  in  this  early  stage  of  the  great 
auxiliary  league  in  the  United  States.  Friction  is  by  no 
means  an  unmixed  evil  in  political  movements.  It  often  pro- 
motes a  healthy  influence  of  careful  management  and  an  in- 
telligent vigilance  on  the  part  of  members.  Councils  and  ex- 
ecutives, especially  in  America,  are  liable  to  be  machined  in 
the  interest  of  a  domineering  section  or  of  an  ambitious  leader 
and  not  infrequently  in  behalf  of  a  political  party.  Diverging 
views  within  the  ambit  of  an  agreed  policy  or  programme 
are,  or  ought  to  be,  a  restraint  upon  an  undue  preponderance 
of  partisan  opinion.  So  long  as  a  fair  and  intelligent  oppo- 
sition on  the  part  of  a  minority  or  of  a  section  on  questions 
of  finance  or  administration  is  not  carried  to  the  extent  and 
service  of  open  faction,  only  good  to  an  honestly  governed 
movement  can  result  from  the  friction  of  fair  criticism  and 
of  sane  inquiry. 

The  league  had  a  threefold  backing  and  support  in  the" 
United  States  from  its  initiation  to  the  date  of  the  Kilmain- 
ham  treaty.  There  was  what  might  be  called  the  conservative 
following  of  Messrs.  Collins  and  Boyle  O'Reilly,  of  Boston,  and 
of  Dr.  Connaty ,  of  Worcester,  now  Bishop  of  Los  Angeles.  Be- 
hind these  and  the  clergy  generally,  who  accepted  their  lead, 
were  ranged  those  members  and  subscribers  who  wished  their 
financial  help  to  be  sent  direct  to  the  headquarters  of  the 
league  in  Ireland.  These  were  likewise  strong  partisan  up- 
holders of  Mr.  Pamell's  leadership. 

Next  there  was  the  wide  constituency  of  Irish  World  read- 
ers extending  through  the  regions  covered  by  the  then  great 
circulation  of  that  paper.  These  leaguers  upheld  the  radical 
teaching  of  Mr.  Ford's  paper  on  the  Irish  land  question,  and 
selected  to  send  their  donations  through  the  channel  which 
gave  them  each  week  a  published  list  of  their  subscriptions 
and  a  full  account  of  how  the  fight  "  at  home  "  was  progressing. 

Last,  there  was  the  support  offered  by  the  Clan-na-Gael. 
This  had  been  invaluable  in  the  beginning.  Without  the  en- 
couragement given  by  its  prominent  leaders  to  the  new  de- 
parture, that  venture  might  have  fared  badly  when  and  where 
friends  were  few.  It  followed  from  this  fact,  and  also  owing 
to  the  revolutionary  antecedents  of  the  most  active  leaders  of 
the  league  at  home,  that  some  of  the  Clan  leaders  held  with 
Mr.  John  Devoy  that  the  revolutionary  organization  in  Amer- 
17  257 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ica  had  a  kind  of  prescriptive  right  to  control  the  league  move- 
ment in  the  United  States  and  to  take  charge  of  the  work 
of  remitting  financial  aid  to  the  fighting  forces  of  the  home 
league.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  American  league  among  peo- 
ple and  societies  non-revolutionary  rendered  this  policy  most 
difficult.  In  any  case,  the  strong  opposition  of  both  the  Irish 
World  and  the  conservative  branches  to  any  such  control 
made  the  policy  impossible  so  long  as  the  three  sections  of 
supporters  remained  in  the  field  of  friendly  rivalry.  Hence  a 
friction  which  took  this  triple  form  of  activity  worked  most 

,/  beneficially  for  the  financial  support  of  the  league  in  Ireland, 
but  led  to  a  development  of  dissension  which  grew  stronger  in 
every  succeeding  convention  until  one  of  the  three  contending 
influences  succeeded  in  gaining  for  a  time  the  complete  gov- 

/^ernment  of  the  American  league. 


II.— "BUCKSHOT"    FORSTER 

\  Mr.  Parnell  returned  to  the  House  of  Commons  after  the 
general  election  as  the  chairman  of  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
Home-Rule  delegation,  and  Mr.  W  E.  Forster  came  to  Ire- 
land as  Mr.  Gladstone's  chief  secretary.  These  changes  and 
events  marked  the  progress  of  the  conflict  which  the  Land 
League  had  carried  on  so  far.  The  league's  leader  was  now 
the  head  of  a  determined  fighting  party  in  Westminster.  He 
also  directed  a  formidable  organization  in  Ireland,  which  had 
already  smashed  the  political  influence  of  the  landlord-owners 
and  directors  of  Dublin  Castle.  This  state  of  things  was  not 
lost  upon  the  alert  attention  of  the  great  Englishman  who  had 
overthrown  the  Beaconsfield  ministry,  and  in  a  doubtless 
well-meant  attempt  to  calm  things  down  in  Ireland,  and  to 
prepare  the  way  for  some  useful  legislation,  he  chose  Mr.  For- 
ster as  the  ministerial  ruler  of  the  Irish  people. 

In  a  period  of  comparative  peace  the  selection  would  prob- 
ably have  turned  out  to  be  a  fortunate  one  for  the  new  chief 
secretary.  Mr.  Forster  was  not  unknown  in  Ireland.  He 
had,  in  fact,  an  honorable  record  as  one  who  had  taken  an 
active  and  humane  part  in  the  work  of  relieving  the  victims 
of  famine  in  1847-48.  What  he  saw  and  learned  then  of  the 
social  life  of  the  Irish  peasantry  under  landlord  power  must 
have  left  impressions  on  his  mind  not  overflattering  to  the 
record  for  humanity  of  Irish  landlordism.  It  was  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  generations  of  Irishmen,  in  their  attitude 
towards  this  system,  that  deceived  him,  and  which  led  him, 
under  the  influences  born  of  a  fierce  fight,  to  miscalculate  the 

258 


FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

strength  of  the  forces  which  his  coercive  policy  arrayed  against 
him.  In  1847  he  found  a  nation  of  spiritless  helots  willing 
to  die  of  starvation  because  they  were  impiously  told  that 
Providence  had  sent  the  famine  as  an  infliction.  There  was 
no  such  debasing  doctrine  preached  by  the  Land  League  or  / 
tolerated  by  the  Irish  of  1880.  The  league's  "  Gospel  of  Man- 
hood" had  dispelled  that  ignoble  and  treacherous  superstition, 
and  the  men  whom  Dublin  Castle  compelled  Mr.  Forster  to 
antagonize  were  believed  by  him  to  be  as  easily  put  down  as 
were  the  miserable  beings  who  made  a  holocaust  of  themselves 
rather  than  fig'ht  for  life  a  generation  previously. 

A  strong  Englishman,  bred  in  the  creed  of  English  suprem- 
acy, has  all  the  potential  prejudices  of  the  "conquering"  race 
when  ruling  Irishmen,  be  he  Tory,  Liberal,  or  Radical.  He 
feels  that  his  first  right  and  duty  is  to  rule.  The  constitutional 
figment  about  ruling  with  the  consent  of  the  people  is  repug- 
nant to  him,  when  those  people  are  Irish.  The  word  "  Irish" 
itself  is  a  challenge  to  the  man  who  stands  for  England  in  the 
government  of  a  country  which  England  has  so  long  injured 
and  wronged  in  the  eternally  hopeless  task  of  finally  subjugat- 
ing the  Celtic  idea  of  nationhood  to  the  dominance  of  its  deadly 
foe.  Such  an  Englishman  as  Mr.  Forster  was  would  be  posi- 
tive, unyielding,  and  imperious  for  good  or  evil,  just  as  the 
racial  temperament  was  stirred  or  ruffled  the  right  or  wrong 
way  by  events  and  circumstances.  Had  there  been  no  Land 
League  with  a  semi -revolutionary  purpose  in  his  way  to  dis- 
pute the  friendly  despotism  of  his  rule,  he  would  probably  have 
taken  sides  against  the  landlords,  and  helped  the  people  in  his 
own  way  to  some  ameliorative  measures.  His  intentions  on 
accepting  the  chief -secretaryship  were  of  as  sympathetic  a 
kind  towards  Ireland  as  could  influence  an  Englishman  in 
that  post.  That  is  beyond  all  dispute.  But  he  found  himself 
in  a  situation  which,  in  a  sense,  compelled  him  to  defend  an 
impossible  system  of  rule  and  of  land  tenure  against  the  lean- 
ings of  his  personal  sympathies,  because  law  and  order  were 
menaced  by  an  organization  which  was  avowedly  bent  upon 
a  campaign  for  the  defeat  of  both  as  the  only  props  of  land- 
lordism in  Ireland.  This  was  a  red-rag  kind  of  challenge  to_j 
any  Englishman's  pride  and  stubbornness  of  disposition.  In 
the  instance  of  Mr.  Forster,  it  was  a  challenge  which  would 
appeal  to  the  tyranny  of  despised  good  intentions  as  well  as 
to  the  dogged  English  sentiment  which  backs  a  good  or  bad 
policy  with  equal  strength  of  will  and  purpose  where  England's 
supremacy  is  rightly  or  wrongly  believed  to  be  involved.  No  f 
stronger  Englishman  could  have  been  sent  to  Ireland  at  this 
crisis,  and  it  was  a  pity  that  a  man  of  so  many  good  parts, 

259 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  with  a  high  record  of  public  service,  was  destined  by  an 
unfriendly  political  fate  to  attempt  the  accomplishment  of  an 
impossible  task  at  the  time  and  to  wreck  his  career  in  the  en- 
deavor. 

Such  was  the  man  we  had  to  fight  in  Ireland,  and  whom  Mr. 
Parnell  and  his  party  had  to  face  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
with  Mr.  Gladstone  and  a  powerful  majority  at  his  back. 

The  new  Irish  party  lost  no  time  after  the  opening  of  the 
new  Parliament,  on  May  20th,  in  demanding  remedial  legisla- 
tion for  the  tenants.  Mr.  O'Connor  Power,  in  behalf  of  the 
party,  moved  an  amendment  to  the  address  declaring  the 
urgent  need  which  existed  in  the  then  condition  of  things  in 
Ireland  for  a  settlement  of  the  land  question.  Some  of  the 
new  members  spoke  on  this  motion,  and  gave  evidence  of 
the  ability  which  afterwards  made  high  parliamentary  repu- 
tations for  the  Land  League  recruits.  The  government,  of 
course,  opposed  and  defeated  the  amendment.  Attempts 
were  next  made  to  introduce  the  temporary  measure  for 
staying  evictions  which  was  recommended  at  the  Dublin  land 
conference,  but  owing  to  the  nature  of  the  machinery  of  the 
House  for  balloting  for  bills  these  efforts  were  unsuccessful. 
They  did  propaganda  work,  however,  and  were  admonitions 
and  appeals  to  the  ministry  to  respond  to  the  necessity  for  a 
radical  amendment  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870. 

Mr.  O'Connor  Power  introduced  a  small  measure  which  was 
named  a  "Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill,"  and  which 
aimed  at  repealing  that  clause  in  the  act  of  1870  which  denied 
compensation  for  disturbance  where  the  tenant  was  evicted 
for  non-payment  of  rent.  This  small  bill  was  brought  on  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  morning  in  the  desperate  hope  of  its  ob- 
taining a  second  reading,  and  the  chance  succeeded,  to  the 
extent  of  inducing  the  government  to  accept  the  principle 
and  purpose  of  the  Irish  party's  bill  and,  with  modifications, 
to  embody  it  in  a  ministerial  measure. 

This  was  the  thin  edge  of  the  wedge  of  Land  League  prin- 
ciples, and,  small  as  the  concession  was,  it  was  important  in 
its  disintegrating  consequences.  It  was  the  first  blow  in  West- 
minster at  the  sovereign  right  of  Irish  landlord  property. 

The  bill  with  the  Irish-party  parentage  was  duly  brought 
forward  on  ministerial  responsibility  and  passed  through 
the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  Lansdowne  resigned  his  posi- 
tion in  the  government  as  a  protest  against  such  a  "revolu- 
tionary" proposal,  and  it  was  ignominiously  thrown  out  of 
the  Upper  House.  The  bill  would  have  limited  evictions 
only;  it  would  not  have  stopped  then,  as  its  operations  were 
to  be  confined  to  holdings  under  £;^o  and  to  certain  scheduled 

260 


FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

districts.  But  it  was  a  case  of  no  surrender  by  the  House  of  ^^ 
Landlords,  and,  as  the  sequel  will  show,  it  was  fortunate  in- 
deed that  men  like  Lord  Lansdowne  were  blind  enough  to 
resist  what  the  higher  statesmanship  of  Mr.  Gladstone  saw 
to  be  a  wise  and  expedient  concession.  A  stubborn  resist- 
ance to  an  equitable  and  humane  proposal  was  to  precipi- 
tate a  conflict  of  savage  antagonism  in  which  landlordism 
would  be  bound  to  suffer  for  its  short-sighted  selfishness. 

Already  the  forces  at  the  disposal  of  Dublin  Castle  were 
severely  taxed  to  carry  out  evictions.  Mr.  Forster  dwelt  upon 
this  fact  in  his  speech  on  the  second  reading  of  the  defeated 
bill.  "I  take  the  case  of  the  West  Riding  of  Galway,"  he 
said,  "and  since  January  ist  of  this  year  the  number  of  con- 
stabulary employed  in  protecting  process-servers  has  been 
one  hundred  aHd  seven  officers  and  three  thousand  three  hun- 
dred men,  with  sixteen  officers  and  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  men  in  carrying  out  actual  evictions."^  Here  we  had  a 
small  army  employed  in  a  district,  in  one  county  where  the 
Land  League  had  started  the  anti-process-serving  struggle. 
What  force  would  be  required  when  the  supreme  plan  of  the 
league — to  order  a  general  strike  against  rent — would  be  put 
in  force?  This  calculation  was  not  absent  from  the  minds  of] 
those  who  had  resolved  upon  this  plan  from  the  very  birth  of 
the  new  movement  as  the  final  blow  at  the  landlord  system,  if 
circumstances  should  favor  the  adoption  of  such  an  extreme 
course. 

The  failure  to  obtain  redress  from  Westminster  intensified 
discontent  in  Ireland.  The  league  fanned  this  feeling  every- 
where by  its  meetings,  resolutions,  and  defiant  policy.  Mr. 
Brennan  was  the  life  and  soul  of  the  fight  during  the  summer 
months  of  1880,  and  his  radical  utterances  emphasized  the 
lesson  learned  from  the  House  of  Commons  that  the  struggle 
for  homes  and  harvest  must  be  made  by  the  people  them- 
selves. Evictions  multiplied,  but  so  did  scenes  of  resistance. 
Persons  were  prosecuted  for  obstructing  the  law,  but  evicted 
families  were  supported,  while  those  proceeded  against  for 
opposing  process-servers  were  defended  by  the  league  out  of 
resources  which  were  coming  in  from  America.  In  this  man- 
ner the  struggle  went  on  relentlessly  on  both  sides,  the  law 
doing  the  eviction  work  of  the  landlords,  and  the  people  being 
forced  into  a  conflict  with  both  in  defence  of  their  homes. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  promising  for  the  ultimate 
aim  of  the  national  organization  than  the  fighting  spirit 
shown  by  those  who  had  hitherto  allowed  themselves  to  be 

^Report  Special  Commission,  vol.  vi.,  p.  469. 
261 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

cowed  into  tame  submission  by  a  landlord's  process  of  evic- 
tion or  a  magistrate's  sentence  of  a  month's  imprisonment. 

This  spirit  greatly  alarmed  two  sections  of  the  landlords' 
allies.  The  English  press  noted  it  with  all  the  astonishment 
which  correspondents  could  express  in  their  letters  from  the 
scenes  of  disturbance  in  Ireland,  and  pro-British  clerics  were 
scandalized  at  such  symptoms  of  rebellion  against  lawful 
authority.  At  last  there  was  a  stinging  rebuke  drawn  from 
a  great  prelate  by  this  latter  kind  of  persistent,  nagging  cant 
about  communism  and  socialism  on  the  part  of  these  partisans 
of  unscrupulous  power.  Writing  to  a  meeting  held  at  Emily, 
County  Tipperary,  about  this  time,  the  late  Archbishop  Croke 
delivered  himself  against  these  political  Levites  as  follows: 

"There  is  no  nation  on  the  face  of  the  globe  that  has  suffered 
so  much  or  so  long  as  we  have.  We  have  borne  so  much,  and 
borne  it  so  meekly,  that  now  when  we  are  beginning  to  fret  a 
little  under  our  punishment,  and  cast  ourselves  on  a  small 
scale  into  the  attitude  of  self-defence,  persons  are  found  to  call 
us  ugly  names,  and  words  of  ominous  signification,  borrowed 
from  the  vicious  vocabulary  of  the  Continent,  are  used  to  desig- 
nate the  efforts  that  are  being  made  by  well-meaning  men 
throughout  the  country  to  prevent  the  Irish  people  from  per- 
ishing at  home  or  being  drafted  like  cattle  to  climes  beyond 
the  sea.  There  can  be  no  sin  in  striving  to  live  and  wishing  to 
die  in  Ireland.  It  is  neither  sin  nor  treason  to  say  that  where 
a  man  labors  he  has  a  right  to  be  fed,  and  that  it  is  cruel  to 
punish  a  person  for  not  paying  a  debt  which  nature  has  ren- 
dered it  impossible  for  him  to  satisfy."  * 

Evictions  in  Mayo,  Roscommon,  Leitrim,  Sligo,  Galway, 
Tipperary,  and  other  counties  were  necessarily  enkindling 
human  passion  into  a  revengeful  mood.  It  had  always  been 
so  in  the  past.  Agrarian  crime  increased  with  bad  times — 
that  is,  with  seasons  of  distress  and  evictions  for  non-payment 
of  rent.  The  tenant  himself  might  not  fall  back  upon  retalia- 
tion for  the  loss  of  his  home  and  the  shelterless  destitution  of 
his  children.  But  tenants  have  grown-up  sons  sometimes, 
and  the  human  nature  that  is  capable  of  risking  dangers  and 
sacrifices  in  struggles  against  other  forms  of  wrong  could  not 
tamely  look  on  in  the  person  of  a  young  man  while  his  mother 
is  thrown  out  of  the  cabin  in  which  she  gave  him  birth  and  his 
sisters  and  brothers  are  refused  the  protection  of  the  roof -tree 
erected  by  his  father.  The  land  war  took  this  course  always. 
It  was  the  product  of  the  system  which  made  that  war  in- 
evitable, if  men  were  not  to  allow  themselves  to  become  the 

^Freeman's  Journal,   May  31,   1S80. 
262 


FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

absolute  slaves  of  the  rent  power  and  to  be  trampled  upon 
like  so  much  human  vermin. 

The  first  blood  in  this  dreaded  phase  of  the  agitation  was  to 
the  discredit  of  the  landlord  side.  No  agrarian  murder  had 
been  committed  in  Ireland  from  the  date  of  the  Irishtown 
meeting  to  the  rejection  of  the  Compensation  for  Disturbance 
Bill.  The  succor  given  to  the  evicted  by  the  league  explains 
this  unusual  freedom  of  the  work  of  numerous  evictions  from 
retaliatory  bloodshed.  Had  there  been  no  combination  be- 
hind the  tenants  to  give  advocacy  to  their  cause  and  to  de- 
fend them  in  the  courts,  there  would  have  been  another  story 
to  tell.  For,  during  that  period  of  eighteen  months,  which 
covered  a  winter  of  the  severest  distress  felt  since  1848,  fully 
a  thousand  families  had  been  turned  adrift  from  their  homes. 
While  there  is  hope  for  an  Irish  peasant  he  does  not  despair, 
and  it  was  the  mission  of  the  league  to  give  him  both  hope 
and  courage. 

In  June  a  Leitrim  landlord  who  had  evicted  a  tenant  named 
Mahon,  near  Ballinamore,  came  under  police  escort  to  see  a 
fence  put  up  which  would  give  him  effective  possession  of  the 
land.  A  crowd  of  people  gathered  to  hoot  the  evictor  and  his 
guard.  Mahon  was  prominent  among  the  crowd,  and  as  he 
was  in  the  act  of  encouraging  the  opposition  the  landlord 
whipped  out  his  revolver  and  shot  him  dead.  At  a  subsequent 
trial  the  accused  was  discharged  by  the  grand  jury,  composed 
entirely  of  landlord  adherents,  refusing  to  find  a  true  bill 
against  the  culprit.  Both  these  deeds  made  a  deep  and  bad 
impression  on  many  minds,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the 
firing  began  on  the  other  side. 

Seeing  the  desperate  situation  created  by  the  refusal  of 
Parliament  to  try  and  minimize  evictions,  it  was  decided  bj^ 
the  league  executive,  on  the  advice  of  prominent  leaguers  in 
America,  to  devote  a  balance  of  some  ;^io,ooo  remaining  from 
the  league  relief  funds  to  the  support  of  evicted  families,  j 
It  was  relief  work  in  another  and  a  more  laudable  form  than 
that  of  mere  charity,  and  though  this  allocation  of  this  money 
was  severely  criticised  by  enemies  of  the  league,  then  and 
afterwards,  no  friend  or  subscriber  to  the  fund  in  America 
ever  raised  a  word  of  objection  to  the  course  pursued.  The 
first  use  made  of  the  money  was  to  help  to  build  shelter  for 
evicted  families  at  Rosscahill,  in  Connemara,  and  this  novel 
expenditure  of  league  moneys  became  quite  common  in  the 
fiercer  phases  of  the  anti-rent  conflict  in  1881-82. 

And  now  commenced  the  sure  sign  of  coming  state  prosecu-    ■ 
tions  or  coercion.      Irish  judges  going  on  circuit  began  their 
political  harangues  from  the  bench  under  cover  of  addresses 

263 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

to  the  members  of  grand  juries.  This  has  been  a  notorious 
practice  of  these  ermined  partisans  at  all  times  of  popular 
excitement.  It  was  a  glaring  misuse  of  their  judicial  positions 
in  the  service  of  the  landlord  class,  who,  of  course,  ruled  the 
country  and  controlled  the  patronage  of  its  administration. 
All  these  judges  were  mere  promoted  henchmen  of  the  gov- 
erning order,  and  they  saw  with  alarm  the  growth  of  an  organ- 
ization and  a  parliamentary  party  which  were  a  menace  to 
the  state  of  things  it  was  their  direct  interest  to  uphold.  And 
so  the  chorus  of  the  Castle-hacks  was  voiced  at  every  assize, 
and  was  re-echoed  by  the  landlord  grand  jurors  in  strongly 
worded  resolutions  calling  upon  the  government  for  excep- 
tional powers  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property — namely, 
rent. 

Mr.  Forster  had  not  lost  his  head  or  temper  as  yet.  He 
was,  on  the  contrary,  indignant  at  the  defeat  of  his  peace- 
making Compensation  for  Disturbance  Bill  by  the  House  of 
Lords.  His  able  biographer,  writing  of  the  annoyance  this 
caused  him,  says:  "The  rejection  of  the  bill  moved  him  most 
deeply.  He  saw  in  it  the  beginning  of  the  worst  time  the 
English  government  had  ever  had  in  Ireland;  he  believed 
firmly  that  the  landlord  interest  in  rejecting  this  measure  had 
inflicted  an  irreparable  wrong  upon  their  own  order,  while 
they  had  at  the  same  time  afforded  the  opponents  of  Enghsh 
rule  an  excuse  for  a  violent  resistance  to  the  law.  For  the 
rest  of  his  life  he  continued  to  speak  with  mingled  indignation 
and  impatience  of  the  conduct  of  the  House  of  Lords  in 
throwing  out  this  bill."  ^ 

He  had,  previous  to  this  action  of  the  Lords,  succeeded  in 
inducing  Mr.  Gladstone  to  appoint  a  small  royal  commission 
to  inquire  into  the  working  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870,  and  it 
is  more  than  likely  that  this  proposal  had  something  to  do 
with  the  ignominious  rejection  of  the  chief  secretary's  bill  by 
the  landlord  chamber.  This  commission  consisted  of  Lord 
Bessborough,  chairman,  The  O'Conor  Don,  Mr.  Kavanagh,  of 
Borris,  Baron  Dowse,  and  Mr.  William  Shaw,  M.P.  for  Cork, 
and  former  leader  of  the  Home-Rule  party.  The  report  of 
this  body  may  be  anticipated  here  in  the  matter  of  time, 
in  order  to  say  that  it  justified  the  existence  of  the  Land- 
League  movement  in  its  facts  and  findings,  and  it  was  a 
factor  along  with,  only  very  much  after,  the  warfare  of  the 
league  in  forcing  Mr.  Gladstone  to  introduce  the  greatest 
measure  of  land  reform  ever  proposed  or  passed  in  the  Im- 
perial Parliament — the  Land  Act  of  1881. 

'  Wemyss  Reid,  Life  of  W.  E.  Forster,  p.  455. 
264 


FRIENDS    AND    FOES 

During  a  debate  on  the  Irish  estimates  near  the  end  of  the 
session  (1880),  the  conduct  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary 
at  evictions  and  in  dealing  with  angry  crowds  was  severely 
criticised  and  condemned  by  the  Irish  members.  The  chief 
secretary  defended  the  assailed  military  police,  but  he  rec- 
ognized that  a  force  which  was  compelled  to  perform  very  un- 
popular duties,  and  to  protect  evictions  and  process-servers 
at  close  quarters  with  excited  people,  should  not  be  tempted 
to  fire  ball-cartridge.  He  therefore  promised  to  have  buck- 
shot served  out  to  the  constabulary  instead  of  the  deadlier 
missile  in  future.  His  Irish  adversaries  seized  upon  the  word 
at  once.  It  had  scarcely  fallen  from  his  lips  when  "Buck- 
shot" Forster  was  shouted  at  him  across  the  floor  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  It  was  to  him  an  unhappy  epithet,  and 
he  felt  its  subsequent  and  constant  application  to  him  very 
keenly  until  the  end  of  his  career. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

"HOLD    THE    HARVEST  !"  — STORY     OF    CAPTAIN 

BOYCOTT 

The  harvest  of  1880  was  an  excellent  one.  The  new 
potato  and  other  seed  provided  for  the  poorer  class  of  West- 
ern tenants  by  the  Land  League,  Marlborough,  and  other  re- 
lief committees  in  the  spring  had  fructified  abundantly  under 
a  generous  summer  sun,  and  all  looked  well  in  August  for  a 
bountiful  yield.  There  was,  however,  the  perennial  blight 
of  landlordism  to  reckon  with,  no  matter  what  gentle  rains 
or  genial  skies  might  do  to  bless  with  plenty  the  labor  of  the 
land.  The  rent  was  to  be  paid,  just  as  if  it  was  the  landlord 
and  not  the  generous  people  of  America  and  of  Great  Britain 
who  had  provided  the  means  for  the  spring  sowing.  There 
arose  a  cry  in  the  West  against  this;  perhaps  not  a  strictly 
justifiable  cry,  under  all  the  circumstances,  in  view  of  the 
fact  that  whatever  the  Land  League  might  say  or  political 
economy  might  declare  the  law  entitled  the  owner  of  the 
soil  to  the  rent.  Legally  this  was  so,  but  the  popular  feeling 
was  that  the  harvest  of  this  year  in  the  distressed  areas  was 
an  exception  to  the  run  of  harvests  and  ought  not  to  go  in 
payment  of  rent.  Fifteen  meetings  were  held  on  August 
15th,  in  various  parts  of  the  country.  Right  or  wrong,  the 
cry  of  "Hold  the  Harvest!"  rang  out  at  those  gatherings 
which  were  held  in  the  West,  and  became  a  counter  and 
defiant  reply  to  the  resolutions  of  landlords'  reunions,  grand- 
jury  petitions,  and  judges'  harangues  demanding  coercive 
laws  from  the  government  to  put  down  the  league  movement. 
It  was  a  fighting  cry,  and  in  response  to  its  spirit  there 
came  across  the  Atlantic  from  the  pen  of  Miss  Fanny  Parnell 
the  following  rousing  appeal  to  the  anti-renters: 

"COERCION  — HOLD    THE    RENT! 

"Keep  the  law,  oh,  keep  it  well — -keep  it  as  your  rulers  do; 
Be  not  righteous  overinuch — -when  they  break  it,  so  can  you! 
As  they  rend  their  pledge  and  bond,  rend  you,  too,  their  legal  thongs; 
When    they    crush    your   chartered    rights,    tread    you    down    your 
chartered  wrongs. 

266 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

Help  them  on  and  help  them  aye,  help  them  as  true  brethren  should, 

boys; 
All  that's  right  and  good  for  them,  sure  for  you  it's  right  and  good, 
boys. 

"Hold  the  rents  and  hold  the  crops,  boys; 
Pass  the  word  from  town  to  town; 
Pull  away  the  props,  boys, 
So  you'll  pull  Coercion  down  I 

"Ah,  for  you  they'll  tear  and  toss  Magna  Charta  to  the  wind: 
Law  of  men,  nor  law  of  God,  e'er  their  throttling  fingers  bind. 
Hear  their  ragings!  as  of  old,  when  the  just  Judge  found  no  flaw, 
'Whom  the  law  condemneth  not,  he  shall  perish  without  law!' 
Hold  your  peace  and  hold  your  hands — not  a  finger  on  them  lay, 

boys! 
Let  the  pike  and  rifle  stand — we  have  found  a  better  way,  boys. 

"  Hold  the  rents  and  hold  the  crops,  boys,  etc. 

"Let  them  try  once  more  the  plan,  erst  so  potent  in  its  spells — 
Let  them  fill  their  prison  pens,  let  them  fill  their  torture  cells, 
'Squelch  you,  ay,  by  Heav'n,  like  rats,  crawling  in  the  mammoth's 

way!' ' 
Might  is  Right  and  Force  is  God — well  the  lesson  they  have  taught, 

boys! 
Wait!  you'll  pay  them  back  anon,  in  the  coin  their  hands  have 

wrought,  boys. 

"  Hold  the  rents  and  hold  the  crops,  boys,  etc. 

"While  one  brave  heart  gasps  unheard,  stifled  'neath  their  panther 
.  grip. 
While  one  woman's  scalding  tears,  vainly  for  the  lost  one  drip, 
While  one  jail  a  victim  holds,  while  one  hearthstone  mourns  a  gap. 
Up  and  shout  the  shibboleth  that  can  make  the  fetters  snap! 
Never  heed  the  perjured  Whig,  never  heed  for  cant  or  curse,  boys; 
No  Coercion  e'er  coerced  better  than  an  empty  ptu-se,  boys! 

"  Hold  the  rents  and  hold  the  crops,  boys,  etc. 

— Fanny  Parnell." 

Mr.  James  Redpath  returned  to  Ireland  from  New  York  in 
September  at  my  request.  He  came  "to  look  on"  in  behalf 
of  the  American  league.  On  the  14th  of  that  month  two 
thousand  leaguers  reaped  the  crops  on  two  evicted  farms  near 
Claremorris,  County  Mayo,  in  defiance  of  police  opposition, 
and  removed  the  produce  from  reach  of  the  landlord.  Mr. 
Redpath  was  present  and  made  the  following  speech : 

"I  have  lectured  in  the  United  States  and  raised  money 
for  the  starving  people  of  Ireland,  and  everywhere.  I  took 
care  to  mention  that  the  English  government  was  dastardly 

•  Thomas  Carlyle's  famous  saying. 
267 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

enough  to  attempt  to  overawe  the  people,  and  I  added  that 
they  did  not  overawe  them.  I  did  not  come  here  to-day 
to  speak,  but  to  see  after  our  American  mortgages.  We 
Americans  are  a  practical  people,  and  when  we  give  money 
we  like  to  see  what  is  done  with  it.  If  the  Irish  people  give 
that  money  to  the  landlords  a  blight  upon  the  Irish  crop  of 
children  would  be  the  best  thing  for  Ireland.  I  despise 
the  Irishmen  who  mention  fair  rents  and  long  leases.  The 
American  people  will  stand  by  you  if  you  assert  your  rights. 
We  don't  think  a  so-called  landlord  has  any  right  to  hunt 
away  men  and  place  cattle  in  their  stead.  We  were  told  but 
did  not  believe  that  the  money  America  sent  you  would 
be  paid  to  landlords  for  rent.  We  did  not  send  it  for  that 
purpose.  Don't  hope  for  peace  nor  want  it  till  every  man 
is  his  own  landlord  and  tenant. 

"If  a  man  is  evicted,  don't  let  another  man  take  his  farm. 
If  he  is  so  mean  as  to  take  it  in  spite  of  your  protest,  don't 
shoot  him,  but  don't  speak  to  him  or  his  children — have 
nothing  to  do  with  him  or  say  to  him.  Don't  deal  with  the 
grocery  man  that  will  sell  him  provisions.  Keep  from 
him  as  if  he  had  the  small-pox.  Let  him  feel  and  know  your 
avoidance  of  him,  and  why,  and  he'll  have  to  move.  If  the 
landlord  himself  takes  the  farm,  don't  work  for  him.  Don't 
sow  it  or  reap  it  for  him  for  any  wages  he  may  offer.  Con- 
stables can't  interfere.  If  you  want  to  kill  evictions  don't 
take  the  land  from  which  a  tenant  is  evicted.  Let  the  other 
tenants  refuse  to  pay  rent  until  he  is  reinstated. 

"  If  he  is  not  sent  back,  then  let  the  Land  League  know  it. 
Americans  don't  want  the  money  they  sent  to  go  to  the  land- 
lords. Stand  together.  The  English  government  can  evict  one 
or  two,  but  they  cannot  evict  the  whole  of  Ireland.  Don't 
take  another's  farm  when  evicted — don't  work  for  the  man 
who  does  take  it,  and  you  kill  landlordism.  Americans  want 
you  to  show  that  the  people  of  Ireland  own  Ireland — as  they 
do  by  right  and  can  by  fact.  I  want  you  to  pledge  yourselves 
to  do  it  without  compromise  at  all." 

On  the  19th  of  the  month  General  W.  S.  Rosecrans,  of 
civil-war  fame,  cabled  this  message  to  the  Land  League, 
from  a  great  gathering  which  was  addressed  by  me  in  San 
Francisco : 

"A  hundred  thousand  people  here  ask  you  to  hold  the 
harvest." 

Before  these  events  had  occurred  the  deed  of  blood  in 
Roscommon  already  described  had  been  followed  by  blood- 
shed in  other  places.  A  land-bailiff  named  Feerick  had  been 
shot  in  broad  daylight,  near  Ballinrobe,  County  Mayo.     A 

268 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!'* 

landlord  in  the  same  county  named  Lewin  was  fired  at  but  not 
hit.  Near  New  Ross,  in  the  peaceful  county  of  Wexford,  a 
landlord  named  Boyd  was  also  fired  at  and  wounded,  while  his 
son,  who  was  riding  with  him  at  the  time,  was  killed.  These 
crimes  enraged  the  landlord  press  and  partisans,  and  clamors 
for  coercion  resounded  on  all  sides.  It  was  the  old,  sad,  and 
bad  story  for  the  thousandth  time  repeated — war  is  necessarily 
provocative  of  warfare  of  some  kind.  A  war  upon  the  homes 
of  a  people  is  inevitably  and  rightly  responded  to  when  and 
where  there  is  no  rational  law  to  step  in  to  arbitrate  or  to 
modify  passion,  or  to  protect  the  best  interests  of  the  state 
in  promoting  the  tranquillity  of  the  people.  The  shriekers 
for  coercion  forgot  this  lesson  of  human  nature  and  of  agrarian 
history,  and  lent  no  ears  to  the  words  of  John  Bright,  who 
condemned  in  August  the  conduct  of  the  House  of  Land- 
lords in  defeating  Mr.  Forster's  well-meant  Compensation  for 
Disturbance  Bill,  when  he  spoke  these  true  and  warning 
words : 

"It  appeared  that  while  the  House  of  Commons  was  en- 
deavoring to  conciliate  Ireland  the  House  of  Lords  was  de- 
termined to  make  a  declaration  of  war  on  the  Irish  people." 

Eviction  has  ever  been  the  fruitful  source  of  agrarian  murder 
in  Ireland,  and,  as  the  landlords  were  resolved  to  rely  upon 
this  kind  of  warfare  rather  than  upon  Mr.  Gladstone's  and  Mr. 
Forster's  suggested  compromise,  they  were  the  direct  insti- 
gators of  the  savage  conflict  which  was  again  to  mark  with 
traces  of  blood  the  tragic  pathway  leading  to  Irish  land  re- 
form. 

On  the  close  of  the  short  and  first  session  of  the  new  Par- 
liament, Mr.  Parnell  and  several  of  his  new  parhamentary 
recruits  crossed  at  once  to  Ireland  and  flung  themselves  into 
the  campaign  which  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan,  Mr.  Kettle,  Mr. 
John  Ferguson,  Matt  Harris,  Boyton,  and  local  leaders^had 
carried  on  during  the  summer  against  evictions.  Mr.  John_ 
Dillon  had  arrived  earlier  and  had  entered,  with  his  intense 
ardor,  into  the  fight.  At  a  large  meeting  in  Kildare  he 
urged  young  men  to  come  to  league  demonstrations  "in 
military  style,"  and  broadly  hinted  at  a  no-rent  strike  all 
along  the  line  if  evictions  were  persisted  in  by  the  landlords. 
This  speech  excited  great  indignation  among  the  opponents 
of  the  league,  and  cries  for  a  prosecution  were  raised  in  loyalist 
circles. 

Mr.  Parnell's  first  pronouncement  in  the  autumn  was  to  his 
constituents  in  Cork  City.  His  reception  exceeded  in  num- 
bers and  enthusiasm  any  previous  popular  tribute  to  his  lead- 
ership.    Among  other  incidents  this  curious  occurrence  mark- 

269 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ed  his  entry  into  the  city:  The  local  Fenians,  jealous  of  the 
local  Land-Leaguers,  insisted  upon  being  Parnell's  escort  into 
Cork,  and  forcibly  compelled  the  moral-force  men  to  stand 
aside.  Both  here  and  subsequently  at  Ennis  Mr.  Parnell  took 
the  line  of  Messrs.  Dillon  and  Brennan,  and  warned  the  land- 
lords and  government  that  a  strike  against  rent  would  be  a 
possible  lex  talionis  to  a  crusade  of  evictions.  The  Ennis 
speech  was  subsequently  held  by  his  enemies  to  be  the  starting 
of  the  "boycotting"  which  proved  to  be  the  moral-force  ar- 
tillery of  the  league  warfare  afterwards.  This  was  not  so. 
The  programme  adopted  at  the  convention  of  the  Mayo  Land 
League,  in  August,  1879,  reproduced  in  a  previous  chapter, 
clearly  defined  this  policy  of  social  ostracisin  against  grabbers 
and  others  who  should  help  the  landlords  in  the  combat  the 
league  was  to  wage  against  their  system.  Dr.  Croke's  letter 
to  Gavan  Duffy  in  1852  anticipated  all  later  plans  of  the  same 
kind.  Mr.  James  Redpath's  speech,  already  quoted,  also 
ante-dated  Mr.  Parnell's  Ennis  deliverance,  while,  as  will  be 
shown  shortly,  the  friend  of  the  immortal  John  Brown  was 
part  inventor  of  the  word  which  has  since  found  its  way  from 
its  birth  in  a  Mayo  village  into  every  language  and  dictionary 
in  the  civilized  world. 

The  Ennis  speech  was  preceded  by  the  startling  murder  of 
Lord  Montmorres  near  Clonbur,  on  the  borders  of  Galway 

(^County.  He  was  a  small  landlord  and  a  local  magistrate,  and 
had  not  what  could  be  termed  an  obnoxious  reputation  among 
his  neighbors.  His  assassination  was  a  very  cold-blooded 
crime  and  was  carried  out  in  daylight.  He  had  attended  a 
meeting  of  landlords  and  magistrates  at  which  a  resolution 

„was  passed  calling  on  the  government  to  resort  to  exceptional 
laws  so  as  to  cope  with  the  anti-rent  agitation.  His  murder 
created  a  great  sensation,  and,  being  followed  by  so  extreme 
a  deliverance  from  the  Irish  leader,  and  by  a  dozen  great 
meetings  on  a  single  Sunday  in  October,  it  provoked  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Froude  to  The  Times  predicting  civil  war,  and  in- 
duced Mr.  Forster  to  decide  upon  the  prosecution  of  the  whole 
Land-League  executive  for  seditious  conspiracy. 

Once  again  the  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  Dr.  McCabe, 

;  raised  his  voice  in  unison  with  the  other  enemies  of  the  league 
in  the  usual  warnings  and  censures.  These  attacks  were  no 
longer  of  any  account.  They  neither  helped  the  Castle  nor 
injured  the  national  organization.  The  Archbishop  of  Cashel 
had  dealt  with  this  miserable  opposition  in  vigorous  words 
and  manly  protest,  while  patriotic  clergymen  in  every  prov- 
ince and  county  were  now  rallying  to  the  support  of  the 
movement  which  was  rapidly  creating  a  world-Wide  combina- 

270 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

tion  behind  a  cause  that  was  attracting  an  attention  equally 
wide-spread.  This  impotent  antagonism  is  only  referred  to 
again  on  account  of  its  coincidence  with  the  threatened  state 
prosecution.  As  in  the  case  of  the  Sligo  trials,  Dr.  McCabe 
did  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  archbishopric  of  Dublin  the 
bad  service  of  linking  them,  as  far  as  his  conduct  could  do  so, 
with  the  enemies  of  the  national  movement. 

Fifteen  meetings  were  held  simultaneously  on  Sunday, 
October  17th,  at  which  Parnell,  Dillon,  Sexton,  T.  P.  O'Con- 
nor, Brennan,  T.  D.  Sullivan,  James  O'Kelly,  and  other  lead- 
ing leaguers  made  speeches  on  fighting  lines.  The  threatened 
prosecutions  were  derided,  in  so  far  as  it  was  hoped  by  Mr. 
Forster  to  intimidate,  in  this  way,  his  chief  nationalist  oppo- 
nents. In  his  Galway  utterance,  on  October  24th,  Mr.  Par- 
nell issued  a  challenge  to  the  government  in  the  form  of  a 
threat.  His  words  were  a  clarion  call  to  the  forces  rapidly 
forming  behind  the  league  at  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  He 
had  seen  and  learned  what  Ireland  could  command  among 
those  whom  landlordism  had  driven  to  America,  and  in  view 
of  the  coming  storm  he  appealed  to  the  auxiliaries  beyond  the 
seas  as  follows: 

"  I  pass  from  this  subject  of  our  countrymen  abroad  with  this 
remark — that  I  feel  convinced  that  if  you  ever  call  upon  them 
in  another  field  and  in  another  way  for  help,  and  if  you  can 
show  them  that  there  is  a  fair  and  good  chance  of  success,  that 
you  will  have  their  assistance — their  trained  and  organized 
assistance  for  the  purpose  of  breaking  the  yoke  which  encir- 
cles you,  just  in  the  same  way  as  you  won  that  assistance 
last  winter  to  save  you  from  famine.  We  have  got  the  Liberal 
government  to  thank  for  the  present  state  of  affairs.  They 
cannot  suspend  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act  without  an  act  of  Par- 
liament, and  they  can't  pass  a  coercion  act  without  an  act  of 
Parliament,  and  so  long  as  we  are  able  to  stand  in  Parliament 
I  will  undertake  to  say  they  will  pass  neither  one  nor  the  other. 
If  they  manage  in  any  way  to  convict  the  leaders  of  the  Irish 
parliamentary  party,  then,  I  say,  we  shall  resign  our  seats 
into  the  hands  of  our  constituencies,  as  a  solemn  and  sacred 
duty,  to  elect  men  in  our  place  who  will  carry  on  our  work  and 
who  will  offer  just  as  stern  a  front  in  the  House  of  Commons  to 
coercion."  ^ 

Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  who  had  been  a  strenuous  worker  in  the 
league  since  his  return  from  America,  had  a  small  state  prose- 
cution to  himself  in  County  Cork  before  the  trial  of  the  ma- 
jority of  the  league   executive   began   in    Dublin.     He   was 

•  Freeman's  Journal,  October  25,   1880. 
271 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

charged  with  intimidating  a  land-grabber.  His  plea  amount- 
ed to  a  proof  of  "innocence,"  on  the  ground,  as  fearlessly 
urged  by  himself,  that  he  was  only  too  guilty  of  a  meritorious 
action.  He  was  admitted  to  bail,  and  before  the  trial  took 
place  the  borough  of  Wexford  elected  him  to  the  House  of 
Commons  without  opposition.  It  was  in  this  way  that  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  many  noted  parliamentary  careers 
associated  with  the  league  movement  and  the  Parnell  leader- 
ship began. 

The  indictment  of  the  prosecuted  executive  members  was 
comprised  in  nineteen  counts,  and  the  traversers  were  charged 
with  conspiracy :  To  prevent  the  payment  of  rent ;  to  resist  the 
serving  of  processes  of  ejectment;  to  prevent  persons  from 
taking  farms  from  which  others  were  evicted,  and  to  excite 
ill-will  between  different  classes  of  her  Majesty's  subjects  in 
Ireland. 

Those  included  in  the  prosecution  were:  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr. 
John  Dillon,  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan,  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  Mr. 
J.  G.  Biggar,  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton,  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan,  and 
Mr.  Matt  Harris,  members  of  the  league  executive,  with 
Mr.  Malachi  O'Sullivan,  assistant  league  secretary;  Mr. 
Michael  Boyton,  organizer;  Mr.  J.  W.  Walshe,  of  Balla  (one 
of  the  organizers  of  the  Irishtown  meeting  and  subsequently 
league  organizer  in  Australia);  Mr.  Gordon,  Mr.  J.  W.  Nally, 
and  Mr.  P.  J.  Sheridan,  three  very  active  workers  in  the 
Connaught  branch  of  the  league  movement. 

The  indictment,  as  summarized  above,  was  true  in  the 
sense  of  Tim  Healy's  guilt  in  frightening  the  land-grabber. 
There  could  be  no  denying  the  charge.  The  case  for  the 
defence  was  that  bad  laws  had  to  be  broken  in  order  that 
good  ones  should  take  their  place,  and  that  those  who  demon- 
strated the  existence  of  sources  of  poverty,  discontent,  and 
crime,  in  a  public  and  constitutional  manner,  were  serving 
the  best  interests  of  society  in  showing  the  necessity  for 
legislative  remedies  which  alone  could  eradicate  the  evils  that 
rendered  such  agitation  urgent  and  imperious. 

The  main  object  of  Mr.  Forster  in  ordering  the  prosecution 
was  to  convict  the  Land  League,  as  an  organization,  of 
illegality,  in  work  and  object,  so  as  to  justify  its  suppression. 
To  this  end  the  charge  was  to  be  one  of  seditious  conspiracy. 
Under  this  infamously  unfair  and  partisan  law  Mr.  Parnell 
and  every  member  of  the  league  executive  could  be  held  to  be 
legally  responsible  for  the  wild  and  irresponsible  harangues 
of  "Scrab"  Nally,  and  for  every  fooHsh  expression  used  by 
any  and  every  individual  of  an  organization  embracing  tens 
of  thousands  of  members.     However,  the  trial  was  to  be  by 

272 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

jury  in  Dublin;  witnesses  in  any  number  could  be  sum- 
moned by  the  defence,  and  there  was  in  these  circumstances 
another  opportunity,  but  a  much  greater  one  than  that 
of  the  Sligo  trials,  for  turning  a  state  prosecution  into  a 
trial  of  landlordism  before  the  tribunal  of  pubHc  opinion. 
Mr.  Brennan,  the  league  secretary,  outlined  the  plans  of  the 
traversers  in  an  interview  with  an  American  reporter  as 
follows : 

Correspondent.  "  If  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  leaders  of 
the  league  are  imprisoned,  don't  you  think  it  will  interfere 
with  the  working  of  the  land  movement?" 

Mr.  Brennan.  "Not  in  the  least.  We  have  already  made 
arrangements,  in  case  the  members  of  the  present  executive 
committee  are  sent  to  prison,  for  other  men  to  be  ready  to 
take  their  places,  so  that  the  movement  will  be  carried  on 
with  even  more  vigor." 

Correspondent.  "But  will  not  convictions  modify  the  pro- 
posals of  Land-Leaguers?" 

Mr.  Brennan.  "On  the  contrary.  I  believe  the  country  is 
far  in  advance  of  the  men  who  have  been  controlling  the 
movement,  and  that  those  whom  the  country  will  send  to 
take  our  places  will  be  more  determined  enemies  of  land- 
lordism than  any  who  have  yet  appeared  in  Ireland." 

Correspondent.  "Do  you  anticipate  any  disturbance  in  the 
country  in  case  of  convictions?" 

Mr.  Brennan.  "  No,  I  don't  anticipate  any  disturbance,  but 
I  know  that  in  most  of  our  thoroughly  organized  districts 
the  people  will  strike  against  the  payment  of  any  rent." 

Correspondent.  "Have  you  made  any  arrangements  for 
legal  defence  at  the  trials?" 

Mr.  Brennan.  "Yes;  but  we  found  when  we  went  to  look 
for  counsel  that  the  Crown  had  nearly  all  the  principal  men 
of  the  Irish  bar  engaged." 

Correspondent.  "Do  you  think  the  trials  will  last  long?" 

Mr.  Brennan.  "We  propose  turning  them  into  a  vast 
commission  to  receive  evidence  on  the  land  laws,  and  thus 
expose  the  conduct  of  the  Irish  landlords  to  the  world.  We 
will  bring  tenant-farmers  from  all  parts  of  the  country  to 
Dublin  as  witnesses,  and  perhaps  prolong  the  trials  for  six 
months." 

The  reply  of  the  country  to  the  coup  of  the  Castle  was  to 
hold  thirty  large  public  meetings  within  a  week  after  the 
prosecutions  were  determined  upon  and  to  add  fifty  branches 
of  the  league  to  the  organization.  A  defence  fund  was  also 
started,  and  in  a  short  time  it  was  evident  that  Mr.  Forster, 
instead  of  impeding  in  any  way  the  work  which  he  was  eager 
,8  273 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

to  arrest,  was  unconsciously  lending  enormous  help  to  the 
ultimate  aim  of  his  political  foes. 

While  the  Castle  and  the  league  were  again  confronting  each 
other  for  a  deadly  duel,  the  defiant  organization  had  pro- 
duced a  condition  of  things  in  a  remote  region  of  Mayo  which 
was  destined  to  add  a  word  of  wide  significance  to  the  diction- 
aries of  the  world  and  a  weapon  of  defence  to  the  moral-force 
armory  of  the  laboring  masses  wherever  organized.  This 
was  the  combat  with  Captain  Boycott  at  Lough  Mask. 

THE    WORD     'BOYCOTT" 

There  has  been  much  dispute  from  time  to  time  during  the 
past  twenty  years  or  more  as  to  who  coined  the  word  which 
has  achieved  within  that  time  a  universal  adoption  and  im- 
portance. The  following  facts  will  settle  the  point  for  good. 
James  Redpath  was  the  virtual  but  Father  John  O'Malley, 
P.P.,  of  The  Neale,  County  Mayo  (both  now  dead),  was  the  act- 
ual inventor  of  the  word.  Redpath  relates  the  story  as  follows : 
"The  word  was  invented  by  Father  John  O'Malley  about 
three  days  after  the  decree  of  social  excommunication  was 
issued  against  Boycott.  Up  to  that  time  it  had  been  called 
sometimes  moral  and  sometimes  social  excommunication  when 
ostracism  was  applied  to  a  land-grabber.  I  was  dining  with 
Father  John,  at  the  presbytery  of  The  Neale,  and  he  asked 
me  why  I  was  not  eating. 

"I  said,  'I  am  bothered  about  a  word.' 
"'What  is  it?'  asked  Father  John. 

"'Well,'  I  said,  'when  the  people  ostracise  a  grabber  we 
call  it  social  excommunication,  but  we  ought  to  have  an 
entirely  different  word  to  signify  ostracism  applied  to  a 
landlord  or  agent  like  Boycott.  Ostracism  won't  do — the 
peasantry  would  not  know  the  meaning  of  the  word — and  I 
can't  think  of  any  other.' 

"'No,'  said  Father  John,  'ostracism  wouldn't  do.' 
"He  looked  down,  tapped  his  big  forehead,  and  said: 
"  '  How  would  it  do  to  call  it  "  Boycott  him  "?' 
"I  was  delighted,   and  said,   'Tell  your  people  to  call  it 
"Boycotting,"    and    when    the    reporters    come    down    from 
Dublin  and  London  they  will  hear  the  word.     I  am  going  to 
Dublin,  and   I  will  ask  the  young  orators  of  the  league  to 
give  it  that  name.     I  will  use  it  in  my  correspondence  with 
the  American  press,  and  between  us  we  will  make  it  as  famous 
as  the  word  "Lynching"  is  in  the  United  States.'"* 

^  Talks  About  Ireland  (Kennedy,  publisher,  New  York,  1881),  pp. 
81,  82. 

274 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

The  word  has  since  been  adopted  in  other  languages.  There 
is  in  French  "boycotter,"  in  Dutch  "boycotten,"  the  German 
"boycottiren,"  and  the  Russian  "boikottirovat." 

Father  John  O'Malley  was  not  alone  the  neologist  of  an 
immortal  term,  he  was  the  chief  organizer  of  the  struggle  that 
brought  Captain  Boycott  to  his  knees,  and  which  won  a 
noted  victory  for  the  Land  League.  He  was  the  parish  priest 
of  a  small  village  called  The  Neale,  between  Ballinrobe  and 
Cong,  in  the  County  Mayo,  and  deservedly  enjoyed  great 
popularity  for  his  kindly  nature,  his  devotion  to  the  poor,  and 
jovial  disposition.  No  good  cause  could  fail  in  winning  his 
whole-hearted  advocacy,  while  he  was  one  with  the  people 
in  all  their  trials  and  hopes,  a  loyal  counsellor  and  a  faithful 
friend. 

Captain  Boycott,  an  Englishman,  resided  at  Lough  Mask 
House  as  agent  for  Lord  Erne,  a  landlord  who  owned  some 
of  the  land  over  which  Father  John's  parish  extended.  The 
captain  had  been  Lord  Erne's  land  agent  for  some  fifteen 
years,  and  was  considered  a  domineering  individual — very 
exacting  in  his  dealings  with  tenants  and  workers,  and  devoid 
of  all  sympathy  towards  the  people  generally.  He  farmed  a 
considerable  quantity  of  land  on  the  estate  managed  by  him, 
and  employed  a  number  of  laborers  in  sowing  and  in  harvest 
time.  With  these  the  captain  had  a  dispute  about  wages 
in  the  summer  months,  and  discovering  also  that  they  had 
changed  in  their  manner — were  more  independent  and  less 
obsequious,  owing,  of  course,  to  the  "demoralizing"  Land 
League — they  were  dismissed.  This  began  the  conflict  be- 
tween him  and  the  surrounding  community.  No  other  la- 
borers would  be  allowed  to  work  for  him.  The  league  and 
Father  John  secured  this. 

It  was  now  the  captain's  turn  to  strike  back.  He  was  a 
courageous  and  resourceful  man,  and  fought  his  corner  with 
the  true  spirit  of  a  plucky  Englishman.  He  resolved,  as  a 
land  agent,  to  hit  back  at  those  who  had  interfered  with  his 
workmen.  He  did  this  by  refusing  to  listen  to  demands  for 
abatement  of  rents  when  the  tenants,  following  the  general 
example,  put  before  him  the  claims  for  concession  based  upon 
the  previous  bad  seasons.  The  rents  must  be  paid  when  due 
or  out  the  tenants  should  go.  To  this  stand  an  equally  reso- 
lute reply  was  made — without  a  reduction  in  the  rent,  nothing 
at  all  should  be  paid.     And  thus  the  issue  was  knit. 

Processes  of  ejectment  were  obtained  in  due  course  from 
the  court,  but  no  one  could  be  got  to  serve  them.  The  law 
was  made  powerless  where  agents  could  not  be  got  to  execute 
its  decrees.     The  league  now  became  the  aggressor.     It  car- 

275 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ried  the  war  into  the  captain's  own  country.  The  local  black- 
smith refused  to  shoe  any  of  his  horses ;  the  herds  who  looked 
after  his  cattle  left  him;  the  baker  in  the  nearest  town  re- 
fused to  serve  Lough  Mask  House  with  bread;  the  postman 
most  reluctantly  delivered  his  letters,  and,  finally,  all  his  do- 
mestic servants  declared  they  could  no  longer  stay — "the 
people  were  ag'inst  it."  To  make  matters  worse,  his  root  and 
other  crops  were  ripe  for  gathering.  The  harvest  had  been 
plentiful,  but  there  were  no  hands  to  reap  it.  Not  a  soul  in 
the  county  could  be  got  for  love  or  money  to  do  an  hour's 
work  for  the  man  who  had  undertaken  the  big  job  of  fighting 
the  Land  League.  Hemmed  in  on  all  sides,  protected  by 
police  day  and  night,  in  his  walks  and  in  his  home  (though  not 
a  soul  dreamed  of  doing  him  any  physical  harm),  the  resolute 
old  man  wrote  to  the  London  press  depicting  his  position  and 
representing  himself  as  being  in  the  midst  of  a  community  of 
Irish  rebels,  a  besieged,  injured,  and  insulted  Englishman. 

England  resounded  with  cries  of  indignation.  Gentle  ladies 
of  the  Boycott  household  were  represented  in  the  picture 
papers  of  London  as  working  in  the  garden  under  the  protec- 
tion of  armed  police,  while  stories  of  visits  paid  to  the  neigh- 
boring cottages — those  of  the  tenants  on  the  estate — by  these 
educated  ladies,  seeking  in  vain  for  household  help,  went  the 
round  of  the  British  press,  and  created  intense  feeling  against 
the  "barbarous"  Irish  who  had  taken  leave  of  their  human- 
ity under  the  vile  teachings  of  the  Land  League.  The  gov- 
ernment was  denounced  for  not  grappling  with  these  "local 
tyrants,"  while  students  in  English  colleges  sent  messages  of 
sympathy  and  of  encouragement  to  Lough  Mask  House. 
But  Captain  Boycott,  the  land  agent  of  the  landlord,  the  Earl 
of  Erne,  and  the  former  "master"  of  the  tenants  under  his 
power,  was  reduced  to  a  condition  of  absolute  helplessness  by 
the  combination  of  the  very  people  who  had  trembled  before 
him  and  had  dreaded  his  very  frown  only  two  short  years 
before.     And  yet  they  only  left  him  severely  alone. 

At  last  outside  help  was  forthcoming.  Orange  laborers  in 
Ulster  were  organized  to  rescue  the  captain's  crops  before  the 
December  frosts  should  destroy  them  in  the  ground.  Fifty  of 
these  volunteers,  under  the  lead  of  a  Mr.  Goddard,  were  to 
proceed  to  Lough  Mask  farm  under  a  powerful  escort  of  sol- 
diers. It  was  to  be  an  invasion  of  the  league  territory.  An 
armed  force  was  to  save  the  land  agent's  potatoes  from  the 
perils  of  the  approaching  winter. 

The  fifty  volunteer  Orange  laborers  from  Ulster  were  es- 
corted by  a  force  of  two  thousand  troops  to  Claremorris,  in 
Mayo,  where  the  railway  journey  ended,  and  the  tramp  to 

276 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

Lough  Mask  House,  over  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles,  was  to 
begin.  The  league  resorted  to  wise  tactics  under  this  direct 
provocation  to  disorder.  A  manifesto  was  issued  calling  on 
the  people  of  Mayo  to  follow  the  same  course  adopted  towards 
Captain  Boycott — to  let  the  Orangemen  and  soldiers  severely 
alone.  They  were  not  to  be  hooted  or  molested  or — supplied 
with  anything.  Cars  were  not  to  be  let  or  lent  for  their  use, 
nor  food  of  any  kind  to  be  given  or  sold  to  them.  They  were 
to  be  looked  at  and  laughed  at;  that  was  all.  This  advice 
was  implicitl}^  obeyed.  "The  Lough  Mask  Expedition,"  as 
it  was  called,  was  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  a  Connaught 
rainy  season,  and  never  in  all  the  climatic  records  of  that  prov- 
ince did  the  Celtic  Pluvius  indulge  more  copiously  in  a  pitiless 
downpour  than  during  "the  famous  diggin'  of  Boycott's  pray- 
ties,"  as  the  delighted  peasantry  named  the  costly  and  ridicu- 
lous proceeding. 

The  troops  and  the  Orangemen  reached  their  destination 
drenched  to  the  skin.  Their  welcome  was  not  of  the  most 
hospitable  kind,  even  at  the  hands  of  the  man  whom  they  had 
come  to  relieve  and  support.  They  encamped  upon  his 
grounds  in  tents.  Soldiers  have  a  habit  of  "looking  round" 
when  on  expeditions,  and  it  was  soon  discovered  in  foraging 
searches  that  chickens,  ducks,  geese,  young  pigs,  and  many 
other  things  tempting  to  a  Tommy  Atkins  appetite  were  to  be 
found  in  abundance  in  the  captain's  well-stocked  yards.  It 
soon  became  a  question  to  him  of  being  saved  from  his  friends, 
when  he  saw  his  lawns  trampled  over,  his  ornamental  grounds 
spoiled,  and  the  military  helping  themselves  to  anything  and 
everything  which  could  militate  to  some  extent  against  their 
doubly  cold  reception  and  the  sufferings  inflicted  upon  them 
by  the  continuous  rains,  not  omitting  the  public  laughter 
which  the  whole  business  and  meaning  of  the  expedition 
meant  to  them. 

Some  £^3°  worth  of  potatoes  and  other  crops  were  event- 
ually harvested  by  the  "volunteers"  during  their  stay  at 
Lough  Mask.  This  was  the  captain's  own  estimate  of  their 
value,  and  according  to  calculations  made  at  the  time  it  cost 
the  sum  of  £3S°°  to  the  state  and  to  the  supporters  of  the 
expedition  to  have  Boycott's  potatoes  dug. 

On  the  day  when  the  soldiers  and  their  Orange  charges  were 
to  leave  Lough  Mask  Father  John  O'Malley  was  astir  early. 
He  visited  the  houses  past  which  the  troops  were  to  march, 
and  he  ordered  the  people  to  remain  in-doors.  The  roads  and 
the  streets  of  the  villages  were  to  be  deserted,  while  shops  and 
business  places  in  Ballinrobe  were  to  be  closed.  These  orders 
were  loyally  adhered  to;  Father  John,  with  his  portly  form 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

and  his  big,  kindly  face,  and  his  umbrella  carried  across  his 
shoulder,  marching  in  advance  of  the  military  column  to  see 
that  the  way  of  retreat  was  quite  clear.  At  one  point  of  the 
route  where  the  troops  were  halted  Father  John's  eye  de- 
tected a  poor  old  woman  leaning  against  a  wall,  intent  on  gaz- 
ing with  all  the  curiosity  of  her  sex  at  the  military.  Not  an- 
other human  being  except  soldiers  and  Orangemen  was  in 
sight.  Father  John  advanced  upon  her,  his  umbrella  held  in 
a  most  threatening  manner,  exclaiming: 

"Did  I  not  warn  you  to  let  the  British  army  alone?  How 
dare  you  come  out  here  to  intimidate  her  Majesty's  troops? 
For  shame!  Be  off  now,  and  if  you  dare  to  molest  these 
two  thousand  heroes  after  their  glorious  campaign  I'll  make 
an  example  of  you.  Be  off!"  All  this,  in  a  loud  voice,  was 
heard  by  the  potato  warriors,  while  the  jovial  old  soggarth, 
in  mock  wrath,  shouldered  his  umbrella  again  and  resumed 
his  lead  of  the  expedition  until  it  disappeared  beyond  the 
boundary  of  his  parish  into  the  records  of  history  and  of 
ridicule. 

On  the  "retreat"  of  the  protectors  the  siege  of  Lough 
Mask  House  was  resumed  just  where  the  new  league  tactics 
were  suspended  on  the  arrival  of  the  soldiers.  It  became  a 
hopeless  struggle,  and  on  December  ist  Captain  Boycott 
threw  up  the  agency,  and  together  with  his  family  left  Lough 
Mask  House  and  retired  to  England. 

That  robust  sense  of  moral  indignation  which  never  fails 
to  assert  itself  in  England  when  wrong  of  any  kind  is  done 
elsewhere  —  particularly  in  Ireland  —  was  shocked  and 
scandalized  at  the  treatment  of  Captain  Boycott.  The 
vile  tyranny  of  the  Land  League  could  not  spring  from 
Anglo-Saxon  sources.  Civilization  and  Protestantism,  thank 
Heaven,  had  made  that  impossible.  It  was  only  among  a 
priest-ridden  and  debased  people  where  such  conduct  as  that 
of  the  peasantry  of  Mayo  could  be  found  as  a  ready  weapon 
for  the  cowardly  plots  of  disloyal  leaguers,  etc.,  etc.  In  this 
and  in  similar  strains  of  virtuous  reprobation  were  the  men 
and  methods  of  the  movement  assailed  at  the  time  by  the 
organs  of  British  opinion.  But  this  outburst  was  only 
laughed  ft,  just  as  the  potato-digging  expedition  of  a  small 
British  army  had  ministered  to  the  sense  of  amusement  of 
the  Irish  people.  The  meaning  of  it  all  was  as  clear  as  it 
was  satisfactory  and  hopeful.  For  once  the  down-trodden 
peasantry  of  Ireland  had  fashioned  a  weapon  of  retaliation 
which  was  to  some  extent  destined  to  equalize  the  combat 
between  landlordism  and  its  whilom  serfs.  The  rack-renters 
and  evictors  were  no  longer  to  wage  a  one-sided  war.     Two 

278 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

were  henceforth  to  play  at  the  game  of  social  ostracism  in 
the  fight  between  the  right  to  live  on  the  land  and  the  right  to 
levy  rent  upon  such  livelihood.  And  as  the  descendants 
of  seven  generations  of  down-trodden  Mayo  tenants  watched 
from  their  windows  and  half-opened  doors  on  that  drizzly 
morning  in  November,  1880,  the  retreat  of  two  thousand 
British  troops  escorting  the  Orange  blacklegs  back  to  their 
homes  of  stagnant  sectarian  bigotry  and  know-nothingism,  a 
gleam  of  Celtic  fire  and  satisfaction  flashed  from  many  an 
eye  at  the  thought  that  they  had  finally  found  a  method  of 
agrarian  warfare  which  would  end  the  long  and  agonizing 
struggle  against  the  enemy  of  their  homes  and  holdings. 

"Boycotting"  had  been  resorted  to  in  divers  forms  and  in 
innumerable  causes  in  all  civilized  countries  centuries  before 
the  unwritten  law  of  popular  sanction  was  laid  down  in  the 
Mayo  Land  League  convention  of  August,  1879.  A  con- 
trary contention  was  only  the  language  of  ignorance  and  of 
irritation.  So  far  back  as  the  month  of  March,  1770,  it  was 
most  remorselessly  put  in  force  by  the  people  of  Massachusetts 
in  the  then  early  stages  of  the  movement  for  American  inde- 
pendence. The  Boston  Gazette  and  Country  Journal  of  Mon- 
day, March  12,  1770,  contains  the  following  reports: 

"THE     PEOPLE     OF     ROXBURY 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Freeholders  and  other  inhabitants  of 
the  town  of  Roxbury  legally  assembled  on  Monday,  the  5th 
day  of  March,  1770,  the  inhabitants  taking  into  consid- 
eration a  clause  in  the  warrant  for  calling  said  meeting, 
viz.:  and  to  know  the  minds  of  the  Town,  whether  they  will 
do  anything  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  merchants  in 
their  Non-Importation  Agreement. 

"Voted— That  Captain  William  Heath,  Col.  Joseph  Will- 
iams, Mr.  Eleazor  Weld,  Captain  Joseph  Mayo,  and  Dr. 
Thomas  Williams  be  a  committee  to  take  this  matter  into 
consideration  and  report  to  the  town  what  they  shall  think 
proper  to  be  done  thereon. 

"The  meeting  was  then  adjourned  to  the  8th  inst.,  2 
o'clock,  afternoon,  at  which  time  the  inhabitants  being 
again  assembled,  the  committee  made  the  following  report, 
viz. : 

"Whereas,  The  Merchants  and  Traders  of  the  Town  of 
Boston,  and  also  the  Maritime  Towns  of  the  Continent,  from 
a  principle  truly  noble  and  generous,  and  to  the  sacrificing 
of  their  own  interests,  have  entered  into  an  agreement  not  to 
import  British  goods  (a  few  necessary  articles  excepted)  until 

279 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  Act  of  Parliament  imposing  certain  duties  on  Tea,  Glass, 
Paper,  Painter's  Colours,  Oyl,  &c.,  for  the  express  purpose  of 
raising  a  Revenue  in  America,  be  repealed ;  which  Agreement, 
if  strictly  adhered  to,  will  not  fail  to  produce  the  most  salutary 
effects.     Therefore, 

"Voted — That  the  inhabitants  of  this  town  do  highly 
applaud  the  conduct  and  resolution  of  said  merchants  and 
traders,  and  we  do  take  this  opportunity  to  express  our 
warmest  gratitude  to  said  merchants  for  the  spirited  measures 
which  they  have  taken.  And  we  do  hereby  declare  that  we 
will  to  the  utmost  of  our  power  aid  and  assist  said  merchants 
in  every  constitutional  way  to  render  said  agreement  effect- 
ual. 

"Voted — That  we  do  with  the  utmost  abhorrence  and 
detestation  view  the  little,  mean,  and  sordid  conduct  of  a 
few  traders  in  this  Province,  who  have,  and  still  do,  import 
British  goods  contrary  to  said  agreement,  and  have  thereby 
discovered  that  they  are  governed  by  a  selfish  spirit,  and  are 
regardless  of,  and  deaf  to,  the  miseries  and  calamities  which 
threaten  this  people. 

"  THE    BLACK    LIST 

"Voted — That  whereas  John  Barnard,  James  McMasters, 
John  Mein,  Nathaniel  Rogers,  William  Jackson,  Theophilus 
Leslie,  John  Taylor,  and  Anne  and  Elizabeth  Cummings,  all 
of  Boston;  Israel  Williams,  Esq.,  and  son,  of  Hatfield,  and 
Henry  Barnes,  of  Marlboro,  are  of  this  number  and  do 
import  contrary  to  said  agreement.  We  do  hereby  declare 
that  we  will  not  buy  the  least  article  of  any  of  the  said  persons 
ourselves,  or  suffer  any  acting  for  or  under  us  to  buy  of  them, 
neither  will  we  buy  of  those  that  shall  buy  or  exchange  any 
articles  of  goods  with  them. 


THEIR    NAMES    TO    BE    READ    ANNUALLY 

"Voted — That  to  the  end  the  generations  which  are  yet 
unborn  may  know  who  they  were  that  laughed  at  the  dis- 
tresses and  calamities  of  this  people;  and  instead  of  striving 
to  save  their  country  when  in  imminent  danger  did  strive 
to  render  ineffectual  a  virtuous  and  commendable  plan,  the 
names  of  these  importers  shall  be  annually  read  at  March 
meeting. 

"Voted — That  we  will  not  make  use  of  any  foreign  teas  in 
our  several  families  until  the  Revenue  Acts  are  repealed 
(case  of  sickness  excepted). 

"Voted — That   a   committee   of   inspection  be  chosen  to 

2S0 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

make  inquiry  from  time  to  time  how  far  these  votes  are 
compHed  with. 

"Voted — That  a  copy  of  these  votes  be  transmitted  to  the 
committee  of  inspection  in  the  town  of  Boston." 


"THE     PEOPLE     OF    LITTLETON 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  Littleton, 
in  the  County  of  Middlesex,  on  Monday,  March  5th,  1770, 
a  committee  was  chosen  to  prepare  certain  votes  to  be 
passed  by  the  town,  relating  to  the  importation  of  British 
goods,  who,  after  retiring  a  short  time  into  a  private  room, 
returned  and  reported  the  following,  which  was  unani- 
mously voted: 

"The  grievous  impositions  the  inhabitants  of  these  Colonies 
have  long  suffered  from  Great  Britain,  strongly  claim  their 
attention  to  every  legal  method  for  their  removal.  We 
esteem  the  measure  already  proposed,  viz.,  the  withdrawing 
our  trade  from  England,  both  economical  and  effectual. 
We  do  therefore  vote — 

"That  we  will  not  (knowingly)  directly  or  indirectly 
purchase  any  goods  which  are  now  or  hereafter  may  be  im- 
ported contrary  to  the  agreement  of  the  merchants  of  the 
town  of  Boston. 

"That  if  any  inhabitant  of  the  town  of  Littleton  shall 
be  known  to  purchase  any  one  article  of  any  importer  of 
goods  contrary  to  the  before-mentioned  agreement,  or  of  any 
one  who  shall  buy  of  any  such  importer,  he  shall  suffer  our 
high  displeasure  and  contempt. 

"That  a  committee  be  chosen  to  inspect  the  conduct  of  all 
buyers  and  sellers  of  goods  in  this  town,  and  report  the  names 
of  all  (if  any  such  there  should  be)  who  shall  violate  the  true 
spirit  and  intention  of  the  above-mentioned  votes  and  res- 
olutions. 

"That  we  will  not  drink  or  purchase  any  foreign  tea,  how- 
ever imported,  until  a  general  importation  of  British  goods 
shall  take  place." 


"THE     PEOPLE    OF    ACTON 

"The  inhabitants  of  the  Town  of  Acton,  at  their  annual 
Town  meeting  on  the  first  Monday  of  March,  1770,  tak- 
ing into  consideration  the  distressed  circumstances  that 
this  province   and   all   North   America   are   involved  in   by 

281 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

reason  of  the  acts  of  Parliament  imposing  duties  and  taxes 
upon  the  inhabitants  of  North  America  for  the  sole  purpose 
to  raise  a  revenue,  and  when  the  Royal  Ear  seems  to  be 
stopt  against  all  our  humble  prayers  and  petitions  for  redress 
of  grievances  that  this  land  is  involved  in,  and  considering 
the  salutary  measures  that  the  body  of  merchants  and 
traders  in  this  Province  have  come  into  in  order  for  the 
redress  of  the  many  troubles  that  we  are  involved  in,  and  to 
support  and  maintain  our  charter  Rights  and  Privileges,  and 
to  prevent  our  total  ruin  and  destruction,  making  all  these 
things  into  consideration,  came  into  the  following  votes: 

"Voted — That  we  will  use  our  utmost  endeavors  to  en- 
courage and  support  the  body  of  Merchants  and  Traders  in 
their  salutary  endeavors  to  retrieve  this  Province  out  of  its 
present  distresses,  to  whom  this  Town  vote  their  thanks  for 
the  constitutional  and  spirited  measures  pursued  by  them 
for  the  good  of  this  Province. 

"Voted — That  from  this  time  we  will  have  no  commercial 
or  social  connection  with  those  who  at  this  time  do  refuse  to 
contribute  to  the  relief  of  this  abused  country,  especially  those 
that  import  British  Goods,  contrary  to  the  agreement  of  the 
body  of  Merchants  in  Boston  or  elsewhere;  that  we  will  not 
afiford  them  our  custom,  but  treat  them  with  the  utmost 
neglect,  and  all  those  who  countenance  them. 

"Voted — That  we  will  use  our  utmost  endeavors  to  prevent 
the  consumption  of  all  foreign  superfluities,  and  that  we  will 
use  our  utmost  endeavors  to  promote  and  encourage  our  own 
manufactures. 

"Voted — That  the  Town  Clerk  transmit  a  copy  of  these 
Votes  of  the  Town  to  the  Committee  of  Merchants  of  In- 
spection at  Boston. 

"A  true  copy  attested. 

"Francis  Faulkner,  Town  Clerk." 

Coming  to  the  records  of  "boycotting"  in  Great  Britain, 
I  may,  perhaps,  be  pardoned  for  quoting  the  following  words 
from  a  speech  delivered  before  The  1  i)iics  special  commission 
in  October,  1889: 

"It  is  of  course  known  that  institutions  which  may  never 
have  been  intended  to  work  individual  wrong  to  any  one  do 
work  ruin  to  many  under  the  influence  of  unforeseen  circum- 
stances. But  that  does  not  prove  the  criminal  character  of 
such  institutions,  or  that  their  origin  was  not  conceived  in 
motives  of  general  good  rather  than  for  purposes  of  personal 
injury.  To  sustain  this  argument,  I  wish  to  quote  from  a  very 
learned  article  contributed  to  the  Ninctcentli  Ccnlnry  in  De- 

282 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

cember,  1886,  by  Mr.  Justice  Stephen.  While  I  do  not,  on 
any  account,  accept  of  this  statement  of  facts,  or  the  conclu- 
sions which  he  draws  from  facts  so  stated,  Mr.  Justice  Stephen 
puts  boycotting  in  a  fair  enough  light  in  that  part  of  the  article 
where  he  says: 

" '  The  mere  act  of  shunning  a  man,  of  refusing  to  deal  with 
him,  of  not  taking  his  land,  or  the  like,  in  no  way  shocks  or 
scandalizes  any  one.  Nothing  in  itself,  and  if  it  stands  alone, 
can  be  more  natural  and  harmless.  Human  life  could  not  go 
on  at  all  if  all  of  us  were  not  at  liberty,  in  a  certain  sense,  to 
boycott  each  other,  to  cease  to  associate  with  people  whom 
we  do  not  for  any  reason  like,  to  cease  to  do  business  with 
people  with  whom  for  any  reason,  good  or  bad,  we  prefer  not 
to  do  business— in  a  word,  to  regulate  all  the  course  of  our 
lives  and  of  our  intercourse  with  others  according  to  our  will 
and  pleasure.  To  resent  what  you  regard  as  harsh  conduct 
in  a  landord  in  evicting  a  tenant,  or  as  meanness  in  a  tenant 
who  plays  into  his  hand  by  taking  the  farm  from  which  a  ten- 
ant has  been  evicted,  by  refusing  to  have  any  dealings  with 
either,  may  be  wise  or  foolish,  right  or  wrong,  if  it  is  a  mere 
individual  act,  the  bona-fidc  result  of  the  natural  feelings  of 
the  person  who  does  it.  The  transition  from  this  to  concerted 
action  is  not  one  which  shocks  the  common  and  uninstructed 
mind,  and  the  further  and  final  step  which  leads  you  to  help 
to  compel  others  by  fear  to  do  that  which  you  rather  like  to  do 
yourself  is  little  less  natural  and  easy.  By  this  plain  and 
easy  process  what  Bentham  described  as  "the  popular  sanc- 
tion" may  be  readily  and  quickly  applied  as  a  sanction  of 
unequalled  efficiency  by  any  code  of  unwritten  laws  which 
vaguely  represents  the  current  sentiment  of  the  most  ignorant 
and  passionate  part  of  the  community,  those  who  are  guided 
almost  exclusively  by  sentiment  and  passion.' 

"Of  course,  my  lords,  everybody  who  has  not  lived  all 
their  lives  in  a  balloon  and  read  nothing  but  the  stars  knows 
that  what  is  known  as  boycotting  has  existed  since  civilized 
society  began  its  career,  and  has  been  practised  in  a  variety 
of  ways  for  individual,  social,  religious,  and  political  purposes. 
It  was  in  vogue  in  Ireland  before  the  Land  League,  and  has 
never  in  the  world's  history,  barring  possibly  the  treatment 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages,  been  more  remorsefully  ap- 
plied than  by  England's  rule  of  Ireland  during  the  penal  laws. 
Party  and  political  boycotting  have  never  ceased  to  be  prac- 
tised by  the  landlords  of  Ireland.  In  fact,  I  have  said  on 
scores  of  public  platforms  that  boycotting  was  a  weapon 
which  we  had  borrowed  from  the  armory  of  the  landlords  to 
turn  against  themselves  and  their  system.     I  find,  in  the  read- 

283 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ing  that  I  have  to  undergo  preparing  for  the  task  I  am  trying 
to  perform  before  your  lordships,  that  on  the  eve  of  the  pass- 
age of  the  Reform  Act  of  1832  the  Conservative  party  in  this 
country,  through  one  of  its  most  respectable  organs,  laid  down 
a  system  of  boycotting  which  I  will  thank  you  to  allow  me  to 
read  (it  is  only  very  short) ;  it  is  from  Blackwood's  Magazine 
of  July,  1832,  on  the  eve  of  the  memorable  bill  of  that  year. 
It  said: 

"  '  Finally,  let  the  Conservative  party  universally  and  firmly 
act  upon  the  principle  of  withdrawing  their  business  from 
tradesmen  whom  they  employ  who  do  not  support  the  Con- 
servative candidate.  In  the  manufacturing  cities,  which  de- 
pend on  the  export  sale,  this  measure  may  not  have  a  very 
powerful  effect,  but  in  the  metropolis,  in  the  other  great  towns, 
and  the  small  boroughs  it  would  have  an  incalculable  effect. 
If  universally  and  steadily  acted  upon,  it  would  be  decisive 
of  the  fate  of  England.  At  least  four-fifths,  probably  nine- 
tenths,  of  the  purchase  of  articles  of  commerce  come  from  the 
Conservative  ranks;  if  this  were  confined  to  men  of  Conserva- 
tive principles  there  is  an  end  of  the  revolutionary  progress. 
There  is  nothing  unjust  in  this;  the  shopkeeper  claims  for 
hims'elf  the  power  of  judging  who  should  be  his  representative 
in  Parliament.  Granted,  but  he  cannot  refuse  the  same  lib- 
erty of  choice  to  his  customer  as  to  whom  he  is  to  employ  as 
his  butcher,  his  baker,  or  his  clothier.  There  might  be  some 
reluctance  in  taking  this  step  in  ordinary  times,  when  no  vital 
part  of  the  state  is  at  stake,  when  mere  family  ambition  divides 
counties,  and  the  great  interests  of  the  state  are  equally  secure 
in  the  hands  of  the  one  or  the  other  party.  But  the  case  is 
widely  different  when,  as  at  this  time,  the  question  is  not  be- 
tween rival  families  in  counties  or  adverse  parties  in  politics, 
but  between  contending  principles  in  society;  between  the 
preservation  of  property  and  the  march  of  revolution ;  between 
future  felicity  and  unutterable  anguish  for  ourselves  and  our 
children.  It  may  be  a  painful  thing  to  part  from  an  old 
tradesman  because  he  is  of  revolutionary  principles,  but  it  is 
much  more  painful  to  see  the  ruin  of  our  country,  and  that  is 
the  other  alternative. 

"'Come  what  may,  we  have  discharged  our  duty  to  the 
friends  of  England  by  showing  the  simple  and  certain  means 
by  which  the  progress  of  the  revolution  may  be  stayed ;  if  they 
are  neglected,  and  ruin  follows,  the  consequences  be  on  them 
and  their  children.' 

"Well,  this  proves  that  fifty  years  before  the  Land  League 
was  heard  of  the  great  law-abiding- Conservative  party  of 
England  could  resort  to  systematic  boycotting.     Boycotting, 

284 


"HOLD    THE    HARVEST!" 

considered  even  in  its  worst  and  most  objectionable  form,  and 
from  the  point  of  view  of  its  worst  results,  had  still,  I  main- 
tain, this  comparative  innocence  over  the  practices  of  those 
agrarian  societies  whose  crimes  and  outrages  are  set  forth  in 
Sir  George  Comewall  Lewis's  book,  referred  to  by  Sir  Charles 
Russell  in  his  speech,  and  to  the  same  kind  of  crimes  that  are 
particularized  in  the  report  of  the  Devon  Commission.  In 
those  days  the  man  who  was  marked  out  for  punishment  or 
murder  in  secret  conclaves  was  visited  or  waited  for  without 
any  warning  whatever,  and  outraged,  as  a  rule,  without  any 
chance  of  preparing  for  defence,  or  communicating  with  the 
police.  The  naming  of  land-grabbers  at  a  few  public  demon- 
strations during  the  league  agitation  or  the  passing  of  boy- 
cotting resolutions  at  occasional  branch  meetings  did,  at 
least,  this  service  to  the  obnoxious  person — it  gave  him  public 
and  timely  warning  of  the  feeling  existing  against  him,  and 
afforded  him  opportunities  of  seeing  to  his  own  protection. 
So  that,  assuming  even  The  Times' s  allegation  about  the  boy- 
cotting by  some  branches  of  the  league  to  be  true — namely, 
that  boycotting  was  meant  to  end  in  outrage  or  personal  in- 
timidation— a  charge  which,  of  course,  we  altogether  challenge 
and  deny — I  maintain  that  it  could  not,  humanly  speaking, 
be  as  criminal  in  its  consequences  as  were  previous  practices 
of  agrarian  bodies  which  had  nothing  of  the  public  character 
of  the  league  about  them. 

"Our  answer  to  The  Times' s  charge  on  this  head  is  that 
public  denunciation  of  men  who  grabbed  land  or  otherwise 
went  contrary  to  popular  feeling  in  a  district  acted  as  a  kind 
of  lightning  conductor;  that  it  brought  the  pressure  of  public 
opinion  to  bear  upon  those  just  mentioned,  and  that  in  this 
manner  such  denunciations  and  boycotting  did  actually  and 
manifestly  prevent  outrages  of  a  serious  character  instead  of 
causing  them. 

"Evidence  in  proof  of  this  has  been  given  by  nearly  every 
one  of  the  witnesses  called  for  the  defence,  and  these  witnesses 
embraced  clergymen  in  large  numbers,  who  are,  from  intimate 
association  with  the  people,  better  qualified  to  speak  on  this 
matter  than  any  other  class  represented  in  this  inquiry."* 

^Speech  before  the  Special  Commission  by  Michael  Davitt  (Kegan 
Paul,  Trench  &  Co.,  London,  1890),  pp.  286-9. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

THE    STATE    TRIALS 

Having  returned  to  Ireland  from  the  United  States  in  time 
to  enjoy  the  discomfiture  of  Mayo  landlordism  in  the  costly 
failure  of  the  Lough  Mask  expedition,  it  became  necessary  to 
represent  to  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  league  leaders  what 
the  feeling  in  America  was  about  the  growth  of  agrarian  out- 
rages. The  press  generally  condemned  the  league,  on  the  in- 
spiration of  cable  news  from  London,  for  not  denouncing 
crimes  which  were  coincident  with  the  spread  of  the  agitation. 
American  opinion  was  strongly  on  the  side  of  the  movement 
in  its  demands  for  radical  reform.  Landlordism  had  no  friends 
in  the  American  newspapers.  The  Parnell  -  Dillon  mission 
and  the  propaganda  which  followed  secured  the  moral  sup- 
port of  public  feeling  for  the  aims  of  the  league,  but  there  was 
an  equally  strong  reprobation  of  methods  of  unnecessary  vio- 
lence which  appeared  to  be  associated  with  the  growth  of  the 
movement  for  land  reform.  Many  of  these  acts  were,  to  our 
knowledge,  perpetrated  by  enemies  of  the  league,  while  many 
more  were  bogus  outrages.  But  this  was  not  known  in  Amer- 
ica. It  was  felt  there  that  an  organization  which  wielded 
such  power  as  the  league  could,  if  its  leaders  were  so  minded, 
restrain  the  passions  of  the  people,  even  under  some  provoca- 
tion, and  prevent  reprehensible  acts  from  doing  moral  injury 
to  a  cause  which  appealed  on  its  merits  so  strongly  to  Amer- 
ican sympathies. 

Rightly  or  wrongly  formed,  these  views  obtained.  Mr. 
Parnell  saw  the  need  for  some  action  in  response  and  in 
reference  to  them,  but  he  was  slow  to  act  in  any  way  which 
would  create  the  impression  that  agrarian  crimes  were  due 
to  any  other  cause  except  the  existence  and  evil  inspiration 
of  unjust  landlordism.  However,  it  was  clear  to  every  ob- 
server that  outrages,  no  matter  how  provoked,  played  into 
the  hands  of  the  league's  enemies.  They  made  out  a  case 
for  coercion.  The  non-detection  of  the  perpetrators  in  numer- 
ous cases  made  it  appear  as  if  the  whole  community  connived 
at   the    deeds    done   by   midnight    terrorists.     DubHn  Castle 

286 


THE    STATE    TRIALS 

wanted  coercion,  and  therefore  made  little  or  no  attempt  to 
increase  the  vigilance  of  its  police  or  to  sharpen  the  eyes  of  its 
authority.  It  saw  that  increasing  violence  would  force  the 
government  to  ask  Parliament  for  exceptional  powers,  and  it 
wanted  these  powers  not  so  much  out  of  a  desire  to  grapple 
with  the  authors  of  crime  as  for  the  wish  to  use  them  against 
the  Land  League  as  a  political  organization.  It  was  evident 
to  everybody  that  the  impending  state  trials  would  fail  as  the 
Sligo  prosecutions  had  failed.  No  jury  fairly  empanelled  in 
Dublin  would  convict  national  leaders  on  an  indictment  by 
a  Castle  authority.  An  acquittal  would  be  possible  where  a 
disagreement  of  the  jury  was  almost  certain,  and  it  was  felt 
that  the  legal  proceedings  against  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  colleagues 
were  in  the  nature  of  a  demonstration  of  the  impotency  of 
the  ordinary  law  to  be  followed  by  a  coercion  which  the 
failure  to  convict  would  call  for  and  justify.  On  the  grounds 
of  expediency  alone,  but  in  addition  to  the  higher  reasons 
why  deeds  of  violence  should  be  discouraged  and  condemned, 
it  became  necessary  to  warn  the  people  against  acts  which, 
while  being  wrong  in  themselves,  did  injury  alone  to  the 
cause  of  the  league  and  gave  strength  to  its  otherwise  baffled 
opponents.  Boycotting,  without  violence,  was  therefore 
strongly  advocated  as  the  best  weapon  of  agrarian  warfare, 
and  circulars  urging  self-restraint  and  good  temper  upon  the 
adherents  of  the  league  in  all  the  phases  of  the  campaign 
were  prepared  and  circulated  among  the  branches  of  the 
organization. 

The  state  trials  engrossed  popular  attention  and  assisted 
the  league  enormously.  Meetings  increased  in  number, 
from  a  dozen  to  twenty  being  held  on  some  Sundays.  The 
movement  had  spread  into  Ulster  in  the  autumn,  under 
local  leaders  like  the  late  Mr.  John  Duddy,  of  Belfast;  Mr. 
Michael  McCartan,  of  County  Down;  Mr.  Bernard  O'Neill,  of 
Armagh;  Mr.  Crampsey  and  Mr.  Denis  Diver,  of  Innishowen; 
Mr.  Jerome  Boyce,  of  Donegal;  Mr.  Jeremiah  Jordan,  of 
Enniskillen,  and  the  Rev.  Harold  Rylett,  of  Monirea,  an 
Englishman,  resident  in  Ireland,  who  had  become  an  ardent 
convert  to  Land- Leagueism.  Mr.  James  O'Kelly,  who  had 
beaten  The  O'Conor  Don  in  Roscommon  at  the  general  elec- 
tion, lent  invaluable  assistance  to  the  work  of  spreading  the 
movement  in  the  North;  Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  John 
Ferguson  being  in  demand  for  meetings  and  powerfully  aiding 
by  their  speeches  and  presence  "  The  rebel  invasion  of  Ulster," 
as  the  landlord  organs  described  these  meetings  to  be. 

This  growth  of  power  and  influence  also  brought  in  a 
corresponding  financial  assistance  to  the  league.     When  the 

287 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

league  was  founded  Mr.  Pamell  based  his  calculations  of 
future  revenue  upon  a  possible  income  of  ;^5ooo  a  year. 
Reckoning  the  subscriptions  given  to  the  defence  fund, 
which  had  been  started  on  the  announcement  of  the  state 
prosecutions,  along  with  those  coming  in  from  league  branches 
in  Ireland,  Great  Britain,  and  America,  the  income  of  the 
organization  near  the  end  of  1880  was  over  ;£iooo  a  week. 
With  this  power  and  treasury  at  its  back,  the  organization 
was  fully  prepared  to  meet  Mr.  Forster  and  his  Dublin  Castle 
allies,  even  on  their  own  ground,  where  the  judges  would  be 
undisguised  partisans  and  the  dice  would  be  loaded  against 
the  traversers. 

Political  state  trials  had  always  been  "a  mockery,  a  delusion, 
and  a  snare"  in  Ireland,  as  an  honest  judge  declared  that  of 
O'Connell  to  have  been.  The  juries  were  all  carefully  "  select- 
ed "  by  Castle  lawyers,  and  everything  that  could  tend  to  deny 
a  fair  chance  to  a  prisoner  or  a  person  accused  of  a  political 
or  agrarian  offence  was  resorted  to.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  process 
reversing  the  boasted  maxim  of  English  jurisprudence,  that 
an  accused  person  was  deemed  to  be  innocent  in  the  eye  of 
the  law  until  his  guilt  was  affirmed  by  a  jury's  verdict. 
Under  Dublin  Castle  rule,  a  political  offender  was  tried  on 
the  assumption  that  his  guilt  was  established  by  his  arrest 
or  accusation  and  every  obstacle  known  to  unscrupulous 
legal  trickery  should  be  put  in  the  way  of  establishing  his 
innocence. 

This  very  spirit  and  purpose  manifested  themselves  even 
on  the  eve  of  these  latest  state  trials.  A  few  days  before  the 
commission  opened  an  application  had  to  be  made  by 
counsel  for  the  traversers  before  Lord  Chief  -  Justice  May 
to  restrain  an  organ  of  Dublin  Castle  from  publishing  matter 
calculated  to  prejudice  the  chances  of  the  accused  of  getting 
a  fair  trial.  This  very  judge,  before  whom  Mr.  Pamell 
and  his  associates  were  to  be  arraigned  in  a  day  or  two, 
delivered  himself  of  a  violent  political  harangue.  He  declared 
the  league  and  its  leaders  to  be  responsible  for  outrages  and 
for  all  the  acts  charged  against  them  in  the  Crown  indictment. 
It  was,  to  the  astonished  world  of  outside  opinion,  an  outrage 
upon  all  ideas  of  judicial  decency,  but  it  was  only  a  revelation 
of  what  we  were  only  too  familiar  with  under  the  rule  of 
political  renegades  and  government  hacks  in  Dublin  Castle. 

Mr.  John  Dillon,  in  a  speech  delivered  at  Malahide  the  day 
following  this  exhibition  of  judicial  effrontery,  defined  a 
judicial  liar  to  be  "a  man  who  first  deliberately  formed  a 
lie  in  his  mind  about  another  and  then  uttered  it  from  the 
bench  as  if  it  were  true,  knowing  it  to  be  a  falsehood  at  the 

288 


THE    STATE    TRIALS 

same  time."  But  though  this  was  contempt  of  court  with  a 
vengeance,  the  object  of  the  attack  had  discretion  enough 
to  let  it  pass.  No  Castle  judge  had  ever  been  so  sternly  and 
effectively  denounced  and  silenced  in  Ireland  before. 

Knowing  what  the  tactics  of  the  Castle  would  be,  the  league  \ 
took  its  precautions.  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  one  of  the  accused, 
and  treasurer  of  the  league,  knew  Dublin  well.  It  was  also 
well  and  widely  known  that  the  league  was  provided  with 
abundant  funds.  These  facts  told  in  our  favor.  Minor 
officials  under  a  corrupt  government  are  not  all  immaculate, 
and  sometimes  men  who  are  driven  by  temptation  or  poverty 
to  take  a  hated  service  under  their  country's  alien  rulers 
retain  a  sense  of  sympathetic  loyalty  to  a  national  cause 
which  will  prompt  them  to  render  it  assistance  in  an  emer- 
gency if  possible.  The  league  received  many  valuable 
services  of  this  kind  in  its  stormy  career,  so  on  the  eve  of 
the  opening  of  the  trials  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  presented  counsel 
for  the  traversers  with  a  copy  of  the  brief  prepared  for  At- 
torney-General Law  by  the  prosecution.  We  were  likewise  in 
possession  of  such  other  information  as  gave  us  a  guarantee 
that,  whatever  .else  might  happen,  a  unanimous  verdict  of 
guilty  was  not  possible. 

The  trial  opened  in  the  Four  Courts,  Dublin,  on  December 
28th.  The  judges  were  Chief -Justice  May,  Mr.  Justice  J.  D. 
Fitzgerald,  and  Mr.  Justice  Barry.  When  the  court  assembled 
the  chief  -  justice  arose  and  read  a  paper  which  said  that, 
owing  to  a  "misconception"  that  prevailed  with  reference 
to  some  observations  made  by  him  on  the  occasion  of  a  recent 
application  in  behalf  of  the  traversers,  he  had  decided  not 
to  take  any  further  part  in  the  proceedings.  He  then  retired 
from  the  bench,  the  court  now  consisting  of  his  two  colleagues, 
one  of  whom  (Fitzgerald)  had  been  a  tenant-right  patriot 
and  member  of  Parliament  in  the  fifties.  The  exit  of  Judge 
May  was  a  concession  to  the  forces  of  public  protest  against 
what  would  have  been  a  shameless  disregard  of  all  pretence 
of  judicial  fairness.  It  counted  one  avowed  enemy  of  the 
league  out  of  the  coming  encounter,  and  to  this  extent  an 
initial  victory  was  scored  over  the  Castle. 

All  the  leading  lawyers  of  Dublin  were  engaged  in  the  case. 
On  the  side  of  the  Crown  there  were  the  attorney-general,  Mr. 
Hugh  Law,  Q.C.;  the  solicitor-general.  Sergeant  Heron, 
Messrs.  John  Naish,  Q.C.,  David  Ross,  Q.C.,  James  Murphy, 
Q.C.,  A.  M.  Porter,  Q.C.,  and  Constantine  Molloy,  Q.C.;  the 
counsel  for  the  traversers  were  Messrs.  Francis  Macdonough, 
Q.C.,  Samuel  Walker,  Q.C.,  W.  McLaughlin,  Q.C.,  and  Peter 
O'Brien,  Q.C.,  with  Messrs.  John  Curran,  J.  Nolan,  Richard 
19  289 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Adams,  Luke  Dillon,  and  A.  M.  Sullivan,  M.P.,  as  assistant 
barristers,  the  legal  direction  of  the  case  for  the  defendants 
being  in  the  very  capable  hands  of  Mr.  V.  B.  Dillon,  so- 
licitor. 

After  challenges  and  objections  on  both  sides  in  the  matter 
of  the  jury  panel,  twenty-four  names  remained,  and  these 
were  put  in  a  ballot-box.  The  first  twelve  names  to  be  drawn 
by  the  clerk  of  the  court  were  to  constitute  the  jury  to 
try  the  defendants.  Nine  out  of  the  twenty-four  were  Cath- 
olics. Of  these  nine  no  fewer  than  eight  emerged  from  the 
box  in  the  process  of  balloting.  The  names  of  the  jury  thus 
formed  were; 

William  Hopkins,  goldsmith;  James  Corcoran,  corn  mer- 
chant; Edward  Hurse,  grocer;  Nicholas  Hopkins,  grocer; 
Thomas  Dunne,  grocer;  John  Bircury,  brush  manufacturer; 
James  Tyrell,  corn  merchant;  Thomas  Crosby,  rope-maker; 
John  Mitchell,  vintner;  Arthur  Webb,  clothier;  Patrick  Mack- 
en,  vintner,  and  Patrick  Biggins,  agent.  Of  these,  Webb, 
William  Hopkins,  Nicholas  Hopkins,  and  Hurse  were  Prot- 
estants. 

When  these  names  were  read  out  i\Ir.  Patrick  Egan  was 
observed  smiling  "very  loudly,"  while  Mr.  V.  B.  Dillon  looked 
a  picture  of  solid,  angelic  innocence,  as  became  a  solicitor  hav- 
ing charge  of  a  case  which  was  expected  to  turn  the  tables  upon 
the  enemy  at  all  points.  It  was  now  a  question  of  putting 
Irish  landlordism  on  trial  for  its  life  before  the  first  jury  ever 
empanelled  in  an  Irish  political  prosecution  that  was  not 
packed — by  Dublin  Castle. 

It  is  only  just  to  the  memory  of  Attorney-General  Law, 
who  conducted  the  Crown  case,  to  say  that  he  lent  himself  to 
no  unfair  device,  nor  did  he  countenance  in  any  way  a  resort 
to  ordinary  Castle  methods.  He  was  not,  of  course,  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  Land  League,  its  principles,  or  inethods,  but 
there  could  be  no  doubt  about  his  friendly  feeling  towards  the 
cause  of  land  reform.  His  duty  compelled  him  to  make  a 
strong  case  against  those  whom  Mr.  Forster  and  his  advisers 
resolved  to  put  to  the  ordeal  of  a  criminal  trial,  but  it  was  plain 
that  he  felt,  in  common  with  the  public  opinion  of  Ireland,  that 
the  real  culprit  before  the  court  was  the  Irish  land  system 
and  not  the  Irish  Land  League. 

The  case  against  the  league  rested  entirely  upon  speeches 
delivered  in  various  parts  of  the  country  by  the  traversers, 
and  in  mottoes,  phrases,  and  legends  inscribed  on  banners  car- 
ried at  league  demonstrations.  These  speeches  were  read, 
their  delivery  being  proved  Vjy  government  shorthand  writers. 
The  history  of  the  agitation  was  gone  over  from  the  Irishtown 

290 


THE    STATE    TRIALS 

meeting  to  the  time  when  the  executive  government  of  the 
country  was  compelled  to  assert  the  authority  of  the  law  in 
an  attempt  to  put  down  a  movement  which  amounted  to  a 
"wicked  conspiracy"  against  the  property  of  a  class  and  the 
personal  liberty  of  the  subject.  It  was  all  a  restatement  of 
the  league  accusations  against  landlordism,  a  summary  of  the 
speeches  delivered  at  five  hundred  league  meetings  with  an 
aggregate  attendance  of  over  two  millions  of  people,  and  every 
day's  proceedings  during  the  trial  confirmed  more  and  more 
the  popular  view  of  it  as  being  a  huge  inquisition  into  the 
origin  of  peasant  poverty  and  discontent,  and  of  the  com- 
plicity of  Irish  landlordism  in  the  creation  of  both,  phis  agra- 
rian crime. 

One  of  the  proofs  adduced  against  the  league  was  a  poem  by 
Miss  Fanny  Parnell,  which  had  been  printed  in  papers  favor- 
able to  the  league  and  quoted  from  on  public  platforms.  At- 
torney-General Law's  reading  of  the  impassioned  revolution- 
ary verses  was  superb.  Every  pulse  in  court  beat  faster  and 
eyes  glistened  and  hearts  throbbed  as,  in  the  finest  elocution- 
ary manner  and  with  a  feeling  wliich  seemed  to  be  carried 
completely  away  in  the  fire  and  meaning  of  the  ringing  words, 
he  read: 

'"HOLD     THE     HARVEST! 

"'Now,  are  you  men,  or  are  you  kine, 

Ye  tillers  of  the  soil  ? 
Would  you  be  free,  or  evermore 

The  rich  man's  cattle  toil? 
The  shadow  on   the  dial  hangs 

That  points  the  fatal  hour — 
Now  hold  your  own!  or,  branded  slaves, 

Forever  cringe  and  cower. 

"'The  serpent's  curse  upon  you  lies— 

Ye  writhe  within  the  dust, 
Ye  fill  your  mouths  with  beggars'   swill, 

Ye  grovel  for  a  crust; 
Your  lords  have  set   their  blood-stained  heels 

Upon  your  shameful  heads, 
Yet  they  are  kind — they  leave  you  still 

Their  ditches  for  your  beds! 

"'Oh,  by  the  God  who  made  us  all — 
The  seignior  and  the  serf — 
Rise  up !  and  swear  this  day  to  hold 

Your  own  green   Irish  turf; 
Rise  up !  and  plant  your  feet  as  men 

Where  now  you  crawl  as  slaves, 
And  make  your  harvest-fields  your  camps. 
Or  make  of  them  your  graves. 
291 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"'The  birds  of  prey  are  hovering  round, 

The  vultures  wheel  and  swoop — 
They  come,   the  coroneted  ghouls! 

With  drum-beat  and  with  troop — 
They  come,  to  fatten  on  your  flesh, 

Your  children's  and  your  wives'; 
Ye  die  but  once — hold  fast  your  lands, 

And  if  ye  can  your  lives. 

'"Let  go  the  trembling  emigrant — 

Not  such  as  he  you  need; 
Let  go  the  lucre-loving  wretch 

That  flies  his  land  for  greed; 
Let  not  one  coward  stay  to  clog 

Your  manhood's  waking  power; 
Let  not  one  sordid  churl  pollute 

The  Nation's  natal  hour. 

"'Yes,  let  them  go! — the  caitiff  rout, 

That  shirk  the  struggle  now — 
The  light  that  crowns  your  victory 

Shall  scorch  each  recreant  brow. 
And  in  the  annals  of  your  race. 

Black  parallels  in  shame, 
Shall  stand  by  traitor's  and  by  spy's 

The  base  deserter's  name. 

"'Three  hundred  years  your  crops  have  sprung. 

By  murdered  corpses  fed: 
Your  butchered  sires,   your  famished  sires, 

For  ghastly  compost  spread; 
Their    bones  have  fertilized  your  fields. 

Their  blood  has  fall'n  like  rain; 
They  died  that  ye  might  eat  and  live — 

God!  have  they  died  in  vain? 

'"The  hour  has  strvick,  Fate  holds  the  dice. 

We  stand  with  bated  breath; 
Now  who  shall  have  our  harvests  fair — 

'Tis  Life  that  plays  with   Death; 
Now  who  shall  have  our  Motherland? — 

'Tis   Right  that  plays  with  Might; 
The  peasant's  arms  Avere  weak,  indeed. 

In  such  unequal  fight! 

" '  But  God  is  on  the  peasant's  side. 

The  God  that  loves  the  poor; 
His  angels  stand  with  flaming  swords 

On  every  mount  and  moor. 
They  guard  the  poor  man's  flocks  and  herds. 

They  guard  his  ripening  grain; 
The  robber  sinks  beneath  their  curse 

Beside  his  ill-got  gain.'" 


It  was  the  "Marseillaise "  of  the  Irish  peasant,  the  trumpet- 
call  of  the  league  to  the  Celtic  people  to  remember  the  hideous 

292 


THE    STATE    TRIALS 

crimes  of  an  odious  system,  and  with  trust  in  God's  eternal 
justice  to  rise  and  give  battle  to  the  death  against  this  im- 
ported curse  of  their  country  and  their  homes.  The  reading 
electrified  the  crowded  aivdience,  and  applause  which  could 
not  be  suppressed  burst  forth  as  the  last  stanza,  with  its  fine 
appeal  to  the  God  of  the  poor,  gave  expression  to  Ireland's 
awakened  hope  to  wrench  the  soil  in  one  supreme  struggle 
from  the  hands  of  the  heirs  to  confiscation. 

The  leading  counsel  for  the  league  was  a  veteran  lawyer 
who  had  seen  nearly  eighty  summers.  Mr.  Macdonough  was 
an  able  and  experienced  pleader  who  adopted  stately  manners 
when  addressing  the  judges.  Sir  Charles  Grandison  appeared 
to  be  his  model  in  mannerism,  as,  with  white  kid  gloves  and 
an  old-fashioned,  courtly  grace,  he  scored  a  point  with  an 
apology  to  his  beaten  opponents,  or  deferentiall}^  advised  the 
judges  where  he  desired  a  decision  on  some  disputed  reading 
of  the  law  to  be  given  in  favor  of  his  clients.  He  opened  his 
two  days'  speech  by  reminding  his  hearers  that  just  thirty 
years  previously  he  had  risen  in  that  same  court  in  defence  of 
Daniel  O'Connell.  He  recalled  the  names  of  the  brilliant 
lawyers  who  had  been  associated  with  him  in  that  great  state 
trial — the  names  of  Shiel,  Whiteside,  Fitzgibbon,  O'Hagan, 
Colman  O'Loghlin,  Perrin,  Monaghan,  and  others,  and  with  a 
touch  of  sad  pride,  which  evoked  a  sentiment  of  responsive 
sympathy  from  his  hearers,  the  old  man  repeated  Moore's 

lines : 

' ' '  When  I  remember  all 

The  friends  so  linked  together, 
I've  seen  around  me  fall, 

Like  leaves  in  wintry  weather, 
I  feel  like  one 
Who  treads  alone 
Some  banquet-hall  deserted 
Whose  lights  are  fled, 
Whose  garland's  dead. 
And  all  but  me  departed!'" 

His  speech  was  an  able  vindication  of  the  league  against  the 
imputation  that  deeds  and  occurrences  which  had  again  and 
again  in  the  agrarian  troubles  of  three  centuries  resulted  from 
an  unjust  land  system  owed  their  origin  or  inspiration  to  any 
other  cause.  He  quoted  from  commissions  innumerable  data 
which  "condemned  landlordism  in  the  eyes  of  Christendom," 
and  fortified  the  league's  counter  case  by  the  authoritative 
writings  of  Stuart  Mill  and  Ricardo,  and  from  the  admissions 
made  by  Gladstone,  Bright,  Froude,  and  other  English  wit- 
nesses, all  advocating,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  reforms  which 
the  traversers  pleaded  for  in  their  incriminated  speeches. 

293 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

The  most  effective  argument  employed  in  the  case  for  the 
league  was  this:  We  had  the  right  to  examine  almost  an  un- 
limited number  of  witnesses  for  the  defence,  and  on  the  in- 
spiration of  a  friend  it  was  resolved  to  bring  up  from  a  Mayo 
workhouse  all  its  old  inmates,  men  and  women,  who  had  been 
evicted  since  the  clearances  after  the  famine  of  1847.  One 
morning  during  the  trial,  as  the  judges,  counsel,  and  public 
were  wending  their  way  to  the  Four  Courts,  about  a  hundred 
of  the  inmates  of  Castlebar  workhouse  were  seen  lined  up  in 
the  yard  of  the  court  in  charge  of  Mr.  Tom  Brennan,  the  league 
secretary.  It  was  a  living  presentation  of  the  case  against 
landlordism  in  the  objects  of  its  victims,  and  not  alone  the 
judges  but  the  counsel  for  the  Crown  were  affrighted  at  the 
apparition  of  this  pauper  product  of  the  system  on  trial. 
Tactics  were  immediately  changed,  and  a  count  in  the  indict- 
ment which  would  challenge  the  production  of  this  kind  of 
testimony  was  openly  abandoned,  and  another  blow  was 
given  to  the  prosecution. 

Parliament  had  opened  in  its  second  session  while  the  trials 
were  proceeding,  and  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  parliamentary  col- 
leagues had  crossed  to  London  to  be  present.  This  action  of 
the  prosecuted  members,  in  absenting  themselves  without 
leave  from  a  court  where  they  were  on  trial  for  conspiracy, 
caused  consternation  among  loyalists.  It  was  unprecedented, 
but  so  was  a  leader  so  resolute  and  a  combination  so  strong 
in  a  modern  Irish  movement.  Having  thus  shown  a  healthy 
defiance  of  a  packed  bench  and  a  contempt  for  an  action  by 
,  one  set  of  political  opponents  against  another,  he  returned  to 
[  Dublin  in  time  for  the  verdict  of  the  jury. 

All  the  counsel  on  the  traversers'  side  made  able  speeches  in 
the  final  addresses  to  the  jury,  the  most  outspoken  and  pro- 
Land-League  of  all  being  the  speech  of  Mr.  Peter  O'Brien,  then 
counsel  for  the  Land  League,  and  afterwards  Mr.  Balfour's 
anti-plan-of-campaign  chief-justice  for  Ireland.  The  late  Mr. 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  M.P.,  who  had  been  retained  to  defend  Mr. 
Patrick  Egan,  made  the  most  finished  address  of  the  whole 
trial.  It  was  marked  throughout  by  intense  feeling,  expressed 
in  the  highest  kind  of  forensic  eloquence,  the  delivery  being 
fervid,  passionate,  and  convincing. 

The  judge's  charge  to  the  jury  was  all  that  could  be  desired 
by  Dublin  Castle.  It  was  simply  that  of  a  Crown  prosecutor 
with  a  seat  on  the  bench. 

The  jury  were  absent  six  hours,  and  on  returning  to  court 
at  five  o'clock  on  Wednesday,  January  26,  1881,  it  was  an- 
nounced by  the  foreman  that  they  could  not  agree  on  a 
verdict,    whereupon    Mr.    Hopkins,    one   of    the    Protestant 

294 


THE    STATE    TRIALS 

jurors,  declared,  "There  were  ten  of  us  for  an  acquittal" — 
when  he  was  sternly  silenced  by  Judge  Fitzgerald.  Cheers 
broke  out  in  the  court.  They  were  taken  up  by  an  immense 
crowd  outside,  and  in  a  few  moments  Dublin  was  ringing  with 
the  news  that  the  Land  League  had  once  more  scored  against 
its  foes.  Going  with  Mr.  Parnell  to  his  hotel  from  the  court, 
he  said  to  me,  in  his  impressive  way:  "We  have  beaten  them 
again,  and  now  they  will  go  for  you."  He  was  right;  but  one 
or  two  things  were  to  happen  before  then  which  were  destined 
to  make  a  mark  in  the  history  of  the  next  fifteen  months. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 
THE    LADIES*    LAND    LEAGUE 

Events  were  now  to  develop  with  startling  rapidity  towards 
a  crisis.  The  Castle  and  landlords  were  once  more  beaten. 
Mr.  Forster  was  checkmated  in  his  state  prosecution.  The 
situation  was  becoming  electrical,  and  the  next  move  would 
be  with  the  government,  in  its  policy  towards  the  league, 
after  the  failure  of  the  ordinary  law  to  convict  it  of  illegality. 
In  America  opinion  was  keeping  in  sympathetic  pace  with 
the  progress  of  the  fight.  Judge  Fitzgerald  in  his  accusatory 
charge  to  the  jury  undertook  to  deny  that  "native-born 
American  feeling"  was  on  the  side  of  the  league.  This  ill- 
informed  assertion  was  promptly  met  and  answered  by  a 
thorough  American  who  had  been  in  favor  of  the  movement 
from  the  start.  The  day  following  this  judicial  dictum  in 
Dublin,  the  Land  League  received  this  message  from  Chicago: 

"At  a  meeting  of  the  Seventeenth  Ward  Land  League 
of  Chicago  last  night,  the  Hon.  Carter  H.  Harrison,  Mayor 
of  Chicago,  presiding,  the  following  was  cabled  to  the  Free- 
man s  Journal  of  Dublin : 

"''  Resolved,  That  we  indignantly  repudiate  the  sentiment 
attributed  to  us  by  Justice  Fitzgerald,  and  as  native  Americans 
we  assure  the  Land  League  in  Ireland  of  our  earnest  sustain- 
ment  until  its  object  be  realized.  —  Carter  H.  Harrison, 
Chairman.' 

"The  mayor  also  spoke  strongly — said  that  the  judge 
was  a  calumniator  of  the  American  people,  and  lied  to  the 
jury  and  the  world.  " 

Five  hundred  additional  new  branches  of  the  league  were 
formed  within  the  two  months  embraced  between  the  first 
intimation  of  a  government  prosecution  of  the  league  execu- 
tive and  the  verdict  of  the  Dublin  jury  near  the  end  of 
January. 

An  occurrence  which  provoked  much  comment  and  gave 
rise  to  interesting  speculation  about  a  possible  union  between 
"Orange  and  Green"  took  place  at  this  time.  I  addressed 
a  meeting  in  County  Armagh  at  which  a  local  grand  master 

296 


THE  LADIES'  LAND  LEAGUE 

of  an  Orange  lodge  took  the  chair.  The  audience  was 
all  but  exclusively  Protestant.  The  Land  League  and  its 
principles  were  cordially  welcomed  and  endorsed  by  resolution 
and  speech,  and  at  the  end  of  the  proceedings  I  had  to  under- 
go the  ordeal  of  popular  approval  called  "chairing."  In  any 
other  civilized  land  on  earth  there  would  be  no  special  notice 
taken  of  a  trivial  incident  of  this  kind.  But  Ireland  under 
English  rule — the  rule  of  dividing  the  people  in  order  the 
more  effectively  to  rule  them  against  national  cohesion — 
was  not  like  other  lands.  Consternation  seized  upon  Dublin 
Castle.  The  landlord  organs  could  scarcely  credit  the  news, 
and  it  was  this  unheard-of  incident  of  a  Fenian,  Catholic, 
and  Land-Leaguer  being  thus  honored  by  Orangemen  which 
caused  Mr.  Parnell  to  say,  two  days  subsequently,  as  already 
recorded,  "And  now  they  will  go  for  you." 

The  impression  which  the  events  in  Ireland  during  the  last 
week  in  January  made  in  Parliament,  and  the  measures 
which  the  ministry  were  contemplating  in  consequence  of  the 
failure  of  the  Crown  to  convict  the  league,  will  be  best  told 
in  the  reproduction  of  a  cable  message  sent  to  a  New  York 
newspaper  by  Mr.  Parnell: 

"London,  January  26,  1S81. 

"The  Land  League  has  scored  a  victory.  The  ten-to-two 
disagreement  of  the  jury  in  face  of  the  tremendous  pressure 
of  the  court  is  everywhere  accepted  as  having  the  force  of 
an  acquittal,  and  is  a  virtual  protest  against  the  government's 
proposed  coercion  bills. 

"  Of  the  violent  and  indecent  charge  made  by  Judge  Fitz- 
gerald I  shall  say  nothing.  The  publication  of  the  charge  is 
its  condemnation. 

"The  Irish  party  are  doing  their  work  well.  I  am  entirely 
satisfied  with  them.  The  debate  on  the  address  to  the  Queen, 
which  was  prolonged  for  a  fortnight,  proved  their  endurance 
and  fidelity.  No  other  debate  in  Parliament  has  ever  before 
lasted  more  than  four  or  five  days. 

"Gladstone's  ministry,  in  which  the  aristocratic  element 
has  gained  the  ascendant,  are  exasperated  at  the  firmness 
shown  by  us.  They  had  hoped  to  exhaust  our  strength  long 
since,  but  Irish  fertility  of  resource  has  paralyzed  them,  and 
up  to  the  present  has  prevented  the  passage  of  a  coercion 
bill. 

"The  principal  provisions  of  the  coercion  bill,  as  roughly 
thrown  out,  are  the  abolition  of  trial  by  jury  and  the  sub- 
stitution in  its  stead  of  trial  by  two  judges. 

"This  we  shall  resist  as  long  as  we  can  hold  out. 

"The  character  of  Irish  judges  renders  such  a  tribunal 

297 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

utterly  untrustworthy.  Most  of  those  Irish  judges  are  also 
members  of  the  secret  Privy  Council,  and  therefore  creatures 
of  the  government. 

"Although  arrests  continue,  the  Irish  people  remain  un- 
daunted and  unintimidated.  Their  perfect  discipline  is 
worthy  of  all  admiration. 

"Money  flows  into  the  Land  League,  which  the  people 
now  regard  as  their  sole  resource. 

"The  landlords,  who  find  themselves  vanquished  at  the 
bar  of  Christendom,  now  grasp  at  the  forlorn  hope  that 
coercion  will  cripple  the  power  of  the  Land  League,  and  they 
give  out,  in  affected  bravery,  that  when  it  is  passed  they 
will  shower  those  eviction  notices  down  upon  the  helpless 
tenants  which  the  Land  League  has  hitherto  staved  off. 
But,  thanks  to  our  American  countrymen,  the  Land  League 
has  such  reserve  resources  that,  in  spite  of  temporary  coer- 
cive laws,  there  is  no  fear  of  the  future. 

"The  government  hope  by  pouring  in  troops  and  by  their 
arbitrary  conduct  in  Ireland  so  to  exasperate  the  people  as 
to  provoke  rebellion  and  then  to  shoot  down  by  the  thousands 
the  unarmed  people.  These  manoeuvres  we  also  hope  to 
checkmate. 

"As  we  stand  at  present,  passive  resistance  to  unjust  laws 
is  the  stronger  weapon  in  our  hands. 

"Thanks  to  the  Irish  World  and  its  readers  for  their  con- 
stant co-operation  and  substantial  support  in  our  great  cause. 
Let  them  have  no  fear  of  its  ultimate  success. 

"Charles  Stewart  Parnell." 

It  now  became  essential  to  prepare  for  the  storm  ahead. 
The  government  would  be  armed  by  Parliament  with  powers 
of  arbitrary  arrest  and  of  certain  conviction  at  the  hands 
of  special  magistrates  who  would  be  the  deadly  political  ene- 
mies of  the  league.  Trial  by  jury  would  be  abolished.  Cur- 
ran 's  famous  classic  exordium  upon  the  freedom  insured  in 
England  by  the  genius  of  the  British  Constitution  would  be 
reduced  to  a  mockery  in  Curran's  own  country,  where  the 
ends  of  English  policy  required  the  weapons  of  despotism 
against  the  liberty  of  free  speech  and  the  right  and  exercise  of 
public  meeting.  By  foul  means  if  not  by  fair  Mr.  Forster, 
at  the  dictation  of  the  Irish  landlords  and  backed  by  the 
anti-Irish  feeling  evoked  in  Great  Britain  in  a  fierce  press 
campaign  against  us,  was  resolved  to  crush  the  league. 

Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  Egan,  Brennan,  and  the  present 
writer  discussed  the  plan  of  a  counter  campaign  immediately 
after  the  state  trial.     We  would  all  be  arrested  in  due  course, 

298 


THE  LADIES'  LAND  LEAGUE 

perhaps  in  a  few  weeks.  So  would  the  other  leaders.  Eng- 
land's back  was  up,  and  Mr.  Forster  would  be  driven  to  the 
adoption  of  the  most  extreme  measures.  All  meetings  would 
be  proclaimed,  the  landlords  would  glut  their  vengeance  in 
wholesale  evictions,  and  there  would  either  be  a  state  of 
anarchy  or  a  tame  submission  of  the  country  to  the  forces 
of  coercion.     This  was  the  outlook.      How  was  it  to  be  met? 

The  formation  of  a  Ladies'  Land  League  on  the  plan  laid 
down  by  Miss  Fanny  Parnell  in  New  York  was  proposed  as 
one  of  our  measures.  This  suggestion  was  laughed  at  by  all 
except  Mr.  Egan  and  myself,  and  vehemently  opposed  by 
Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  Brennan,  who  feared  we  would 
invite  public  ridicule  in  appearing  to  put  women  forward 
in  places  of  danger.  This  was  no  valid  ground  of  objection, 
however.  Who  would  carry  on  the  work  of  the  league  when 
we  were  all  carefully  jailed  out  of  Mr.  Forster's  way?  We 
were  engaged  in  a  virtual  revolution.  Our  purpose  should 
be  to  make  confusion  worse  confounded  in  retaliation  for  the 
violation  of  the  statutory  law  in  arbitrary  arrests  on  sus- 
picion and  imprisonment  without  trial.  No  better  allies 
than  women  could  be  found  for  such  a  task.  They  are,  in 
certain  emergencies,  more  dangerous  to  despotism  than  men. 
They  have  more  courage,  through  having  less  scruples,  when 
and  where  their  better  instincts  are  appealed  to  by  a  militant 
and  just  cause  in  a  fight  against  a  mean  foe.  The  fight  was 
to  save  the  homes  of  Ireland — the  sacred,  domestic  domain 
of  woman's  moral  supremacy  in  civilized  society,  while  the 
enemy  was  the  system  which  had  ruined  tens  of  thousands 
of  Irish  girls,  morally  and  otherwise,  in  evictions  and  in 
consequent  misery  and  wrong.  The  courage  and  constancy 
of  Irish  women  could  not  be  better  employed  than  in  the 
task  of  carrying  on  this  fight  after  the  male  leaders  were  sent 
to  jail.  "Would  you  have  girls  sent  to  prison,  too?"  was 
asked.  "Certainly.  In  such  a  cause,  why  not?  Moreover, 
what  of  the  effect  this  would  have  on  the  public  opinion  of 
the  United  States  and  the  world  if  fifty  or  a  hundred  re- 
spectable young  women  were  sent  to  jail  as  'criminals,'  with- 
out trial  or  conviction,  by  England's  rulers  in  Ireland? 
Nothing  could  be  better  for  our  purpose,  which  was  to  pre- 
pare the  country  for  a  general  strike  against  all  rents  the  day 
the  coming  coercion  bill  should  obtain  the  royal  signature." 

Miss  Anna  Parnell  had  been  consulted  about  this  plan. 
She  thoroughly  approved  of  it,  and  this  had  much  to  do  with 
obtaining  from  Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  Brennan  a  passive 
assent  to  what  they  dreaded  would  be  a  most  dangerous  exper- 
iment.    So,  undoubtedly,  thought  Mr.  Forster,  too,  only  later. 

299 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

Miss  Anna  Parnell  was  a  lady  of  remarkable  ability  and 
energy  of  character — fragile  in  form,  of  medium  height,  dark- 
brown  hair  and  kindly  eyes,  the  handsome  Parnell  face, 
with  all  her  great  brother's  intense  application  to  any  one 
thing  at  a  time,  and  with  much  more  than  even  his  resolute- 
ness of  purpose  in  any  enterprise  that  might  enlist  her  interest 
and  advocacy,  together  with  a  thorough  revolutionary  spirit. 
Having  been  very  much  blamed  on  the  one  hand  for  suggest- 
ing the  plan  thus  agreed  upon,  I  am  vain  enough  to  covet  the 
honor  too  generously  given  me  on  the  other  hand  by  Miss  Par- 
nell, in  her  own  too  modest  account  of  the  part  she  had  played 
in  creating  the  force  which  pulled  coercion  down.^ 

The  plans  which  the  Ladies'  League  were  to  put  in  opera- 
tion were  these :  Offices  would  be  provided  for  their  executive 
at  the  headquarters  of  the  Land  League  proper,  which  had 
been  removed  in  December  from  Middle  Abbey  Street  to 
39  Upper  O'Connell  Street,  Dublin.  Miss  Parnell  and  her 
lieutenants  would  be  supplied  with  duplicate  addresses  of 
league  branches  everywhere,  at  home  and  abroad,  and  would 
be  put  in  communication  with  the  local  leaders  of  the  or- 
ganization in  every  county  and  district  in  Ireland.  The 
duty  of  supporting  evicted  tenants  would  fall  to  their  work, 
and  of  encouraging  resistance  to  land-grabbing.  Wooden 
huts  were  to  be  provided,  and  if  possible  as  near  the  evicted 
holding  as  ground  for  their  erection  would  be  found  availa- 
ble; this  for  shelter,  but  also  to  enable  the  evicted  family  to 
keep  a  vigilant  watch  over  their  interests  in  the  vacant  farm. 
Another  very  important  task  was  the  support  of  families 
while  members  of  the  same  would  be  in  prison.  This  obliga- 
tion was  undertaken  as  the  general  policy  of  the  league. 
Men,  young  or  old,  who  might  be  singled  out  by  Mr.  Forster 
for  punishment  were  assured  in  advance  that  their  families 
would  be  provided  for  during  their  incarceration,  and  that 
no  material   loss   should  be  incurred   by   them   in   fighting 

*  "The  resolutions  passed  here  to-day  describe  this  Ladies'  Land 
League  as  being  jointly  my  work  and  that  of  Michael  Davitt.  Now 
it  was  wholly  his  work.  I  did  not  have  anything  to  say  to  it  until 
it  was  done.  We  did  not  put  our  heads  together  about  it.  Mr. 
Davitt  settled  it  all  in  his  own  mind,  and  he  then  informed  the  world 
that  I  was  going  to  do  it,  to  carry  his  ideas  out,  and  he  never  asked 
my  consent  at  all.  I  am  glad  now  that  he  did  not,  because  I  might 
have  hesitated;  but  now  I  see  that  he  was  right,  and  that  this  Ladies' 
Land  League  was  the  proper  thing  to  form  in  the  crisis  at  which 
we  have  arrived.  I  think  that  certain  people  in  Dublin  Castle  have  the 
same  opinion,  because  I  observe  that,  of  all  those  who  have  been  ar- 
rested, it  is  the  special  friends  of  the  Ladies'  Land  Leagtie  who  have 
been  pounced  upon.  Michael  Davitt  was  the  first." — Speech  by  Miss 
Parnell,  April  2,  1881.     Report  Special  Commission,  vol.  ix.,  p.  477. 

300 


THE  LADIES'  LAND  LEAGUE 

coercion.  Where  trials  or  prosecutions  in  the  courts  had 
to  be  faced,  legal  assistance  would  be  engaged  and  paid  for, 
and  in  the  event  of  imprisonment  following,  and  food  could 
be  sent  in  from  outside,  this  would  be  done  at  the  expense 
of  the  league.  Other  duties  would  suggest  themselves  as 
circumstances  arose,  and  as  the  coercion  policy  would  develop 
such  measures  were  to  be  taken  by  the  expenditure  of  money 
as  would  give  the  coercionists  most  opposition  and  trouble  in 
every  corner  of  the  country  in  executing  a  despotic  law,  this 
obstruction  to  be  organized  and  offered  in  the  spirit  and 
meaning  of  the  lines  in  Miss  Fanny  Parnell's  poem: 

"Keep  the  law,  oh,  keep  it  well — -keep  it  as  your  rulers  do; 
Be  not  righteous  overmuch — when  the}''  break  it,  so  can  you!" 

At  this  time  the  league  had  become  the  most  formidable 
movement  that  had  confronted  the  English  rulers  of  Ireland 
in  the  century.  Barring  parts  of  Ulster,  it  embraced  almost 
the  whole  country.  Its  revenues  were  growing  by  leaps  and 
bounds,  while  branches  were  being  formed  almost  every  week 
in  every  coimtry  in  the  world  in  which  exiled  Irish  resided. 
The  roll  of  branches  in  Ireland  at  this  period  would  be 
about  one  thousand,  some  of  them  numbering  one  thousand 
members.  Fully  two  hundred  thousand  members  would  be 
enrolled  in  the  branches  in  Ireland.  In  the  United  States  and 
Canada  there  would  be  as  many  as  in  Ireland,  while  away 
in  Australasia  branches  had  sprung  up  in  all  the  principal 
cities  and  in  several  mining  centres.  It  would  be  underrating 
the  total  membership  of  the  whole  league  to  put  it  down  at 
five  hundred  thousand  strong  in  February,  1881,  while  at  the 
end  of  that  year  it  would  be  nearer  a  million. 

It  was  felt  by  what  could  still  be  called  the  extreme  wing  of 
the  league  (extreme  in  the  Land-League  sense),  which  by 
this  time  counted  Mr.  John  Dillon  among  its  numbers,  and 
almost  all  the  organizers  and  most  active  propagandists, 
that  a  general  strike  against  rent  would  be  the  most  effective 
counter  blow  to  coercion.  It  would  be  a  double  stroke:  one 
at  the  government  for  suspending  the  ordinary  law,  and  the 
other  at  the  arch-enemy  of  the  nation,  landlordism.  It  would 
mean  a  kind  of  civil  war,  and  might  lead  to  bloodshed  in 
encounters  with  military  and  police.  But  all  modern  Irish 
history  proclaimed  aloud  from  the  records  that  the  only  way 
to  obtain  reform  for  Ireland  was  by  insurrection,  illegality, 
and  the  general  warfare  of  "righteous  violence,"  as  Isaac 
Butt  termed  the  sporadic  revolt  of  the  Irish  peasantry  against 
the  enemy  of  their  rights  and  homes.  Moreover,  the  Boers 
were  attacking  the  English  at  this  time  in  their  war  for  free- 

301 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

dom,  and  advantage  could  be  taken  of  this  difficulty  in 
.  South  Africa  to  bring  Enghsh  statesmen  to  their  senses  nearer 
home  in  the  matter  of  Irish  national  government.  All  these 
facts  being  duly  considered,  Mr.  A.  J.  Kettle  and  the  present 
writer  were  deputed  to  cross  to  London  on  February  2d  to 
interview  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  chief  parliamentary  lieutenants 
on  the  following  day  upon  the  advisability  of  adopting  this 
extreme  plan  of  campaign. 

The  interview  took  place  in  the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel 
on  the  3d.  Mr.  Parnell  and  six  of  his  colleagues  attended. 
The  no  -  rent  insurrection  was  proposed  and  discussed.  It 
was  likewise  proposed  that  on  the  day  when  the  Coercion 
Act  should  become  law  the  whole  Irish  parliamentary  party 
should  rise  and  leave  the  House  of  Commons  in  a  body,  cross 
to  Ireland,  and  carry  out  the  no-rent  campaign,  each  member 
placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  organization  in  his  con- 
stituency and  going  to  prison  if  necessary.  Mr.  Parnell  was 
not  averse  to  this  extreme  policy,  but  one  or  two  influential 
colleagues  were  very  strongly  so,  and  no  decision  was  ar- 
rived at.  It  was  evident,  however,  that  Parnell,  if  forced  by 
circumstances,  would  fight  it  out  on  these  or  similar  lines, 
and  the  gain  of  his  lead  in  such  a  policy  would  be  all  that 
|_was  required  by  the  extremists. 

That  evening  I  sat  for  two  hours  in  the  speaker's  gallery 
in  the  House  of  Commons.  Lord  Beaconsfield  chanced  to  be 
in  the  peers'  gallery,  nearest  to  the  seat  occupied  by  me.  I 
was  told  in  after  years — when  I  was  for  a  time  a  member  of 
the  House — that  a  prominent  minister  in  the  Gladstone 
cabinet  called  the  attention  of  a  colleague  to  my  presence  in 
the  gallery  in  these  words  (the  words  used  by  the  minister  who 
afterwards  told  me  of  the  incident) : 

"Do  you  see  that  scoundrel  next  to  Beaconsfield  in  the 
gallery?  Well,  I  will  have  that  fellow  back  in  penal  servitude 
to-morrow." 

I  crossed  to  Dublin  by  the  mail  that  night.  At  two 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  following  day  I  was  arrested. 
I  was  detained  in  the  police  department  of  Dublin  Castle 
during  the  afternoon,  and  taken  to  Kingstown  in  a  cab  and 
put  on  board  the  mail  boat  for  England  in  charge  of  Scotland 
Yard  officers  in  the  evening.  On  the  train  reaching  Willesden 
Junction  on  the  morning  of  the  5th,  I  was  taken  out,  put  in  a 
cab,  and  driven  under  an  escort  of  mounted  police  to  Bow 
Street,  where  Sir  James  Ingram  was  in  readiness  at  6  a.m. 
for  his  part  in  the  following  brief  interview: 

Mai^^istrate  {to  Detective  Williamson).  "The  prisoner's 
name?" 

302 


THE  LADIES'  LAND  LEAGUE 

"Michael  Davitt." 

"  He  is  the  person  of  that  name  who  was  in  penal  servitude 
for  treason  felony?" 

"Yes." 

Magistrate  {to  prisoner).  "  You  are  sent  back  to  penal 
servitude." 

Prisoner.  "What  for?" 

Magistrate.   "That  is  no  business  of  mine." 

Another  cab  journey  to  Millbank  Prison,  a  change  of  attire, 
a  location  in  old  quarters,  and  the  exciting  world  of  Irish 
politics  would  know  me  no  more  for  five  years — if  the  whole 
unexpired  original  sentence  was  to  be  completed.  However, 
that  same  night  I  was  awakened  from  sleep  to  find  my  own 
clothes  back  again  in  the  cell.  Ordered  to  put  them  on,  I  was 
taken  out  of  the  prison  about  midnight  and  driven  to  a 
railway  station  by  four  warders.  A  railway  journey  for  a  few 
hours  followed,  and  Weymouth  was  reached,  when  I  knew  that 
Portland  Prison  was  to  be  my  destinatii  ii,  and  I  felt  happy 
to  think  that  it  was  not  to  be  Dartmoor  again. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

LAND-LEAGUE    PLANS 

Mr.  Parnell  cabled  the  following  message  to  the  American 
press  for  the  information  and  encouragement  of  the  auxiliary- 
league  of  the  United  States: 

"London,  February  4,  1881. 

"The  government  expected  that  the  blow  struck  at  the 
Land  League  by  Michael  Davitt's  arrest  would  be  a  crushing 
one,  but,  heavy  as  it  is  to  us  personally,  we  have  already  in- 
dications that  it  will  recoil  upon  the  forces  of  landlordism. 
The  Irish  people,  instead  of  being  intimidated  thereby,  are 
firmly  bracing  themselves  for  the  coming  struggle,  and  assur- 
ances reach  me  from  all  sides  that  there  will  be  no  flinching 
among  Irishmen  in  the  arduous  times  that  they  are  destined  to 
face. 

"Yesterday  the  howls,  the  cheering,  the  signs  of  uproarious 
joy  with  which  the  British  House  of  Commons — the  first  as- 
sembly of  gentlemen  in  the  world — greeted  the  news  of  Dav- 
itt's arrest  made  up  the  most  brutal  and  painful  scene  ever 
witnessed  in  that  chamber. 

"We  are  doing  our  utmost  to  mitigate  the  horrors  of  Dav- 
itt's confinement,  as  he  is  in  very  delicate  health,  but  we  great- 
ly dread  the  results  for  him. 

"To-day  a  strong  reaction  set  in  after  the  first  excitement 
attending  the  expulsions.  The  Radicals  of  England  will  yet 
discover  the  mistake  they  made  in  condoning  the  autocracy 
of  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and  allowing  liberty 
to  be  trampled  on  in  her  own  temple. 

"Sooner  or  later  a  coalition  of  the  Whig  and  Tory  territori- 
alists  must  be  formed  to  make  head  against  the  English  de- 
mocracy, and  they  will  then  find  how  fatal  for  their  own  free- 
dom was  the  precedent  of  yesterday. 

"Charles  Stewart  Parnell."* 

On  the  news  of  the  arrest  reaching  the  House  of  Commons, 
Mr.  Parnell  questioned  the  home  secretary,  Sir  William  Har- 

'  Boston  Globe,  February  5,  18S1. 
304 


LAND-LEAGUE    PLANS 

court,  on  what  grounds  this  action  was  justified.  The  an- 
swer was  given  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  "gentle- 
manly" manner  described  by  the  Irish  leader.  The  result 
was  not  to  the  credit  or  advantage  of  that  assembly.  The 
Irish  party  struck  back,  and  that  night  the  most  arbitrary  and 
despotic  act  ever  attempted  by  a  speaker  against  the  right  and 
privilege  of  its  members  was  put  on  record.  Mr.  Gladstone 
rose  to  explain  the  new  rules  which  were  to  introduce  the 
cloture  for  the  first  time  in  the  debates  of  the  House — a 
measure  curtailing  freedom  of  debate  also  forced  upon  the 
"Mother  of  Parliaments"  by  the  Irish  policy.  This  gag  law 
was  purposely  proposed  at  this  stage  in  view  of  the  declared 
intention  of  the  government  to  bring  forward  a  measure  of 
stringent  coercion  for  Ireland.  It  was  intended  to  limit  the 
weapons  of  obstruction  for  Irish  resistance. 

Mr.  John  Dillon  rose  as  Mr.  Gladstone  began  his  speech  and 
claimed  a  hearing.  The  assembly  yelled  in  fierce  anger;  but 
the  Irish  blood  was  up,  and  the  howling  chamber  was  defied. 
Mr.  Dillon  was  suspended  and  removed  from  the  House  by 
force.  On  the  prime-minister  rising  again,  Mr.  Parnell  rose 
and  proposed,  "I  beg  to  move  that  the  right  honorable  gen- 
tleman be  no  further  heard."  This  was,  of  course,  a  proceed- 
ing of  deliberate  exasperation,  and  it  was  not  astonishing 
that  an  indescribable  scene  of  uproar  ensued.  Mr.  Parnell 
was  finally  voted  out  of  the  debate  and  the  House,  but  only 
to  have  his  example  followed  by  others  of  his  party,  until  the 
speaker,  usurping  a  power  which  no  rules  or  precedent  gave 
him,  undertook  to  suspend  twenty-eight  Irish  members  on  a 
single  motion  suggested  by  the  ministerial  whip.  Among 
these  twenty-eight  was  Mr.  John  E.  Redmond,  who  took  his 
seat  that  very  afternoon  as  a  member  for  New  Ross,  and  thus 
had  the  unique  distinction  of  being  suspended  a  few  hours 
after  his  first  entry  into  Parliament.  Finally,  after  hours  of 
intense  excitement  and  violent  passions  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  the  House  of  Commons,  the  entire  Irish  party  under 
Mr.  Parnell's  leadership  were  expelled.  It  was  a  "victory" 
which  spelled  defeat  for  the  prestige  and  ancient  record  of  the 
centre  of  Britain's  imperial  sway.  The  retaliatory  mission 
of  the  Irish  idea  was  playing  its  part  in  the  citadel  of  England's 
pride  and  power. 

The  Land  -  League  executive  arranged  to  meet  in  Paris  a 
few  days  after  the  events  just  described.  This  course  was 
deemed  necessary  to  safeguard  the  funds  of  the  organization, 
and  to  enable  the  leaders  to  have  the  freedom  and  secrecy  of 
cable  communications  from  France  with  the  leaders  in  Amer- 
ica, pending  a  decision  as  to  new  plans.  All  the  members 
2°  305 


hJ 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

assembled  at  the  appointed  place  except  Mr.  Parnell.  He 
had  left  London  for  Paris,  but  no  one  had  information  of  his 
whereabouts.  Days  went  by,  but  there  was  no  message  and 
no  tale  or  tidings  of  the  absent  leader.  The  news  of  his  dis- 
appearance leaked  into  the  press  and  created  a  painful  feeling 
among  the  expectant  colleagues.  Finally  it  was  proposed 
that  the  extreme  step  should  be  taken  of  opening  the  letters 
which  awaited  him  in  the  hotel  where  the  executive  had  de- 
cided to  meet,  in  the  hope  of  finding  a  clew.  The  first  letter 
that  was  read  revealed  the  secret  which  afterwards  worked  his 
"4  ruin.     None  of  his  most  intimate  associates  had  hitherto  sus- 

pected the  liaison  in  which  he  was  found  entangled.  It  was  a 
painful  discovery,  for  it  was  the  first  cloud  that  had  fallen 
menacingly  over  what  had  promised  to  be  the  most  successful 
political  career  that  had  ever  been  carved  out  of  brilliant  and 
beneficial  service  to  the  cause  of  Ireland. 

Finally  Mr.  Parnell  appeared,  and  the  situation  in  Ireland 
was  carefully  considered.  The  league  in  Dublin  had  passed  a 
resolution  urging  him  to  proceed  at  once  to  America,  the  more 
effectively  to  appeal  for  aid  to  our  people  and  friends  there  in 
the  crisis  at  hand.  It  was  decided  in  Paris  not  to  accede  to 
this  view.  It  would  wear  the  appearance  of  avoiding  danger 
in  a  serious  emergency,  and  any  suspicion  of  that  kind  would 
,-  materially  weaken  the  hold  of  an  Irish  leader  upon  the  people 
of  Ireland.  The  decision  arrived  at  was  that  Mr.  Parnell 
should  return  to  Parliament,  oppose  the  coercion  measures, 
and  then  proceed  to  Ireland.  Mr.  John  Dillon  was  to  assume 
the  position  vacated  by  me,  while  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  was  to 
make  Paris  the  financial  headquarters  of  the  league  until  the 
full  effects  of  the  coercion  policy  should  develop  themselves 
at  home. 

In  addition  to  this  an  important  resolution  was  come  to 
which  is  best  explained  in  Mr.  Parnell's  own  words.  He  had 
;  noted  that  large  numbers  of  English  and  Scotch  working- 
men  had  taken  part,  as  trades  unionists,  in  public  meetings 
organized  by  the  Land  League  of  Great  Britain  as  a  protest 
against  the  cloture  in  Parliament  and  coercion  in  Ireland. 
These  demonstrations  took  place  in  Hyde  Park,  London; 
Birmingham,  Bradford,  Leeds,  Newcastle,  and  Glasgow,  and 
were  a  hopeful  sign  of  British  working-class  feeling  in  favor 
of  the  radical  stand  made  by  the  league  for  land  reform  and 
by  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Mr.  Parnell  issued 
a  manifesto  to  the  Irish  people  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  the 
Land  League,  dated  Paris,  February  13,  1 881,  in  which  he  ad- 
vocated a  policy  that  had  been  strongly  pressed  upon  him  for 
some  time.     He  explained  this  policy  as  follows: 

306 


LAND-LEAGUE    PLANS 

"The  result  of  the  renewed  exertions  of  the  party  since  the 
coup  d'etat  and  the  adoption  of  the  gagging  resolution  has  been 
so  far  most  encouraging.  Moreover,  it  would  be  scarcely  fair  of 
me  to  leave  my  party  to  face  the  up-hill  work  entailed  upon 
them,  and  I  think  I  can  be  of  some  service  during  the  passage 
of  the  Land  Bill  in  pointing  out  in  what  respects  it  may  fall 
short  of  a  final  settlement  of  the  land  question.  Should  it 
fail  to  offer  an  adequate  solution,  the  government  of  England 
having  adopted  rules  of  coercion  and  intimidation  against  our 
people  at  home  and  their  representatives  in  Parliament,  and 
having  practically  attempted  to  drive  both  one  and  the  other 
outside  the  limits  of  the  constitution  by  the  use  of  unconstitu- 
tional and  illegal  means  in  Parliament  and  in  the  country,  two 
courses  appeared  open  to  us.  The  first,  that  Irish  members 
should  retire  in  a  body  from  the  House  of  Commons  and  an- 
nounce to  their  constituents  that  the  constitutional  weapon 
of  parliamentary  representation  had  been  snatched  from  their 
hands,  and  that  nothing  remained  but  sullen  acquiescence  or 
appeal  to  force  in  opposition  to  force  which  had  been  used 
against  us.  The  second  alternative  appeared  to  be  that  we 
should  steadfastly  labor  on  deepening  the  lines  and  widening 
the  area  of  our  agitation,  appealing  to  the  great  masses  of 
population  of  England  and  Scotland,  who  are  much  less  repre- 
sented in  the  House  of  Commons  than  the  masses  of  Ireland. 

"Appealing,  I  say,  against  territorialism  and  shopocracy, 
which  dominate  in  Parliament,  to  working-men  and  agricultur- 
al laborers  of  Britain,  who  surely  have  no  interest  in  the  mis- 
government  and  persecution  of  Ireland,  I  have  dismissed  the 
first  of  these  courses  from  consideration,  but  the  second  alter- 
native presents  to  us  many  elements  of  hope  of  ultimate  suc- 
cess. As  I  have  said.  Parliament  is  at  present  governed  by 
landlords,  manufacturers,  and  shopkeepers  of  Great  Britain. 
At  election  times  the  springs  are  set  in  motion  by  wire-pullers 
of  the  two  political  parties,  and  masses  of  the  electors  are 
driven  to  the  polling-booths  to  register  the  decrees  of  some 
caucus  with  place  and  power,  and  not  the  good  of  the  people 
as  its  object.  Public  opinion  in  England  is  also  deliberately 
and  systematically  perverted  with  regard  to  Ireland,  but  vig- 
orous agitation  in  England  and  Scotland  would  change  all 
this.  The  near  approach  of  household  suffrage  in  counties  is  a 
practical  certainty  before  the  next  general  election.  It  will 
sound  the  doom  of  the  English  land  system.  The  starting  of  a 
working-man  or  agricultural-laborer  candidate  in  every  Brit- 
ish constituency  would  soon  bring  the  House  of  Commons  and 
radicalism  to  its  senses. 

"A  junction  between  English  democracy  and  Irish  national- 

307 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ism  upon  a  basis  of  Ireland's  right  to  make  her  own  laws,  the 
overthrow  of  territorialism  in  both  countries,  and  enfranchise- 
ment of  labor  from  crushing  taxes  for  maintenance  of  standing 
armies  and  navies  would  prove  irresistible.  It  would  ter- 
minate the  strife  of  centuries  and  secure  lasting  friendship, 
based  on  mutual  interest  and  confidence,  between  the  two 
nations."  ^ 

This  was  a  sagacious  policy  at  this  time.  It  had  the 
double  recommendation  of  aiming  at  a  division  of  British 
political  forces,  in  the  fight  against  the  Irish  claims,  while 
its  proposed  attack  upon  British  territorialist  monopoly, 
in  the  interest  of  the  working-classes,  was  in  line  with  the 
land-reform  programme  of  the  Irish  movement,  and  a  counter 
move  against  the  backers  of  the  Irish  landlords  in  England. 
It  would,  in  a  sense,  be  carrying  the  war  into  Africa.  O'Connell 
had  in  his  time  "recruited"  allies  for  his  cause  among  English 
laborers  and  artisans,  and  in  return  for  their  support  had 
advocated  their  claims  in  Parliament.  Fergus  O'Connor 
was  the  founder  of  British  radicalism  as  much  as  Hume  or 
Cobbett.  As  a  matter  of  historical  fact,  most  English  reforms 
in  the  direction  of  widening  popular  liberties  were  carried 
by  means  of  Irish  support  in  the  House  of  Commons  against 
British  class  influences.  The  Reform  Bill  of  1832  was  saved 
from  defeat  by  O'Connell,  as  was  many  a  subsequent  measure 
making  for  progress  by  him  and  his  successors  in  the  par- 
liamentary leadership  of  Ireland.  The  league  and  its  leader 
had,  therefore,  a  promising  field  of  political  strategy  offered 
to  them  in  the  line  of  action  which  the  Paris  manifesto  sug- 
gested. How  it  was  proposed  to  develop  these  tactics  into 
a  great  political  "turning  movement"  will  be  told  in  a 
subsequent  chapter. 

During  his  stay  in  Paris,  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  James 
O' Kelly  visited  Victor  Hugo  and  called  upon  the  prominent 
journalists  of  the  French  capital.  They  were  cordially 
welcomed  everywhere.  The  league  movement  was  fully 
explained  in  these  interviews  and  the  true  character  of 
English  coercive  policy  exposed,  with  the  result  that  the 
leading  journals  of  France  were  won  over  to  the  side  of 
Ireland. 

From  the  United  States  the  response  to  the  attack  made  in 
Westminster  on  the  league  in  Ireland  was  instant  and  assur- 
ing. A  dozen  State  legislatures  were  induced  by  the  polit- 
ical pressure  of  the  auxiliary  league  to  pass  resolutions 
condemning   England's   declaration   of   war  upon    Ireland's 

'  Freeman's  Journal,  Dublin,    February,   1881. 
308 


LAND- LEAGUE    PLANS 

constitutional  rights.  The  American  press  was  equally  out- 
spoken in  its  views.  Land  -  League  branches  multiplied 
rapidly,  no  fewer  than  forty  being  organized  in  New  York 
City  alone  and  thirty  in  Philadelphia,  and  in  other  cities 
in  proportion.  Inside  of  ten  days  after  the  real  fight  against 
coercion  began  the  Irish  World,  of  New  York,  cabled  $25,000 
to  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  in  Paris. 

The  expelled  Irish  party  returned  to  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  faced  their  enemies  in  a  dogged  resolve  to  fight  Mr. 
Gladstone's  two  coercion  measures — the  Protection  of  Person 
and  Property  Bill  and  the  Peace  Preservation  Bill — by  every 
method  and  form  which  the  now  abridged  liberty  of  debate 
would  allow. 

The  question  has  since  been  discussed  whether  it  would  not 
have  been  a  more  courageously  wise  policy  to  have  launched 
the  no  -  rent  retaliation  movement  in  Ireland  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  party  from  Parliament  than  to  have  waited 
until  the  following  October.  It  would  certainly  have  been 
far  more  effective  "warfare."  The  country  was  in  a  more 
combative  spirit  in  February,  and  was  better  prepared, 
with  nothing  but  coercion  in  view,  than  eight  months  sub- 
sequently, when  the  Land  Act  came  as  a  concession  and  a 
distintegrating  factor,  and  when,  in  addition,  all  the  active 
county  and  district  leaders  of  the  league  —  the  fighting 
stalwarts  of  the  movement — with  fully  seven  hundred  more 
"active  spirits,"  were  under  lock  and  key  in  Irish  prisons. 
Opportunity  means  almost  everything  in  the  fortunes  of 
war,  and  the  one  great  chance  of  the  no  -  rent  campaign 
arrived  when  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  men  were  ignominiously 
ejected  from  the  British  Parliament,  and  a  despotic  law  was 
about  to  be  enforced  in  Ireland  in  defiance  of  all  the  boasted 
principles  of  British  rule.  The  country  would  have  responded 
to  the  spirit  of  the  situation,  with  the  world's  sympathy 
on  our  side,  and  the  league  would  have  made  Ireland  ab- 
solutely ungovernable  just  at  the  time  when  Joubert's  handful 
of  Boers  had  told  all  Europe  and  America  how  easily  British 
troops  are  beaten  by  earnest  men  fighting  for  freedom  against 
mere  hirelings  in  uniform  fighting  for  pay  against  the  lib- 
erty of  a  civilized  nation.  A  no-rent  campaign  coincident 
with  Majuba  Hill  would  in  all  human  probability  have 
brought  Ireland  a  land  bill  on  the  lines  of  the  Rotunda  con- 
vention programme  of  April,  1880,  instead  of  the  one  which 
twenty  years  of  subsequent  litigation  has  shown  to  be  in- 
adequate, while  the  Home-Rule  Bill  of  1886  might  have  come 
four  years  sooner  to  Ireland,  before  a  split  in  the  Liberal 
ranks,  while  Mr.  Chamberlain  was  still  a  Home-Ruler,  and 

309 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

before  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  had  added  an  element  of 
ferocious  bitterness  to  the  normal  antipathies  of  the  Anglo- 
Irish  conflict.  Irish  landlordism  would  have  been  easily- 
smashed  by  the  league  in  a  no  -  rent  fight  in  the  spring  of 
1881,  disciplined  and  prepared  as  the  country  was  then,  and 
on  its  ruins  a  better  and  more  lasting  treaty  of  peace  between 
the  two  countries  would  have  eventuated  than  any  since 
proposed.  It  was  not  Mr.  Parnell's  fault  that  this  great 
opportunity  was  lost.  He  was  favorable  to  such  a  fighting 
policy  at  the  time,  but  he  could  not  command  the  allegiance 
of  more  than  half  his  nominal  following  in  so  extreme  a 
course.  It  was  not  the  forces  in  Ireland  or  in  America  that 
.failed,  but  the  timid  and  calculating  constitutionalists  inside 
the  Irish  party. 

The  Irish  opposition  offered  to  the  coercion  bills  was 
continued  for  upward  of  forty  days,  despite  the  new  cloture 
rules.  Mr.  Parnell  did  not  lead  in  this  debating  tournament. 
He  was  frequently  absent  in  Ireland,  and  keeping  in  touch 
with  the  militant  elements  which  Mr.  Tom  Brennan  and  Mr. 
John  Dillon  were  holding  in  hand  for  the  expected  emergency. 
Mr.  Parnell's  name  scarcely  appears  in  the  "  Hansard  "  record 
of  the  brilliant  combat  carried  on  by  Sexton,  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
Healy,  O'Donnell,  A.  M.  SulUvan,'  T.  D.  SulHvan,  Leamy, 
Justin  McCarthy,  Biggar,  Arthur  O'Connor,  Gray,  Dawson, 
Barry,  and  a  few  others.  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  developed 
great  debating  ability  in  this  stormy  session,  and  began  a 
House  of  Commons  career  which  is  to-day  second  to  that  of 
no  other  private  member  in  all  that  goes  to  the  equipment 
of  a  first-class  parliamentary  speaker.  Mr.  Sexton's  defence 
of  the  Land  League,  on  the  second  reading  of  the  Forster 
Coercion  Bill,  was  his  first  great  parliamentary  achievement. 
I  have  heard  it  described  by  competent  judges  who  were 
present  as  the  finest  piece  of  debating  eloquence  that  had 
been  heard  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  years.  The  rep- 
utation thus  made  was  more  than  upheld  in  after  years  by 
one  of  the  most  all-round  gifted  public  men  Ireland  has  sent 
to  Westminster  since  the  Act  of  Union.  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy 's 
great  chance  was  to  come  in  the  promised  land  bill,  which 
was  to  make  fame  and  reputation  for  him  in  a  single  session, 
but  he  showed  immense  capacity  for  so  young  a  man  in  the 
forty  days'  conflict  which  the  new  Irish  party  waged  with 
pluck  and  resource  against  the  massed  forces  of  Great  Britain's 
greatest  statesmen  and  most  trained  debaters. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

THE    LEAGUE    AT    BAY 

The  local  branches  of  the  league  in  Ireland  were  now  the 
centres  of  active  operations  in  the  carrying-out  of  the  policy 
of  what  can  be  called  aggressive  moral  force.  These  bodies 
embraced  almost  all  the  ardent  spirits  of  the  locality,  the 
district  organizers  or  leaders,  the  tenants'  sons  whose  families 
were  liable  to  eviction,  representatives  of  the  laborers,  and  in 
many  places  the  local  leaders  of  the  Fenian  movement.  This 
latter  kind  of  adhesion  to  the  league  forces  was  contrary  to 
the  passive  hostility  of  the  heads  of  the  revolutionary  body 
in  Ireland,  which  had  been  consistent  in  its  opposition  from 
the  beginning.  In  some  instances  the  open  organization 
was  completely  under  the  control  of  the  extremists  of  the 
district,  and  while  the  general  work  of  the  league  was  carried 
out  on  its  merits,  the  branch  was  used  as  a  shield  for  the 
ulterior  ends  of  the  more  advanced  movement.  This  general- 
ly happened  where  the  clergy  were  unfriendly  towards  the 
agitation,  or  when,  as  frequently  occurred,  the  local  moderate 
leaders  would  be  inclined  to  use  the  league  for  personal  or 
trade  purposes. 

The  "branch"  became  the  committee  of  public  safety 
for  the  locality.  Meetings  were  held  at  least  once  a  fortnight, 
more  generally  every  Sunday.  The  business  would,  of  course, 
be  determined  by  the  conduct  of  members  or  by  the  hostile 
acts  of  landlords  or  land-grabbers  within  the  district.  In 
many  instances  the  branch  resolved  itself  into  a  "Land 
League  Court,"  for  the  "trial"  of  offenders  against  the  rules 
or  for  the  investigation  of  cases  of  alleged  grabbing  or  other 
misconduct.  The  accused  would  be  summoned  to  appear 
and  to  answer  the  charges  made  against  them.  A  refusal 
to  come  or  a  defiance  of  the  authority  thus  sought  to  be 
asserted  would  call  for  a  resolution  of  warning  or  of  con- 
demnation involving  a  boycott. 

The  ordinary  law  was  especially  outraged  at  the  existence 
and  activity  of  these  "courts,"  and  the  police  were  doubly 
vigilant  in  their  surveillance  of  members  and  meetings  sus- 

311 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

pected  of  being  engaged  in  these  usurpations  of  the  functions 
of  the  civil  authority.  The  local  branch  was  entitled  to  the  co- 
operation of  distant  bodies  and  of  the  central  headquarters  in 
Dublin  when  some  decree  against  an  enemy  or  an  expelled 
member  called  for  some  action  beyond  the  boundaries  of  rural 
jurisdiction.  A  case  of  this  kind  which  attracted  much  atten- 
tion at  the  time  will  illustrate  the  system  upon  which  the 
"local  branch"  operated  when  fighting  strong  opponents. 

Mr.  Bence  Jones,  an  English  landlord,  had  an  estate  near 
Clonakilty,  in  County  Cork,  which  he  managed  himself,  on 
strictly  commercial  principles.  He  also  farmed  about  one 
thousand  acres  of  his  own  land.  His  tenants  were  of  the 
small-holding  class,  and,  like  others  who  had  suffered  in  the 
bad  seasons  of  1878-79,  they  asked  for  a  reduction  in  the  gale 
falling  due  at  the  end  of  1880.  This  Mr.  Jones  firmly  refused 
to  give.  The  local  branch  took  instant  action.  The  tenants 
were  induced  and  pledged  to  stand  out  for  "Griffith's  Valua- 
tion " — i.e.,  a  rent  reduced  to  the  government  or  rating  valua- 
tion of  the  farm.  The  landlord  was  boycotted  and  his  la- 
borers were  drawn  off.  Police  came  to  protect  him,  and  he 
had  the  continued  service  of  a  Scotch  steward  and  of  one  or 
two  English  servants.  This  help,  along  with  that  of  the  mem- 
bers of  his  own  family,  enabled  him  to  make  a  much  better 
stand  against  his  assailants  than  that  of  Captain  Boycott. 
He  had,  however,  to  get  rid  of  some  valuable  stock — about  one 
hundred  head  of  cattle — as  these  could  not  be  looked  after  by 
his  diminished  labor  service,  and  it  was  planned  by  him  that 
they  should  be  entrained  at  Bandon  for  Cork,  and  shipped 
thence  to  Bristol  to  be  sold.  A  previous  effort  to  sell  a 
few  loads  of  oats  at  Bandon  Fair  had  failed,  the  Bandon 
branch  having  boycotted  the  grain  by  ordering  men  to  stand 
round  the  carts  in  the  market  and  to  inform  would  -  be  pur- 
chasers that  the  Land  League  prohibited  the  buying  of  Jones's 
goods.  The  cattle  for  Bristol  were  driven  into  Bandon  by 
night,  and,  by  aid  of  the  police,  they  were  put  on  the  rails  and 
sent  off  to  Cork  before  the  Bandon  league,  which  had  been 
caught  napping,  were  aware  of  their  arrival  in  the  town.  The 
local  branch,  on  learning  of  this  mishap,  wired  to  the  league 
in  Dublin  information  of  what  had  occurred,  and  messages 
were  immediately  sent  thence  to  Cork  to  have  the  cattle 
"watched"  on  their  arrival.  This  was  done.  The  shipping 
companies  were  at  once  waited  upon,  and  so  much  was  the 
displeasure  of  the  league  feared  at  the  time  that  no  ships  leav- 
ing Cork  for  Bristol  could  be  got  to  carry  Jones's  cows.  The 
jobbers  who  were  shipping  their  ordinary  cattle  were  induced 
to  inform  the  agents  of  the  companies  that  they  would  with- 

312 


THE    LEAGUE    AT    BAY 

draw  tl:eir  custom  if  boycotted  animals  were  carried  on  the 
boats  patronized  by  them.  The  Jones  cattle  were,  there- 
fore, rejected.  They  were  then  driven  to  the  station  of  the 
Great  Southern  and  Western  Railway,  to  be  carried  by  rail 
to  Dublin.  A  large  force  of  police  had  to  guard  them  until 
the  freight-train  started.  Police  were  specially  stationed  at 
every  stopping-place  on  the  line  until  Dublin  was  reached, 
when  the  services  of  another  body  of  police  were  called  for. 
At  the  North  Wall  the  league  agents  repeated  the  Cork  tac- 
tics, and  jobbers  gave  notice  to  the  Glasgow  company's  agents 
that  they  must  choose  between  the  regular  custom  of  old 
dealers  and  this  single  consignment  from  a  boycotted  land- 
lord. The  company  accepted  the  situation  and  declined  to 
carry  the  cattle.  Next  the  Liverpool  boats  were  tried,  and  a 
threat  to  resort  to  legal  proceedings  and  to  claim  damages  for 
a  refusal  as  public  carriers  to  take  cattle  on  board  obtained  a 
passage  for  the  animals  to  Liverpool.  Here  an  agent  of  the 
league  from  Dublin  awaited  their  arrival.  The  Irish  sales- 
men in  Liverpool  had  been  interviewed  in  the  mean  time,  and 
they  helped  to  boycott  the  cattle  in  the  city  market.  Finally 
the  animals  were  driven  outside  the  city  to  the  hospitality  of 
some  friendly  paddocks,  and  were  ultimately  disposed  of  by 
private  negotiations. 

While  this  and  similar  league  exploits  greatly  increased  the 
prestige  of  the  league  organization,  they  made  out  very  strong 
reasons,  from  the  legal  and  Dublin  Castle  point  of  view,  for 
putting  down  the  Land  League  "  courts,"  and  the  triumphs  of 
the  organization  in  Ireland  were  so  many  arguments  in  sup- 
port of  coercion  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

It  was  in  connection  with  the  holding  of  one  of  these 
"courts"  that  Mr.  Timothy  Harrington,  M.P.,  first  came  into 
public  notoriety.  He  was  president  or  secretary  of  the  Tralee 
branch  of  the  Land  League,  and  this  body  was  accused  by  the 
police  of  holding  a  "court,"  and  thereby  acting  illegally. 
Mr.  Harrington  and  several  other  suspected  members  of  the 
league  tribunal  were  prosecuted  on  this  charge,  and  finally 
imprisoned  under  the  Coercion  Act.  Mr.  Harrington  had 
previously  been  in  charge  of  a  national  school  in  Kerry,  and 
graduated  from  teaching  boys  into  a  public  instructor,  as 
editor  of  the  Kerry  Sentinel.  He  was  one  of  the  many  local 
leaders  of  the  Land  League  who  proved  themselves  by  marked 
ability  and  a  courageous  resistance  to  the  local  enemies  of  the 
people's  cause  capable  of  filling  higher  positions  in  the  na- 
tional movement  and  in  the  public  service  in  after  years. 

Events  were  moving  with  startling  rapidity  towards  a  de- 
cisive clash  between  the  powers  of  coercion  and  that  of  the 

3U 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

league  in  the  spring.  Mr.  Parnell  had  crossed  to  Ireland 
soon  after  the  Paris  conference,  and  dissipated  at  once  the 
notion  suggested  by  his  enemies  that  he  was  "afraid"  to 
continue  the  agitation.  He  addressed  a  huge  gathering  at 
Clara,  in  King's  County,  and,  while  fearless  himself  in  his  lan- 
guage and  bearing,  he  warned  the  people  not  to  lose  patience 
or  to  be  goaded  into  hasty  or  ill-considered  action.  Miss 
Anna  Parnell  was  equally  energetic  in  organizing  the  Ladies' 
Land  League.  She  spoke  at  meetings  in  each  of  the  prov- 
inces, and  uttered  the  most  extreme  Land-League  principles  in 
admirable  little  addresses.  Her  chief  lieutenants  at  this  time 
were  Miss  Nanny  Lynch,  Miss  Clara  Stritch,  Miss  O'Leary, 
Mrs.  Maloney,  with  several  other  ladies  as  assistants  and  or- 
ganizers. 

The  rapid  approach  of  coercion,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
measures  that  were  being  taken  by  the  people's  leaders,  on 
the  other,  to  carry  on  the  menaced  movement  naturally  ap- 
pealed again  to  Archbishop  McCabe  for  his  intervention  on 
the  side  of  the  Castle.  On  this  occasion  the  existence  of  the 
Ladies'  Land  League  had  troubled  his  pastoral  conscience. 
He  was  greatly  alarmed  about  the  "modesty"  of  the  women 
of  Ireland.  It  was  a  tender  concern  awakened  for  the  first 
time  in  this  respect.  The  dens  of  Dublin,  the  conduct  of 
British  soldiers  in  its  streets  each  night,  outside  his  grace's 
hall  door,  the  tens  of  thousands  of  Irish  girls  who  had  been 
driven  to  shame  and  ruin  in  foreign  cities  in  being  evicted 
from  Irish  homes  by  the  system  the  Land  League  had  re- 
solved to  cripple  or  destroy,  never  once  appealed  to  the  moral 
indignation  or  political  thoughts  of  this  Castle  bishop.  He 
was  only  aroused  from  his  peaceful  pastoral  slumbers  on  the 
question  of  modesty  when  ladies,  belonging  to  families  at 
least  as  respectable  as  his  own,  felt  called  upon  to  face  an  in- 
famous law  and  system  in  defence  of  the  homes  of  Ireland 
and  to  run  the  risk  of  imprisonment  in  a  struggle  for  righteous- 
ness. But  the  time  had  arrived  when  the  pharisaical  and 
intolerant  conduct  of  this  persistent  opponent  of  the  league 
was  to  call  for  a  merited  chastisement. 

Among  the  members  of  the  Ladies'  Land  League  was  the 
gifted  wife  of  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  M.P.,  an  Irish-American 
lady  of  stanch  Catholic  fidelity  akin  to  that  of  her  talented 
and  distinguished  husband.  Mr.  Sullivan  was  goaded  into  a 
scorching  reply  to  the  archbishop's  tirade,  which  was  all  the 
more  effective  in  its  castigation  from  the  studied  respect  in 
which  the  office  of  Dr.  McCabe  was  treated  while  the  occupant 
of  it  was  being  dressed  down  for  his  insulting  attacks  upon  the 
wives,  sisters,  and  daughters  of  the  Land -League  leaders. 

314 


THE    LEAGUE    AT    BAY 

On  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Sullivan's  rejoinder  to  the  arch- 
bishop's insulting  references,  the  follov/ing  letter  was  promptly 
written  and  published: 

"Cashel,  March  17,   1881. 

"Dear  Mr.  Sullivan, — I  congratulate  you  very  heartily 
on  your  timely  and,  under  the  peculiarly  provoking  cir- 
cumstances, very  temperate  and  withal  touching  letter 
that  appears  over  your  name  in  this  day's  Freeman. 

"I  adopt,  unreservedly,  the  sentiments  you  have  so  ad- 
mirably expressed,  and  am  delighted  to  find  that  some  one 
of  mark  has  at  last  stepped  forward  from  the  ranks  of  the 
laity  to  vindicate  the  character  of  the  good  Irish  ladies  who 
have  become  Land-Leagtiers,  and  to  challenge  publicly  the 
monstrous  imputations  cast  upon  them  by  the  Archbishop  of 
Dublin. 

"His  grace  will  not  be  allowed  in  future,  I  apprehend,  to 
use  his  lance  so  freely  as  he  has  hitherto  done,  or  to  ventilate 
unquestioned  the  peculiar  political  theories  which  he  is 
known  to  hold  in  opposition  to  the  cherished  convictions 
of  a  great,  and  indeed  overwhelming,  majority  of  the  Irish 
priests  and  people. 

"It   is   a   satisfaction,   however,   to   feel   that    his    grace's 
political    likings    and    dislikings,    though    possibly    of    some 
consequence  elsewhere,  carry  with  them  very  little   weight 
or  significance,  except  with  a  select  few,  in  Ireland. 
"Your  very  faithful  servant, 

"  +  T.  W.  Croke,  Archbishop  of  Cashel." 

This  crushing  and  contemptuous  disposal  of  the  Dublin 
Castle  archbishop  gave  great  offence  to  England,  but  was 
popularly  acclaimed  all  over  Ireland  as  a  courageous  national 
service.  Time  was,  however,  to  mark  the  far  different  treat- 
ment which  Rome  was  to  mete  out  to  the  supporter  of 
English  coercion  and  the  champion  of  Irish  rights  and 
Ireland's  womanhood.  Dr.  McCabe  was  to  be  made  a 
cardinal  within  a  year,  as  a  reward  for  his  services  to  Eng- 
land's law  and  authority  in  Ireland,  and  the  big-hearted 
Irish  nationalist  archbishop  was  to  be  summoned  soon  after 
to  Rome  to  be  subjected  to  all  the  humiliation  that  Ireland's 
enemy  could  wish  for  his  punishment.  England  never  fails 
to  find  allies  for  her  anti  -  Irish  purposes  where  Catholic 
Irishmen's  national  cause  least  deserves  a  partisan  blow 
on  behalf  of  the  enemy  of  their  fatherland  and  faith. 

Forty  arrests  were  made  under  the  new  coercion  regime  by 
the  end  of  March,  and  among  these  were  Boyton,  the  most 
active  of  the  league  organizers,  and  many  of  the  best  fighting 

315 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

local  leaders.  This  evidence  of  business  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Forster  had  no  intimidatory  effect  on  the  country — quite  the 
reverse.  Twenty  public  meetings  were  held  the  following 
Sunday,  at  which  no  -  rent  doctrines  were  preached  and 
boycotting  urged  against  all  grabbers  and  other  opponents. 
A  man  who  had  grabbed  a  farm  in  Westmeath  was  shot  about 
this  time,  and  it  was  evident  that  if  Mr.  Forster  put  men  in 
prison  without  trial  there  were  those  inside  or  outside  the 
league  branches  who  were  resolved  to  take  a  yet  wilder  law 
into  their  own  hands,  and  to  give  even  less  justice  to  those 
who  went  against  the  popular  sanction  which  forbade  the 
taking  of  evicted  land. 

Coincident  with  the  application  of  coercion  against  the 
movement,  the  landlords  began  the  work  of  forcing  the  rent 
through  the  pressure  of  process-serving.  They  were  uncer- 
tain as  to  the  character  and  extent  of  the  proposed  changes 
in  the  land  law  which  were  heralded  as  usual  as  part  of  Eng- 
land's policy  of  "coercion  and  kindness,"  as  it  was  once  called, 
and  were  resolved  to  use  coercion  as  a  means  of  obtaining 
both  rent  and  arrears  before  the  advent  of  the  promised  land 
bill.  There  was  also  a  policy  of  revenge  in  this  action  of 
the  landlords.  They  were  now  to  be  rid  of  the  "local  branch " 
terrorism  against  grabbers,  as  they  believed,  and  the  law  of 
eviction  was,  therefore,  to  be  put  in  force  to  co-operate  with 
the  law  of  repression  in  subduing  the  spirit  of  revolt  among 
the  people  in  the  strongholds  of  the  league. 

This  state  of  things  precipitated  a  desperate  fight  with  the 
police  near  Ballaghadereen,  in  Mayo,  early  in  April.  Proc- 
esses were  being  served  at  the  instance  of  a  local  landlord, 
with  the  aid  of  an  inadequate  force  of  constabulary.  The 
peasants  of  the  neighborhood  assembled  and  barred  the  way 
to  the  cabins  threatened  with  the  delivery  of  the  fateful  and 
hated  documents.  A  woman  among  the  excited  crowd  made 
an  urgent  appeal  to  the  sergeant  not  to  persist  in  his  work  or 
there  would  be  resistance  and  bloodshed.  His  answer  was  to 
order  his  men  to  fire,  when  two  men,  named  Corcoran  and 
Flannery,  fell  dead  before  the  volley  of  buckshot.  This  deed 
maddened  the  crowd.  They  fell  upon  the  police  and  literally 
stoned  the  sergeant  to  death,  and  would  have  killed  the  others 
had  they  not  fled  from  the  scene  of  Armstrong's  rash  act. 
One  of  the  constables  owed  his  life  to  a  young  girl,  who,  on 
seeing  him  helpless  on  the  ground,  wounded,  flung  herself 
between  him  and  his  enraged  assailants  and  saved  him  from 
death.  It  may  be  added  here,  as  a  romantic  incident  con- 
nected with  this  sanguinary  fight,  that  the  constable  who 
was  thus  saved  afterwards  asked  this  protector  to  be  his  wife 

316 


THE    LEAGUE    AT    BAY 

and  was  accepted,  but  he  never  served  in  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary  near  that  locality  again. 

Mr.  John  Dillon  attended  the  funeral  of  the  Land-League 
martyrs,  Flannery  and  Corcoran,  and  drove  home  the  moral 
of  the  encounter  in  which  they  had  lost  their  lives  in  a  trench- 
ant denunciation  of  the  dual  curse  of  an  otherwise  peaceful 
country — landlordism  and  coercion.  This  fight  and  the  kill- 
ing of  the  police  sergeant  inflamed  feeling  on  both  sides. 
Young  men  in  the  league  began  to  procure  arms,  and  the  mem- 
bers of  the  force,  condemned  by  the  law  to  protect  the  agents 
of  eviction,  became  exposed  to  greater  risks  and  began  to 
show  more  animosity  against  the  local  league  leaders  every- 
where. 

On  April  8th  Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  remedial  set-off 
to  coercion,  what  is  now  known  as  his  great  land  bill  of  1881. 
In  a  time  of  less  passion  in  Ireland  the  magnitude  and  im- 
portance of  the  measure  would  have  been  more  fully  recog- 
nized and  acknowledged  by  the  Irish  leaders,  for  the  bill  was 
a  legislative  sentence  of  death  by  slow  processes  against  Irish 
landlordism.  It  did  not  thus  recommend  itself  to  Mr.  Parnell 
at  the  time.  He  saw  a  unique  chance  in  the  revolution  which 
he  had  helped  to  bring  about  in  Ireland  for  a  root-and-brancli 
settlement  of  the  agrarian  war  of  ages,  and  his  attitude  tow- 
ards the  bill  was  dictated  more  by  resentment  at  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's failure  or  refusal  to  embrace  this  chance  than  by  any 
incapacity  to  measure  the  enormous  advance  upon  all  previous 
remedial  land  laws  which  this  measure  signalized.  This  feel- 
ing was  reflected  in  Ireland.  The  Land  League  had  created 
the  conditions  which  made  the  land  bill  an  imiperative  ne- 
cessity for  both  rulers  and  people,  and  yet  the  men  who  had 
made  the  movement  which  called  for  and  justified  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's proposals  were  imprisoned  without  trial  by  his  chief 
secretary  for  Ireland.  It  was  a  "war"  measure,  and  it  made 
for  a  truce  rather  than  for  any  lasting  agrarian  peace.  The 
country  sullenly  accepted  with  a  protest  against  its  inadequacy 
what  had  been  wrung  by  its  own  efforts  from  the  reluctant 
hands  of  coercionist  ministers.  I  must  reserve  for  the  next 
chapter  a  brief  outline  of  this  far-reaching  measure,  a  work  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  genius  as  a  statesman  which  made  subsequent 
legislation  on  similar  lines  a  necessary  sequence  to  his  semi- 
revolutionary  scheme,  and  which  struck  a  mortal  blow  at 
Irish  landlordism  and  doomed  it  to  abolition. 

Mr.  Parnell  attended  specially  convened  meetings  at  Cork 
and  Dublin  after  the  introduction  of  the  bill,  and  explained  his 
views  of  its  proposals.  He  emphasized  the  halting  nature  of 
the  measure,  while  admitting  the  great  advance  made  in  its 

317 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

provisions  over  those  of  the  Land  Act  of  1870.  He  was  care- 
ful to  insist  upon  the  truer  statesmanship  contained  in  the 
Land-League  plan  of  settlement  of  April,  1880,  and  to  regret 
that  this  plan  had  not  been  more  courageously  followed  by  the 
framers  of  the  bill.  He  advised  the  country  to  continue  the 
fight  of  the  league,  and  to  make  the  complete  uprooting  of 
landlordism  the  goal  of  Irish  land  reformers'  efforts. 

A  convention  of  the  Land  League  was  summoned  to  con- 
sider fully  the  attitude  which  the  organization  and  the  country 
should  assume  towards  the  bill.  It  assembled  in  the  Rotunda, 
Dublin,  on  April  21st  and  2 2d,  and  was  attended  by  over 
one  thousand  five  hundred  delegates.  The  decision  arrived 
at  was  in  accord  with  Mr.  Parnell's  policy.  It  condemned 
the  bill  as  falling  short  of  a  final  solution  of  the  question, 
emphasized  its  defects  in  the  proposed  rent-fixing  provisions, 
in  the  exclusion  of  leaseholders,  etc.,  and  demanded  a  meas- 
ure which  should  give  legislative  effect  to  the  Land-League 
programme  of  landlord  expropriation  and  the  creation  of  an 
i__occupying  proprietary.  Messrs.  Brennan  and  Dillon,  with 
the  more  radical  section  of  the  convention,  favored  the  rejec- 
tion of  the  bill  as  a  makeshift  measure  only,  but  the  more 
moderate  attitude  of  Mr.  Parnell  was  sustained  by  the  ma- 
jority of  the  local  representatives  of  the  organization. 

On  April  30th  John  Dillon  was  arrested,  Dublin  being  pro- 
claimed under  the  coercion  law  on  the  same  day.  The  arrest 
was  fully  expected,  and  his  place  was  at  once  taken  by  Thomas 
Sexton,  Mr.  Brennan  being  still  the  general  secretary  of  the 
league.  Mr.  Dillon  had  been  one  of  the  league's  most  uncom- 
promising advocates  of  the  fighting  policy  of  the  organization, 
and  the  most  frequent  speaker  of  the  more  prominent  leaders 
at  the  meetings  throughout  the  country.  His  influence  was 
second  only  to  that  of  Parnell's  at  this  time,  while  he  was 
much  more  in  sympathy  with  the  extreme  policy  upheld  by 
Brennan  and  his  advanced  lieutenants,  who  still  ruled  the  or- 
ganization on  new-departure  lines  and  principles.  Previous 
to  his  arrest,  Mr.  Dillon  had  declared  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons that  were  he  the  son  of  a  tenant  about  to  be  evicted,  he 
would  only  permit  the  vandal  forces  of  the  law  to  turn  his 
mother  and  sisters  out  of  their  home  after  he  had  resisted, 
rifle  in  hand,  such  an  invasion  of  the  domestic  rights  of  resi- 
dence in  the  tenant's  own  house.  The  speech  necessarily 
created  a  sensation  inside  and  out  of  Parliament,  and  Mr. 
Forster's  action,  shortly  afterwards,  in  sending  him  to  Kil- 
mainham  only  fulfilled  public  expectation. 

The  land  bill  came  to  Ireland  as  a  peace  offering  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  but  no  olive-branch  could  have  been  more  unfort- 

318 


THE    LEAGUE    AT    BAY 

unate  in  its  mission  on  account  of  the  manner  and  circum- 
stances of  its  advent.  It  wore  the  appearance  of  a  bribe  to 
the  tenants  to  throw  over  the  league,  and  as  an  effort  to  divide 
the  people  by  means  of  a  great  concession  to  one  class  and  a 
savage  coercion  act  for  another.  It  was  an  illustration  of 
England's  incurable  blundering  in  dealing  with  Irishmen  in 
Ireland,  and  the  popular  feeling,  which  might  easily  have  been 
modified,  if  not  fully  appeased,  for  the  time  by  releasing  the 
league  prisoners,  and  thus  giving  the  land  bill  a  fair  chance, 
was  inflamed  instead  by  an  apparent  attempt  to  force  the 
remedial  measure  on  the  country  through  the  hated  methods 
of  eviction,  coercion,  and  the  prison.  What  happened  as  a 
result  of  this  blind  policy  is  only  what  had  occurred  in  every 
previous  crisis  of  the  kind.  Arrests  one  day  were  followed  by 
evictions  the  next  and  by  outrages  the  day  after.  Boycot- 
ting was  more  rigorously  enforced  and  extended.  Cattle 
seized  for  non-payment  of  rent  could  not  be  sold.  Bands  of 
armed  men  visited  the  houses  of  grabbers  for  purposes  of  in- 
timidation, and  collision  between  people  and  police  were  of 
almost  daily  occurrence. 

Mr.  Brennan,  the  league  secretary,  was  arrested  early  in 
May.  It  was  believed  in  Dublin  Castle  that  his  removal  from 
the  active  direction  of  the  league  would  paralyze  the  intim- 
idatory  power  of  the  organization.  It  did  not.  All  this  had 
been  fully  anticipated  months  before,  and  the  arrest  of  one 
leader  only  made  way  for  another  to  fill  his  place ;  and  when 
the  list  of  available  men  should  be  exhausted.  Miss  A.nna 
Parnell  and  her  lieutenants,  who  were  training  all  this  time 
for  the  duties  and  ordeal  of  the  work  before  them,  would  be 
ready  to  step  into  the  breach. 

At  New  Pallas,  County  Limerick,  at  this  time  a  force  of 
two  hundred  police  failed  to  effect  an  eviction  owing  to  the 
presence  of  a  body  of  five  thousand  people,  among  whom  two 
hundred  young  men  with  revolvers  were  prepared,  if  attacked, 
to  fire  and  fight.  At  Ballylanders,  in  the  same  county,  some 
cattle  had  been  seized  and  impounded  for  rent.  A  body  of 
one  hundred  armed  men  from  Tipperary  raided  the  pound  at 
midnight,  rescued  the  cattle,  and  politely  invited  the  occu- 
pants of  the  nearest  constabulary  barracks  to  come  out  and 
put  the  animals  back.  The  police  had  the  good  sense  to  ig- 
nore the  occurrence,  and  not  to  hear  the  challenge.  A  body 
of  four  hundred  tenants  in  Mayo  held  a  meeting  and  resolved 
to  pay  no  rent  until  the  "  suspects"  were  liberated.  Process- 
servers  were  waylaid  near  Abbeyfeale,  Loughrea,  Ballina,  and 
other  places,  beaten  by  the  people,  and  dispossessed  of  their 
documents.     In  two  instances  a  new  form  of  punishment  for 

319 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

these  unfortunate  officers  of  the  law  was  adopted.  The  de- 
tested emissary  of  the  courts  was  stripped  of  all  his  clothes, 
which  were  burned  along  with  his  papers,  and  then  allowed  to 
go  his  way. 

During  these  exciting  times  money  continued  to  pour  into 
the  league  from  America.  At  one  meeting  in  Dublin  a  sum 
of  ;i£29oo  was  acknowledged  since  the  previous  weekly  gath- 
ering, while  the  Irish  World  had  remitted,  up  to  May  ist,  a 
total  of  $100,000  to  the  funds  of  the  league  from  the  auxiliary 
branches  in  the  United  States.  Up  to  June,  1881 ,  no  less  than 
one  thousand  two  hundred  of  these  branches  had  been  formed 
throughout  America. 

This  is  only  an  epitome  of  the  work  that  was  being  done  in 
Ireland  by  coercion  and  the  league,  and  of  the  support  ex- 
tended to  the  movement  from  abroad  during  the  time  Mr. 
Forster  was  filling  the  Irish  prisons  with  suspects,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone  was  pushing  his  bill  for  the  taking  away  of  the 
power  of  the  Irish  landlords  to  fix  the  rents  for  their  land  in 
future  and  conferring  upon  a  state  tribunal  the  duty  of  ar- 
bitrating in  this  matter  between  owner  and  tenant. 

The  bill,  as  it  ultimately  became  law  and  has  been  since 
worked  by  the  land  commission,  calls  for  a  brief  explanation 
i  and  analysis  at  this  stage  of  our  story. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 
THE    LAND    ACT    OF    1881 

The  immediate  necessity  for  Mr.  Gladstone's  land  bill  was 
a  condition  of  things  in  Ireland  which  bordered  on  social 
anarchy.  This  was  largely,  if  not  entirely,  the  deliberately 
planned  work  of  the  Land  League.  It  was  the  result  of  a 
kind  of  guerilla  social  warfare  which  we  had  waged  against  a 
system  of  land  laws  that  was  known  and  felt  to  be  vicious  in 
its  principle,  intolerable  in  its  effects  upon  the  lives  and  labor 
of  the  tenantry  of  an  agricultural  country,  and  hated  for  its 
origin,  history,  and  record  by  a  Celtic  people.  Nothing  less 
than  a  revolution  could  move  English  opinion  to  deal  dras- 
tically with  this  hated  system,  and  the  work  of  what  was  a 
revolution,  in  everything  except  in  armed  insurrection,  was 
successfully  achieved  when  the  greatest  of  England's  prem- 
iers undertook  to  strike  a  mortal  blow  at  Irish  landlordism 
in  constituting  a  state  authority  to  replace  that  of  the  land- 
lords of  Ireland  in  the  right  and  power  to  fix  the  rents  upon 
their  tenants'  holdings. 

The  state  was  virtually  to  supplant  the  landlord.  He  was 
to  be  reduced  to  the  position  of  an  annuitant,  but  still  carrying 
in  his  maimed  position  as  a  landlord  enough  of  the  odium 
attaching  to  an  evil  system  to  keep  Celtic  hatred  of  it  alive 
and  active,  and  offering  new  incentives  for  continued  destruc- 
tive agitation  in  a  partisan  administration  of  the  new  land 
law.  For  what  happened  was  this:  Mr.  Gladstone  gave  the 
potential  benefits  of  the  new  system  to  the  tenants  of  Ireland, 
while  Dublin  Castle  invested  the  interpretation  and  adminis- 
tration of  the  land  act  in  the  landlords  and  their  nominees. 
It  was  England's  traditional  way  of  spoiling  the  value  and  of 
marring  the  efficacy  of  a  peace-making  reform. 

The  act  was  moulded,  to  some  extent,  upon  the  recom- 
mendations of  the  Bessborough  commission,  and  these  were, 
in  a  large  measure,  influenced  by  the  work  of  the  Land-League 
agitation,  and  grounded  upon  the  economic  facts  which  both 
Mr.  Isaac  Butt's  movement  and  that  led  by  Mr.  Parnell  had 
driven  into  the  public  mind. 
21  321 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

The  royal  commission,  presided  over  by  Lord  Bessborough, 
an  Irish  landlord,  reported  in  March,  1881,  that  (i)  Irish  ten- 
ants were  justly  entitled  to  proprietary  rights  on  the  grounds 
of  outlay  on  improvements  embodied  in  and  inseparable  from 
the  soil  and  of  custom  surviving  in  spite  of  legal  denials  of  it ; 
(2)  freedom  of  contract  did  not  exist  between  landlord  and 
tenant;  (3)  improvements  on  and  equipments  of  farms  were 
usually  the  work  of  the  tenants;  (4)  raising  of  rents  had  ab- 
sorbed the  value  of  the  tenants'  improvements;  (5)  conse- 
quently, insecurity  and  discontent  rightly  prevailed;  while 
(6)  the  Land  Act  of  1870  had  completely  failed  to  protect 
tenants'  property  in  their  improvements. 

The  commission  recommended  the  repeal  of  former  acts ;  the 
simplification  of  the  land  laws;  fixity  of  tenure  at  arbitrated 
rents;  increased  facilities  for  the  purchase  of  their  farms  by 
the  tenants;  the  establishment  of  local  land  registries,  and 
offered  the  weighty  opinion  that  unless  the  expected  land 
bill  was  full  and  exhaustive,  going  to  the  root  of  the  whole 
matter  and  settling  it  permanently,  it  would  be  better  not  to 
interfere  at  all. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  bill  omitted  many  of  the  most  important 
recommendations  of  the  commission.  After  passing  the 
House  of  Commons  it  was  considerably  mangled  by  the  House 
of  Lords.  In  its  final  shape  the  act  was  a  miracle  of  com- 
plexity, and,  as  prophesied  by  John  Dillon  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  it  proved  a  milch  cow  for  the  lawyers,  although 
one  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Bessborough  report  was 
that  the  fixing  of  fair  rents  should  be  delegated  to  laymen  and 
not  to  lawyers. 

The  principle  of  the  Land  Law  Act  is  that  a  fair,  judicial 
rent  is  not  to  include  the  value  of  improvements  made  by  the 
tenant  or  his  predecessors — i.e.,  houses,  drains,  fences,  farm 
roads,  reclamation,  planting,  etc.,  and  that  until  the  con- 
trary is  proved  all  improvements  are  to  be  presumed  to  be 
the  tenant's  property. 

In  practice  the  full  letting  value  of  the  farm,  including  all 
improvements,  is  estimated  at  different  rates  per  acre  accord- 
ing to  the  different  qualities  of  land,  and  then  the  estimated 
annual  value  of  the  buildings  is  added  to  the  aggregate  value 
of  the  several  parcels  of  land. 

Buildings,  fences,  roads,  and  the  like  are  preliminaries 
essential  to  farm-land  having  any  value  for  production,  and 
therefore  the  buildings  are  really  twice  valued,  once  in  the 
acreable  value  of  the  land  and  then  as  an  addition. 

In  practice  there  is  no  presumption  that  existing  improve- 
ments are  the  tenant's,  for  he  must  claim  beforehand  in  writ- 

322 


THE    LAND    ACT    OF    1881 

ing  such  improvements  as  he  can  prove  by  strictly  legal  evi- 
dence— by  witnesses  who  have  seen  the  work  performed — 
and  only  gets  credit  for  such  improvements  as  he  does  so 
prove. 

Thus  death  or  the  absence  of  any  possible  witness  deprives 
the  tenant  of  the  improvements  which  the  letter  of  the  law 
presumes  to  be  his,  and  deaths  are  continually  removing  the 
evidence  on  which  his  claim  to  the  improvements  rests. 

A  new-comer  who  inherits  or  buys  a  farm  has  no  means  of 
proving  the  making  of  improvements,  and,  therefore,  the 
legal  rules  as  to  presumption  being  abrogated  by  the  practice 
of  the  land  court,  the  fair  rent  is  fixed  at  the  full  value  of  the 
farm  swollen  by  the  method  of  adding  the  annual  value  of 
the  buildings  to  the  acreable  rent. 

Rents  are  further  kept  up  by  making  out  conditions  against 
reductions  where  the  farm  is  near  the  sea  and  the  tenant  can 
fish  or  get  sea-weed  from  the  foreshore  or  gather  it  from  the 
rocks  at  low  tide  or  collect  it  floating,  or  if  he  makes  kelp  on 
the  foreshore  from  weed  which  he  cuts  in  deep  water  away 
from  the  shore,  often  at  the  risk  of  his  life;  or  if  he  is  near  a 
town  and  can  get  manure,  though  he  gets  no  credit  for  the  in- 
creased fertility  due  to  heavy  manuring;  or  if  he  engages  in 
any  supplementary  industry  to  the  commonest  farming  and 
puts  up  a  small  mill.  If  he  grows  fruit  he  is  charged  an  extra 
rent  for  all  land  so  used,  and  gets  no  credit  for  the  heavy  ex- 
pense of  planting  fruit-trees  and  loss  of  profit  till  they  come 
to  maturity. 

If  a  farmer  builds  himself  what  the  judges  call  "too  good  a 
house,"  he  is  subjected  to  a  special  rent  for  that.  He  is  first 
at  the  expense  of  building,  and  then  has  to  pay  the  landlord 
rent  for  the  house  to  which  the  landlord  never  contributed  a 
penny. 

These  and  many  other  subterfuges  of  a  similar  kind  were 
the  legal  machinery  created  and  applied  by  landlord  influence 
in  Dublin  Castle  and  in  Irish  courts  to  deprive  the  tenants  of 
the  full  benefits  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  great  measure. 

The  administration  of  the  act  was  placed  in  the  hands  of 
three  commissioners:  John  O'Hagan,  a  "sound  lawyer,"  a 
poet,  and,  as  events  proved,  a  weak  and  pliant  judge;  E.  F. 
Litton,  a  landlord  and  barrister,  and  J.  E.  Vernon,  an  agent 
and  landlord.  Under  these  were  an  army  of  assistant  com- 
missioners of  a  most  miscellaneous  character — small  landlords, 
agents,  valuers  for  landlords,  retired  army  officers,  manufact- 
urers, millers,  publicans,  and  broken-down  farmers.  It  was 
said  at  the  time  there  was  hardly  a  landlords'  adherent  in 
Ireland  who  was  capable  of  writing  a  letter  of  application 

323 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  able  to  secure  a  recommendation  from  any  person  of  in- 
fluence who  had  not  applied  for  these  posts.  There  was  no 
attempt  to  ascertain  if  these  officials  had  the  most  elementary 
knowledge  of  surveying,  agricultural  law,  political  economy, 
or  even  acquaintance  with  the  conditions  of  Irish  farming. 

The  act  purported  to  give  all  yearly  agricultural  tenants 
(i)  the  right  to  sell  their  tenancies  for  the  best  price  that 
could  be  got;  (2)  the  right  to  have  a  fair  rent  fixed  by  the 
land  courts  at  intervals  of  fifteen  years;  (3)  security  of  tenure, 
inasmuch  as  that,  so  long  as  the  rent  was  paid  and  the  con- 
ditions of  the  tenancy  observed,  the  tenant  could  not  be 
evicted.  No  definition  of  the  term  "fair  rent"  was  given, 
but  what  was  known  as  the  Healy  clause  provided  that  "no 
rent  shall  be  allowed  or  made  payable  in  respect  of  improve- 
ments made  by  the  tenant  or  his  predecessors." 

There  were  numbers  of  exceptions  from  and  limitations  on 
these  provisions,  so  that  it  was  estimated  they  would  not  ap- 
ply to  more  than  two-thirds  at  most  of  the  agricultural  hold- 
ings in  Ireland,  estimated  to  be  about  five  hundred  thousand. 
But  as  to  the  tenancies  included  in  the  act,  the  language  of 
common-sense  and  the  intention  of  the  act  itself  could  scarcely 
be  more  explicit. 

The  term  "fair  rent"  could  be  no  abstruse  problem  for  an 
average  legal  mind.  Writers  on  agriculture,  political  econo- 
mists, and  practical  men  were  all  agreed  that  it  meant  the 
excess  of  profit  after  repayment  of  the  whole  cost  of  produc- 
tion, or  the  revenue  derived  from  a  farm  after  making  allow- 
ance for  working  expenses,  interest  on  capital  invested,  and  a 
fair  return  for  the  labor  and  skill  of  the  farmer. 

From  such  an  estimate  of  the  rent  the  annual  value  attrib- 
utable to  the  tenants'  improvements  was  to  be  deducted,  and 
the  result  would  have  been  the  fair  rent  under  the  land  law. 

It  is  a  maxim  of  interpretation  in  English  law  that  it  is  not 
the  duty  of  a  court  of  law  to  be  astute  to  find  out  ways  in 
which  the  object  of  an  act  of  the  legislature  may  be  defeated. 
But  this  is  what  the  administrators  of  the  land  act  and  the 
courts,  under  Dublin  Castle  influence,  set  themselves  to  do. 
They  disclaimed  the  possibility  of  legally  knowing  what  a  fair 
rent  meant.  So  late  as  1898,  Lord  Justice  Walker,  in  the 
Court  of  Appeal,  said,  "I  emphatically  decline  to  give  any 
definition  of  a  fair  rent."  Lord  Justice  Fitzgibbon  also  de- 
clared, "It  is  most  undesirable  that  we  should  go  into  the 
question  of  the  definition  of  a  fair  rent." 

Thus  hundreds  of  thousands  of  so-called  "fair"  rents  were 
fixed,  but  those  who  fixed  them  consistently  declined  to  say 
what  they  meant  by  the  term  or  on  what  principles  they  acted. 

324 


THE    LAND    ACT    OF    1881 

As  to  the  tenants'  right  to  have  his  improvements  exempted 
from  rent,  the  decisions  of  the  courts  and  the  practice  of  the 
land  commission  repealed  or  nullified  this  provision  and  frus- 
trated the  intentions  of  Parliament. 

In  the  final  debate  on  the  land  bill  Mr.  Gladstone,  opposing 
some  limiting  amendment,  said:  "The  tenant's  improvements 
were  the  tenant's  own  property,  and  he  would  not  admit  the 
principle  that  the  time  during  which  he  had  enjoyed  them  was 
any  reason  for  their  passing  away  from  him." 

An  improvement  was  defined  by  the  Land  Act  of  1870  as 
any  suitable  work  which  added  to  the  letting  value  of  a  hold- 
ing, and  the  same  act  provided  that  all  improvements  shall 
be  deemed  to  have  been  made  by  the  tenant.  The  judicial 
decisions  under  this  act  remained  with  the  force  of  law,  and 
while  every  decision  which  had  proved  futile  to  protect  the 
tenant  and  was  in  favor  of  the  landlord  was  adhered  to,  al- 
most every  provision  in  the  tenants'  favor  was  ignored.  Ten- 
ants could  not  get  credit  for  any  improvements  made  before 
1850,  but  from  this  limit  of  time  reclamation  and  permanent 
buildings  were  expressly  excluded.  They  were,  according  to 
the  law,  to  be  deemed  to  belong  to  the  tenants  without  refer- 
ence to  when  they  were  made.  The  rules  and  practice  of  the 
court  defeated  this  plain  and  just  presumption  in  favor  of  the 
tenant.  He  was  obliged  to  claim  in  writing  and  prove  by 
legal  evidence  the  execution  of  improvements  which  the  law 
distinctly  said  were  to  be  deemed  his.  Estates  Commissioner 
Bailey  described  to  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons in  1894  the  practice  of  the  courts  as  to  improvements  as 
follows : 

"  In  the  case  of  reclamation  and  buildings  they  are  still  sub- 
ject to  the  actual  proof  of  doing."  "Unless  he  saw  reclama- 
tion done,  we  rule  that  out."  "We  only  allow  the  improve- 
ments that  have  been  put  on  the  notice  and  that  have  been 
proved  in  court.  Tenants  who  have  recently  succeeded  or 
who  cannot  get  any  neighbor  as  a  witness  who  has  seen  the 
work  done  are  shut  out  from  any  allowance." 

Thus  valuable  improvements  which  there  was  not  a  shadow 
of  reason  for  thinking  had  been  made  by  the  landlord  were 
adjudged  to  be  his  property  and  taken  from  the  tenant. 

If  a  tenant  built  a  superior  house  on  a  small  holding  it  was 
held  to  be  "unsuitable,"  and  a  special  rent  assessed  upon  it. 
If  he  set  up  a  shop,  or  engaged  in  any  business  outside  that  of 
farming — even  in  fruit  and  vegetable  culture — he  was  sub- 
jected to  an  extra  rent  in  the  interest  of  the  landlord  and  in 
the  teeth  of  the  land  act. 

In  1887  a  royal  commission  reported  that  one  hundred  and 

325 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

seventy-six  thousand  rents  fixed  during  the  first  five  years 
of  the  act's  operations  were  too  high,  that  the  increased  cost 
of  cultivation  and  low  prices  had  made  them  practically  im- 
possible. The  land  courts  which  Dublin  Castle  had  set  up  had 
ignored  the  agricultural  depression,  and  had  included  the  value 
of  the  tenants'  improvements  in  the  rents. 

"Our  valuers,"  said  Judge  O'Hagan,  "valued  the  land  as  it 
is,  supposing  it  were  in  the  hands  of  the  landlord  to  be  let" — 
i.e.,  at  its  competition  value. 

On  the  eve  of  his  departure  from  the  land  commission 
Judge  Bewley  admitted  that  "in  the  early  days  of  the  land 
commission  rents  were  fixed  on  consideration  of  the  length- 
ened period  of  agricultural  prosperity  that  had  existed  up  to 
1879." 

In  1887,  coerced  by  events  and  the  report  of  the  royal 
commission,  the  Conservative  government  passed  another 
land  act  admitting  leaseholders  to  the  land  courts  and  em- 
powering the  land  commission  to  vary  rents  "having  regard 
to  the  difference  in  prices  affecting  agriculture."  This  was 
interpreted.  Judge  O'Hagan  dissenting,  to  mean  a  reduction 
of  rent  in  direct  proportion  to  the  fall  of  prices,  as  estimated 
by  the  land  commission,  but  without  reference  to  the  increased 
cost  of  production  in  labor  and  taxes.  The  general  result  was 
a  very  small  and  inadequate  reduction  in  rents  for  the  three 
following  years. 

From  the  decisions  of  the  sub-commission  courts  there  was 
an  appeal  to  the  chief  commission,  whose  decision  on  value 
was  final,  but  questions  of  law  might  be  taken  to  the  High 
Court  of  Appeal. 

In  1894  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  re- 
ported that  the  Court  of  Appeal's  decision,  "that  the  direction 
of  the  act  not  to  allow  any  rent  in  respect  of  the  tenants'  im- 
provements must  be  taken  to  mean  not  what  the  language  of 
the  act  conveys  to  the  ordinary  mind,  but  something  differ- 
ent and  much  more  complex,"  ^  had  left  the  tenants'  interest 
undefined  and  unprotected.  There  was  no  common  under- 
standing of  the  law  nor  anything  approaching  uniformity  of 
practice.  The  High  Court  of  Appeal's  judgment  in  favor  of 
the  landlord  was  improved  on  by  the  land  commission  courts. 
The  select  committee,  summing  up  the  matter,  said:  "Your 
committee  can  come  to  no  other  conclusion  than  that  the 
general  practice  of  the  sub-commission  courts  has  been,  and 
is,  to  deny  to  the  tenant  that  share  in  the  value  of  his  im- 
provements to  which  the  Court  of  Appeal  declared  him  to  be 

*  Morley  Committee  Report  (vii.). 
326 


THE    LAND    ACT    OF    1881 

entitled,  and  to  leave  out  of  account  that  interest  of  the  ten- 
ant to  which  the  statute  expressly  directed  the  courts  to  have 
regard."  ^ 

The  tenant  had  no  chances  in  the  appeal  court,  yet  he  was 
driven  by  the  landlord's  appeals  into  appealing  himself,  for  if 
he  did  not  appeal  the  court  assumed  and  frequently  stated 
that  the  tenant  was  perfectly  satisfied  with  the  decision  of  the 
court  below,  and  if  he  was  satisfied  the  court  inferred  that  the 
rent  must  be  too  low. 

The  landlord's  right  of  appeal  on  value  deterred  numbers  of 
tenants  from  applying  to  have  their  rents  fixed,  and  drove 
them  to  agree  to  the  landlord's  terms.  The  select  committee 
of  1894  reported  that  appeals  entailed  grievous  delays,  pro- 
tracted uncertainty,  and  imposed  heavy  costs  on  a  humble  class 
of  suitors.  Appeals  which  added  only  £27,87,  to  rents  amount- 
ing to  ;^466,87i  must  have  cost,  the  committee  said,  the  state 
and  the  tenants  combined  at  least  ;^25o,ooo,  or  about  ;^io5 
for  each  £1  added  to  the  rent. 

Even  in  the  sub-commission  courts  the  cost  to  each  tenant 
swallowed  up  on  an  average  a  year  of  the  benefit  gained. 
Royal  commissions  and  select  committees  had  repeatedly 
recommended  the  consolidation  of  the  Irish  land  laws,  con- 
sisting of  several  complex  and  intricate  statutes  and  a  mass  of 
undigested  decisions,  in  one  consistent  and  intelligible  act 
drawn  in  such  language,  form,  and  manner  that  landlords  and 
tenants  should  be  able  to  discover  their  respective  rights  and 
duties.  This  has  never  been  attempted.  In  1896,  coerced 
by  the  exposures  of  injustice  made  by  the  select  committee 
of  1894,  the  Conservative  government  passed  another  act 
which  purported  to  remedy  the  wrongs,  particularly  as  to 
tenants'  improvements,  which  the  select  committee  had 
brought  to  light. 

In  the  hands  of  its  administrators  this  act  proved  as  futile 
as  its  predecessors.  Tenants  had  still  to  claim  and  strictly 
prove  by  the  evidence  of  witnesses  who  had  seen  the  work 
done  the  improvements  which  the  letter  and  intention  of  the 
law  said  were  to  be  deemed,  until  the  contrary  was  proved, 
to  be  the  tenant's  own  property.  The  chief  commission  was 
the  final  authority  on  questions  of  value,  and  gave  no  reasons 
for  its  decisions.  Encouraged  by  these  decisions,  the  land- 
lords' appeals  increased,  and  the  last  state  became  worse  than 
the  first  for  those  tenants  who  had  the  temerity  to  appeal 
from  the  sub-commission  to  the  higher  tribunal. 

This  brief  examination  of  the  act  of  1881  is  given  to  justify 

*  Morley  Committee  Report. 
327 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  action  of  the  Land  League  and  Mr.  Parnell  in  refusing  to 
support  the  second  reading  of  the  Gladstone  bill,  not  with  the 
intention  of  having  it  rejected,  but  as  a  protest  against  its  in- 
complete and  unsatisfactory  character.  Time  has  completely 
vindicated  this  policy. 

Within  twelve  months  of  the  passing  of  this  bill  into  law  a 
prominent  Tory  leader,  the  late  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  submitted 
a  motion  to  the  House  of  Commons  for  an  Irish  land-purchase 
scheme  with  which  to  solve  completely  the  land  problem. 
Inside  of  two  years  an  additional  act  had  to  be  passed  to  deal 
with  the  accumulated  arrears  of  the  pre-land-act  period.  In 
1885  the  Ashbourne  Purchase  Act  was  passed  by  a  Tory  gov- 
ernment. In  1887  the  Unionist  government  passed  an 
amending  act  to  that  of  1881,  in  order  to  admit  leaseholders 
who  were  excluded  from  its  provisions  by  Mr.  Gladstone's 
measure,  despite  the  appeals  and  protests  of  the  Irish  members. 
In  1 89 1  a  further  purchase  bill  was  introduced  by  Mr.  Arthur 
Balfour;  in  1896  another  by  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour;  until,  in 
1903,  the  Wyndham  act  became  law,  which  had  for  its  de- 
clared purpose  the  complete  ending  of  the  whole  landlord 
system  in  Ireland  and  the  creation  of  an  occupying  proprie- 
tary, the  very  proposals  of  reform  drawn  up  and  promulgated 
at  the  Land-League  convention  held  in  the  Rotunda,  Dublin, 
in  April,  1880. 

The  Land  League's  official  judgment  upon  the  bill  of  1881, 
before  it  became  law,  was  given  in  a  report  upon  the  meas- 
ure to  the  convention  which  assembled  in  Dublin  to  pro- 
nounce upon  the  merits  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  scheme.  This 
judgment  has  been  amply  sustained  by  the  experiences  which 
began  on  the  day  the  act  became  law,  and  culminated  on 
November  i,  1903,  when  the  existing  purchase  act  came  into 
force.     The  report,  as  abridged,  said: 

"We  have  pointed  out  some  of  the  principal  defects  in  the 
bill  and  have  proposed  amendments  thereto,  but  no  matter 
how  amended  it  will  be,  after  all,  an  imperfect  measure.  It 
is  impossible  to  place  the  relations  between  landlord  and  ten- 
ant on  any  sound  economic  basis  in  Ireland.  It  is  impossible 
to  sustain  it  on  any  other  basis  than  that  of  bayonets.  With 
us  landlordism  means  confiscation.  The  people  of  Ireland 
will  never  acknowledge  any  statute  of  limitation  in  a  matter  of 
injustice.  Their  basis  is  their  inherent  right  to  the  land  of 
their  country.  They  consider  the  longer  the  injustice  is  con- 
tinued the  greater  is  the  wrong  inflicted;  and  if  they  seem  to 
admit  the  principle  of  landlord  compensation  they  do  so  not 
as  admitting  the  landlords'  right,  but  because  they  are  willing 
to  accept  a  peaceful  solution  of  the  question.     They  are  pre- 

328 


THE    LAND    ACT    OF    1881 

pared  to  make  concessions  to-day;  to-morrow  they  may  in- 
sist on  rigid  justice." 

The  highest  reputation  made  in  connection  with  the  passing 
of  the  great  act  of  1881,  next  to  Mr.  Gladstone's,  was  that  of 
Mr.  T.  M.  Healy.  This  was  a  general  recognition  by  the  pub- 
lic and  not  a  mere  comment  or  belief  in  Ireland.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone freely  acknowledged  the  extraordinary  ability  shown 
by  one  of  the  youngest  men  in  the  then  House  of  Commons, 
both  in  the  legal  grasp  of  all  the  complex  details  of  a  volumi- 
nous measure  of  reform  and  in  the  sound  statesmanship  which 
he  displayed  in  every  stage  of  the  bill's  passage  through  the 
House  of  Commons. 

"The  Healy  Clause,"  as  Clause  IV.  came  to  be  known,  was 
said  by  some  critics  at  the  time,  and  subsequently,  to  have 
been,  in  the  matter  of  chief  inspiration,  the  "Russell"  clause, 
or  the  work  of  the  late  lord  chief  -  justice  of  England.  To 
clear  up  all  doubt  on  this  point,  I  once  asked  Sir  Charles  Rus- 
sell (during  The  Times  commission)  whether  there  was  any 
truth  in  this  statement.  "  Not  the  slightest,"  was  the  instant 
and  frank  reply.  "Healy  was  the  real  author  of  the  clause. 
Others  may  have  had  the  same  idea  in  their  minds,  but  the 
merit  of  putting  it  in  the  act  belongs  to  him." 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

The  policy  of  exasperation  was  continued  in  Ireland  during 
the  summer  and  autumn  by  both  sides,  or  rather  by  the  three 
forces  to  the  continued  conflict — Mr.  Forster's  coercion  policy, 
the  Land  League,  and  the  landlords.  Arrests  were  made 
every  day  of  persons  known  to  be  "suspected"  by  Mr.  For- 
ster's landlord  allies  of  being  local  leaders.  The  league  struck 
back  by  its  meetings  of  defiance,  boycotting,  denunciation  of 
grabbers,  a  destructive  criticism  of  the  land  bill,  and  by  ceas- 
ing to  reprobate  outrages  or  to  curb  in  any  way  the  angry 
passions  of  the  people.  When  to  this  state  of  things  were 
added  the  employment  of  military  forces  in  the  carrying-out  • 
of  the  hateful  work  of  evictions,  and  the  fact  that  these 
measures  were  also  of  frequent  occurrence,  it  is  not  surprising 
to  find  the  following  despatch  from  Ireland  recorded  in  the 
British  press  for  June  7,  1881 : 

"The  news  from  Ireland  to-day  is  disquieting.  The  con- 
dition of  affairs  is  little  short  of  actual  civil  war.  In  County 
Cork  the  excitement  is  great.  The  roads  are  torn  up  with 
pickaxes  and  made  impassable,  and  the  telegraph  wires  are 
cut  in  many  directions.  Ballydehob  and  Schull  are  inaccessi- 
ble by  the  ordinary  roads,  which  are  broken  up,  and  the 
bridges  are  pulled  down.  Five  hundred  foot-soldiers,  twenty 
dragoons,  and  seventy  service  corps  men,  with  one  gun,  have 
been  sent  to  the  scene  from  the  West." 

A  secret  circular  issued  by  Dublin  Castle  to  constabulary 
officers  about  this  time  revealed  a  state  of  demoralization 
among  the  police  which  greatly  disquieted  Mr.  Forster.  The 
document  made  this  confession: 

"It  is  most  difficult  to  conceive  that  the  police,  with  the 
local  knowledge  they  possess  of  the  characters  and  habits  of 
the  people  among  whom  they  live,  are  not  oftener  in  a  posi- 
tion to  know  at  least  some  of  those  present  at  nightly  out- 
rages; but  if  it  is  difficult  to  believe  this,  it  is  still  more  difficult 
to  understand  that  they  fail  in  so  many  instances  to  give 
grounds  of  reasonable  suspicion  against  any  one.     The  most 

330 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

active  leaders  and  instigators  of  popular  movements  of  every 
description,  and  their  respective  characters,  are  well  known 
to  the  police  ( !),  and  the  inspector-general  is,  therefore,  unable 
to  understand  how  it  so  often  happens  that  on  the  occasion 
of  an  outrage  admittedly  committed  at  the  instigation  of  the 
orders  referred  to  the  police  officers  and  their  constables  state 
they  cannot  attach  any  grounds  of  reasonable  suspicion 
against  any  individual — even  an  inciter  to  outrage!" 

Two  men, named  Maloney  and  Gaffney,were  killed  in  an  en- 
counter with  the  police  at  an  eviction  scene  near  Bodyke, 
County  Clare,  in  June.  Reprisals  were  taken  on  grabbers  and 
agents  elsewhere,  and  midnight  outrages  commenced  to  grow 
in  number,  with  only  a  passive  feeling  of  savage  indifference 
obtaining  among  the  people  at  deeds  which  would  otherwise 
occasion  national  regret.  Liberty  was  struck  down.  Lead- 
ers were  in  jail  without  trial,  landlords  were  employing  sol- 
diers as  military  bailiffs,  and  Mr.  Forster  was  only  reaping  the 
fruits  of  his  great  initial  mistake  in  believing  that  the  sons  of 
the  spiritless  peasants  of  1846-47  could  be  readily  put  down 
by  a  show  of  force  and  imprisonment  in  1881. 

By  this  time  one  or  two  priests  had  been  arrested  and  im- 
prisoned, Father  Eugene  Sheehy,  of  County  Limerick,  being 
the  first.  He  was  very  popular  among  the  people,  an  earnest 
Land-Leaguer,  and  a  man  of  conspicuous  ability.  He  was 
sent  to  prison  as  a  common  malefactor,  and  this  outrage  upon 
a  clergyman  added  more  fuel  to  the  already  inflammable  ele- 
ments of  progressive  disorder, 

A  motion  was  brought  forward  in  the  House  of  Commons 
by  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  near  the  end  of  the  parliamentary 
session  denouncing  these  increasing  imprisonments  and  de- 
manding the  release  of  the  suspects.  Mr.  Parnell,  in  support- 
ing this  resolution,  made  a  vehement  attack  upon  the  Glad- 
stone ministry,  declaring  them  to  be  tyrants  and  oppressors 
in  keeping  men  in  prison  who  were  the  real  authors  of  the 
land  bill.  He  was  suspended  for  this  language  on  the  initia- 
tive of  the  prime-minister,  and  left  the  House  of  Commons 
amid  the  cheers  of  his  party.  He  crossed  at  once  to  Ireland 
and  took  in  hand  the  direction  of  the  campaign  carried  on  by 
the  league. 

The  league  organized  a  series  of  county  conventions  to  con- 
sider a  plan  suggested  by  Mr.  Parnell  for  the  testing  of  the 
fair-rent  provisions  of  the  Gladstone  act  in  the  land  courts. 
This  plan  proposed  that  a  certain  number  of  tenants,  from 
selected  estates,  should  make  applications  to  have  judicial 
rents  fixed.  The  working  of  the  new  system  could  be  tried 
in  this  manner,  and  the  manifest  defects  of  the  act  could  be 

33^ 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

demonstrated  so  as  to  emphasize  the  need  for  an  immediate 
and  amending  measure  before  all  the  tenants  should  be  tied 
down  to  the  terms  of  a  fifteen  years'  contract.  This  proposal 
enraged  both  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  chief  secretary.  It  prom- 
ised to  prolong  the  agony  of  the  existing  state  of  things  and 
to  throw  discredit  upon  the  labors  of  the  British  Parliament 
during  the  session.  The  plan  did  not  get  a  fair  chance  when 
the  time  for  testing  it  arrived.  A  class  of  Ulster  tenants  who 
had  given  no  help  to  the  Land-League  movement  rushed  into 
the  land  courts,  and  set  an  example,  baited  with  an  average 
twenty-per-cent.  reduction  of  old  rents,  which  was  to  prove 
too  tempting  for  the  mass  of  those  who  hungered  for  even  a 
small  abatement  and  for  the  security  offered  them  in  a  ju- 
dicial lease  of  fifteen  years.  Those  tenants,  however,  who 
acted  thus  precipitately  and  unwisely  were  to  live  to  regret 
that  they  had  not  followed  Mr.  Parnell's  advice. 

Another  rebuff,  also  from  Ulster,  came  as  some  consolation 
to  Mr.  Forster  in  his  life-and-death  fight  with  the  league.  Mr. 
Litton,  who  had  represented  County  Tyrone  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  was  made  land  commissioner  under  the  new  act, 
and  a  contest  for  the  vacated  seat  became  inevitable.  Mr, 
Thomas  Dickson,  an  Ulster  Liberal,  came  forward  as  the  min- 
isterial candidate.  Mr.  Parnell  recommended  the  Rev.  Har- 
old Rylett,  Unitarian  minister  of  Moneyrea,  County  Down,  an 
Englishman,  but  an  enthusiastic  Land-Leaguer,  who  was  act- 
ing at  the  time  as  provincial  organizer  for  Ulster.  The  elec- 
tion was  fought  with  all  available  forces  on  both  sides.  The 
Protestant  farmers  gave  their  support  to  the  Gladstonian 
representative,  while  some  of  the  Catholic  priests  refused  to 
help  the  league  standard-bearer  because  he  was  a  Protestant 
minister.  Mr.  Rylett  was  defeated,  and  the  prestige  of  the 
league  was  much  shaken  in  the  North  in  consequence. 

A  new  force  in  popular  politics  came  into  existence  at  this 
period  in  the  appearance  of  a  weekly  paper  called  United 
Ireland.  It  had  been  purchased  under  the  name  of  The  Flag  of 
Ireland  from  Richard  Pigott,  editor  and  proprietor  of  this  and 
another  weekly  paper  known  as  TJie  Irishman.  These  papers, 
as  already  mentioned  in  the  chapter  on  "  The  New  Departure," 
were  thought  by  some  to  be  the  organs  of  the  extreme  or 
Fenian  body  on  account  of  being  more  read  and  contributed 
to  by  advanced  nationalists  than  any  other  newspapers  in 
Ireland.  Mr.  Parnell  had  suggested  their  purchase  earlier  in 
the  year,  owing  to  their  hostility  to  the  Land-League  move- 
ment, and  negotiations  were  conducted  by  Mr.  Patrick  Egan 
with  Pigott  for  their  sale.  He  was  finally  bought  out,  and 
the  future  forger  of  the  Parnell  letters  thus  ended  his  career 

332 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

as  a  Dublin  journalist.  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  a  native  of 
Mallow,  County  Cork,  and  known  as  one  of  the  ablest  of  Irish 
journalists,  was  chosen  editor  of  the  new  organ,  and  his  mark- 
ed capacity  as  a  vigorous  writer,  his  great  energy  of  character, 
and  thorough  sympathy  with  Mr.  Parnell's  views  on  national 
and  land  questions  soon  made  the  new  paper  a  valiant  and 
powerful  recruit  in  the  fight  against  landlordism  and  coercion. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  now  marked  down  for  arrest.  He  was  bid- 
ding defiance  to  the  government  and  its  coercion  act  in  every 
speech,  and  rousing  the  country  to  a  fever  heat  of  excitement. 
He  swept  from  the  contest  in  Tyrone  to  County  Cork,  and 
back  to  Dublin,  obtaining,  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  the  city 
from  his  home  at  Avondale,  a  reception  which  surpassed  in 
numbers  and  enthusiasm  anything  that  had  been  seen  in  the 
Irish  metropolis  for  a  generation.  This  was  the  culminating 
event  in  the  electrical  situation.  The  crisis  so  long  anticipated 
was  at  hand.  His  power  in  Ireland  was  deemed  to  be  so  great 
that  Mr.  Forster  resolved  to  grapple  with  both  the  league  and 
its  leader,  and  to  crush  both  or  be  crushed  himself  in  the  at- 
tempt. 

Mr.  Gladstone  had  recently  spoken  at  Leeds  on  the  alarm- 
ing state  of  affairs  in  Ireland,  and  in  menacing  words,  obviously 
addressed  to  the  Irish  leader,  declared  that  "the  resources  of 
civilization  had  not  yet  been  exhausted  "  in  the  efforts  of  the 
government  to  deal  effectively  with  Irish  disorder.  On 
the  following  Sunday  Mr.  Parnell  attended  a  great  league 
demonstration  in  Wexford,  and  "spoke  back"  at  the  English 
prime-minister  in  mocking  and  contemptuous  defiance,  de- 
claring that  the  Leeds  threats  resembled  the  shallow  courage 
of  a  whistling  but  really  frightened  wayfarer  whose  way  home 
at  midnight  lay  through  a  chiirch-yard.  The  reply  to  this 
was  the  arrest  of  Mr.  Parnell  on  October  13th,  an  unlucky  day 
and  month  for  the  league  leader.  The  arrest  was  so  timed 
that  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  was  attending  a  banquet  in  the 
Guildhall,  London,  was  enabled  to  bring  into  his  speech  a 
piece  of  histrionic  display  which  made  a  sensational  impres- 
sion upon  the  festive  assembly.  When  nearing  the  end  of  a 
denunciation  of  Mr.  Parnell,  his  lieutenants  and  labors  in 
Ireland,  a  telegram  was  handed,  as  prearranged,  to  the  prime- 
minister.  A  witness  of  the  scene  which  followed  thus  de- 
scribed it  in  the  press: 

"The  vast  audience  assembled  in  the  Guildhall  seemed  for  a 
moment  startled  and  breathless.  Then,  with  a  common  im- 
pulse, the  whole  audience  rose  and  waved  their  handkerchiefs 
and  sent  forth  a  ringing  cheer,  which  was  again  and  again 
renewed.     Silence  having  been  restored,  the  premier  proceed- 

333 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ed.  He  said:  'Within  these  few  moments  I  have  been  in- 
formed that  the  first  step  towards  the  vindication  of  law  and 
of  order  and  of  the  rights  of  property  and  of  the  freedom  of  the 
law — [cheers] — of  the  first  element  of  political  life  and  civiliza- 
tion— the  first  step  has  been  taken  with  the  arrest  of  the  man 
who  entirely  from  motives  which  I  do  not  challenge,  which  I 
cannot  examine,  and  with  which  I  have  nothing  to  do,  who 
entirely  has  made  himself  beyond  all  others  prominent  in  the 
attempt  to  destroy  the  authority  of  the  law  and  to  substi- 
tute what  could  end  in  being  nothing  more  nor  less  than 
anarchical  oppression  exercised  upon  the  people  of  Ireland.'" 

This  dramatic  stage-play,  while  it  pleased  the  anti-Irish 
English  mind,  created  a  strong  feeling  of  disgust  and  anger 
among  less  vindictive  Englishmen.  Mr.  Joseph  Cowen,  M.P., 
who  was  one  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  countrymen  and  party,  in- 
dignantly protested  against  England  following  in  the  footsteps 
_of  Austria  and  other  European  powers  in  the  arbitrary  arrest 
and  imprisonment  of  political  leaders.  His  protest  found 
expression  in  these  eloquent  editorial  comments  in  the  New- 
castle CJironiclc,  Mr.  Cowen's  paper,  the  day  following  the 
Guildhall  speech: 

"They  have  made  another  call  upon  the  'resources  of  civ- 
ilization.' '  Resources  of  civilization,'  forsooth!  If  that  were 
not  a  thoughtless,  it  was  a  shameless  phrase.  In  this  country 
we  have  not  been  accustomed  to  call  those  civilized  resources 
which  filled  the  Hapsburg  dungeons  and  the  Neapolitan 
prisons,  which  in  the  days  of  the  Second  Empire  made  every 
French  jail  a  chamber  of  horrors,  which  charged  the  German 
strongholds  with  the  cherished  leaders  of  the  people  and  God's 
own  priests,  and  which  are  now  darkening  the  highways  that 
lead  to  the  Siberian  mines.  Yet  those  examples,  however 
much  they  may  vary  in  the  degree  of  rasping  cruelty  by  which 
they  have  been  carried  out,  are,  in  principle  and  spirit,  exact 
counterparts  of  the  repressive  measures  now  employed  to  keep 
Ireland  in  order.  In  folly  they  do  not  differ  one  iota,  while 
in  ultimate  failure  they  have  been,  are,  will,  and  deserve  to  be 
all  alike." 

The  outspoken  Englishman  forgot  his  Irish  history  in  going 
on  the  Continent  for  examples  of  political  tyranny  which 
should  have  stayed,  in  the  lessons  of  their  ugly  motives  and 
results,  the  hand  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Earlier  than  Hapsburg 
infamy,^  or  than  Neapolitan  prison  tortures   for  opponents 

*  "  In  the  last  volume  of  this  calendar  it  was  shown  that  Lord  Burgh 
had  entertained  an  offer  for  the  killing  of  the  Earl  of  Tyrone.  On 
June  25.  1598,  Fenton,  writing  to  Cecil,  hints  at  a  like  method  for 
disposing  of  the  rebel  chief:  'For  now  the  axe  is  laid  to  the  tree,  I  hope 

334 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

of  despotic  rule,  Mr.  Cowen  might  have  instanced  the  recorded 
assassinations  of  Irish  leaders  on  the  direct  instigation  of 
English  ministers  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries, 
and  of  the  killing  and  torturing  of  others  in  more  recent  times, 
together  with  the  legal  degradation  of  Irish  political  offences 
to  the  level  of  a  felony  in  1848,  1867,  and  1870.  It  was  no 
unique  experience  for  an  Irish  leader  to  find  himself  a  prisoner 
at  the  hands  of  English  law  in  Ireland.  It  was  not  the  act 
itself,  but  the  inconsistent  folly  of  it  on  Mr.  Gladstone's  part, 
which  was  the  greater  matter  of  surprise. 

The  arrest  naturally  created  wide-spread  and  intense  ex- 
citement throughout  Ireland.  Mr.  Forster  had  closed  with  his 
great  adversary  in  this  unfair  way,  and  it  was  now  for  the 
league  and  the  country  to  show  the  chief  secretary  how  futile 
his  most  vigorous  measures  were  in  the  struggle  he  was  wag- 
ing against  a  mighty  organization  that  had  been  so  magnifi- 
cently officered  by  Parnell  and  his  captains. 

On  October  i8th,  five  days  after  Mr.  Parnell  had  been  in- 
terned in  Kilmainham,  the  central  branch  of  the  Land  League 
held  its  meeting  in  Dublin.  The  Rev.  Father  Cantwell,  Arch- 
bishop Croke's  administrator,  was  in  the  chair,  and  from  this 
meeting  the  following  momentous  manifesto  was  issued: 

"  Fellow-countrymen  ! — The  hour  to  try  your  souls  and  to 
redeem  your  pledges  has  arrived.  The  executive  of  the  Na- 
tional Land  League,  forced  to  abandon  the  policy  of  testing 
the  land  act,  feels  bound  to  advise  the  tenant-farmers  of  Ire- 
land from  this  forth  to  pay  no  rents  under  any  circumstances 

some  branches  will  be  cut  ofif  ere  it  be  long;  and  it  is  high  time  that 
either  the  corrupt  trunk  of  the  tree  be  cut  down  or  some  of  his  principal 
boughs  be  shred  off.'  On  August  4th,  in  another  letter  to  Cecil,  Fenton 
points  still  more  clearly  to  assassination :  '  For  the  other  greater  matter 
mentioned  in  your  honor's  letter,  though  I  know  it  will  be  difficult 
to  draw  one  dog  to  bite  of  another,  and  more  desperate  to  find  an  axe 
to  strike  down  at  one  blow  a  great  oak  that  hath  grown  up  in  many 
years,  yet  I  will  cause  the  ford  to  be  sounded  to  see  if  there  may  be 
found  a  passage  that  way.'  A  Scot,  writing  to  Cecil,  tells  him  of  a 
body-guard  of  two  hundred  musketeers  kept  by  the  Earl  of  Tyrone. 
The  greater  part  of  these  were  'Argyle  men,  naturally  avariciovis, 
bloody,  and  covetous,  who  for  money  will  refuse  to  enterpi^ise  or  per- 
form no  murder.'  The  Scot  'pauds'  his  head  that  he  will  get 
Tyrone  killed  by  these  men,  if  Cecil  will  only  say  Amen,  fiat.  Finall3% 
on  October  2  ist,  Ormonde  put  the  matter  to  Cecil  in  plain  words,  thus: 
'  Your  father,  before  his  death,  did  signify  to  me  her  Majesty's  pleasure 
to  give  head  money  to  such  as  would  cut  off  any  of  the  principal 
traitors  in  action,  according  to  the  quality  of  the  rebel  to  be  cut  off, 
which  warrant,  I  pray  you,  may  be  now  renewed,  hoping  I  may  find 
some  willing  to  take  that  service  in  hand.'" — State  Papers,  1598-99. 
Edited  by  Mr.  Atkinson. 

335 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

to  their  landlords  until  the  government  relinquishes  the  ex- 
isting system  of  terrorism  and  restores  the  constitutional  rights 
of  the  people.  Do  not  be  daunted  by  the  removal  of  your 
leaders.  Your  fathers  abolished  tithes  by  the  same  method 
without  any  leaders  at  all,  and  with  scarcely  a  shadow  of  the 
magnificent  organization  that  covers  every  portion  of  Ireland 
to-day.  Do  not  suffer  yourselves  to  be  intimidated  by  threats 
of  military  violence.  It  is  as  lawful  to  refuse  to  pay  rents  as 
it  is  to  receive  them.  Against  the  passive  resistance  of  an  en- 
tire population  military  power  has  no  weapons.  Do  not  be 
wheedled  into  compromise  of  any  sort  by  the  dread  of  evic- 
tion. If  you  only  act  together  in  the  spirit  to  which,  within 
the  last  two  years,  you  have  countless  times  solemnly  pledged 
your  vows,  they  can  no  more  evict  a  whole  nation  than  they 
can  imprison  them.  The  funds  of  the  National  Land  League 
will  be  poured  out  unstintedly  for  the  support  of  all  who  may 
endure  eviction  in  the  course  of  the  struggle. 

"Our  exiled  brothers  in  America  may  be  relied  upon  to 
contribute,  if  necessary,  as  many  millions  of  money  as  they 
have  contributed  thousands  to  starve  out  landlordism  and 
bring  English  tyranny  to  its  knees.  You  have  only  to  show 
that  you  are  not  unworthy  of  their  boundless  sacrifices  in  your 
cause.  No  power  on  earth  except  faint -heartedness  on  your 
own  part  can  defeat  you.  Landlordism  is  already  staggering 
under  the  blows  which  you  have  dealt  it  amid  the  applause 
of  the  world.  One  more  crowning  struggle  for  your  land,  your 
homes,  your  lives — a  struggle  in  which  you  have  all  the  mem- 
ories of  your  race,  all  the  hopes  of  your  children,  all  the  sacri- 
fices of  your  imprisoned  brothers,  all  your  cravings  for  rent- 
enfranchised  land,  for  happy  homes  and  national  freedom  to 
inspire  you — one  more  heroic  effort  to  destroy  landlordism 
at  the  very  source  and  fount  of  its  existence,  and  the  system 
which  was  and  is  the  curse  of  your  race  and  of  your  existence 
will  have  disappeared  forever.  The  world  is  watching  to  see 
whether  all  your  splendid  hopes  and  noble  courage  will  crum- 
ble away  at  the  first  threat  of  a  cowardly  tyranny.  You  have 
to  choose  between  throwing  yourselves  upon  the  mercy  of 
England  and  taking  your  stand  by  the  organization  which 
has  once  before  proved  too  strong  for  English  despotism;  you 
have  to  choose  between  all-powerful  unity  and  impotent  dis- 
organization; between  the  land  for  the  landlords  and  the 
land  for  the  people.  We  cannot  doubt  your  choice.  Every 
tenant-farmer  of  Ireland  is  to-day  the  standard-bearer  of  the 
flag  unfurled  at  Irishtown,  and  can  bear  it  to  a  glorious  vic- 
tory. Stand  together  in  the  face  of  the  brutal  and  cowardly 
enemies   of  your  race.     Pay  no   rents  under   any  pretext. 

336 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

Stand  passively,  firmly,  fearlessly  by  while  the  armies  of 
England  may  be  engaged  in  their  hopeless  struggle  against  a 
spirit  which  their  weapons  cannot  touch.  Act  for  yourselves 
if  you  are  deprived  of  the  counsels  of  those  who  have  shown 
you  how  to  act.  No  power  of  legalized  violence  can  extort 
one  penny  from  your  purses  against  your  will.  If  you  are 
evicted,  you  shall  not  suffer;  the  landlord  who  evicts  will  be  a 
ruined  pauper,  and  the  government  which  supports  him  with 
its  bayonets  will  learn  in  a  single  winter  how  powerless  is 
armed  force  against  the  will  of  a  united,  determined,  and  self- 
reliant  nation. 

"  (Signed)  Charles  S.  Parnell,  President,  Kilmainham.  Jail ; 
A.J.  Kettle,  Hon.  Sec,  Kilmainham  Jail;  Michael 
Davitt,  Hon.  Sec,  Portland  Prison;  Thomas  Bren- 
NAN,  Hon.  Sec,  Kilmainham  Jail;  John  Dillon, 
Head  Organizer,  Kilmainham  Jail;  Thomas  Sexton, 
Head  Organizer,  Kilmainham  Jail;  Patrick  Egan, 
Treasurer,  Paris. 
"  October  i8th." 

This  was  Mr.  Parnell's  "retort  courteous"  in  action  to  the 
premier's  speech  and  Mr.  Forster's  despotic  proceeding.  Kil- 
mainham had  struck  back  at  Dublin  Castle,  and  the  issue 
was  thus  fiercely  knit  in  a  combat  which  admitted  of  no 
quarter. 

It  was  an  act  of  desperation,  prompted  by  the  high-handed 
policy  which  had  superseded  the  ordinary  powers  of  the  law 
in  order  to  strike  down  an  adversary.  It  suggested,  too,  a 
spirit  of  retaliation  more  in  keeping  wHh  the  temper  of  a 
man  unfairly  fought  by  his  assailants,  who  strikes  back  blindly 
and  passionately  as  best  he  can,  than  a  blow  of  cool  and  cal- 
culating purpose.  As  already  explained,  I  had  urged  this 
extreme  step  in  February.  The  coercion  act  was  not  then 
"law."  Neither  was  the  land  act.  Both,  however,  were  in 
the  region  of  certain  eventuality — one  to  imprison  all  the 
league  leaders,  independent  of  all  juries  or  questions  of  guilt, 
so  as  to  give  the  landlords  a  clear  field,  and  the  other  to  offer 
some  kind  of  a  concession  to  the  tencints  so  as  to  detach  them 
from  the  league  to  the  consequent  relief  of  the  forces  of  law 
and  order.  The  country  was  efficiently  organized  at  the  time, 
for  even  so  revolutionary  a  plan  and  so  desperate  a  struggle 
as  would  inevitably  ensue,  with  at  least  a  thousand  of  the 
truest  local  leaders  any  Irish  movement  of  modern  times  ever 
had  ready  to  do  and  dare  in  so  promising  a  fight  as  a  life-or- 
death  combat  with  landlordism  offered  to  the  Irish  race,  with 
England  involved  in  her  South-African  entanglements.  That 
"  337 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

was  the  time  and  the  true  revolutionary  opportunity  for  a 
no  -  rent  manifesto,  with  every  available  leader  at  his  post 
in  Ireland.  Had  the  blow  fallen  on  Mr.  Forster's  position  and 
policy  and  landlord  allies  at  that  promising  period  it  would 
have  crushed  the  rotten  system  of  landlordism  to  the  ground, 
and  in  all  probability  DubUn  Castle  rule  along  with  it.  In 
the  October  following,  with  the  leader  of  the  movement  him- 
self as  the  chief  secretary's  prisoner  and  the  new  land  system 
coming  into  operation,  the  no-rent  shell  fired  from  Kilmain- 
ham  would  only  demoralize  and  could  not  explode.  Its  fuse 
had  fallen  off. 

Mr.  Forster  promptly  replied  to  the  shot  from  the  prison 
by  proclaiming  the  Land  League  an  illegal  organization  and 
ordering  its  suppression.  This,  too,  was  a  glaringly  uncon- 
stitutional act.  Two  state  trials  had  failed  to  convict  the 
league  of  being  a  violation  of  any  statute  law,  and  another  in- 
dictment and  trial  would  have  been  the  ordinary  course  of 
procedure  against  a  powerful  political  combination.  But 
Mr.  Forster  was  fighting  for  his  official  life  and  reputation, 
and,  as  he  sincerely  believed,  for  the  protection  of  law  and 
order  against  avowed  enemies.  It  was  to  be  a  fight  to  a  finish, 
and  he  was  prepared  to  use,  without  scruple,  the  strongest 
measures  at  his  disposal.  On  October  20th,  two  days  after 
the  no  -  rent  manifesto  had  been  flung  in  his  face  by  his 
chief  prisoners,  the  league  was  "suppressed"  by  order  of  the 
Lord  Lieutenant.  The  document  which  ordered  this  act  was 
posted  all  over  Ireland,  and  read  as  follows: 

"by   the   lord   lieutenant   of   IRELAND 
"a    PROCLAMATION 

"Whereas  an  association  styling  itself  the  Irish  National 
Land  League  has  existed  for  some  time  past,  assuming  to 
interfere  with  the  Queen's  subjects  in  the  free  exercise  of  their 
lawful  rights,  and  especially  to  control  the  relations  between 
landlords  and  tenants  in  Ireland. 

"Now  we  hereby  wa.rn  all  persons  that  the  said  asso- 
ciation, styling  itself  the  Irish  National  Land  League,  or  by 
whatsoever  other  name  it  may  be  called  or  known,  is  an  un- 
lawful and  criminal  association,  and  that  all  meetings  and 
assemblies  to  carry  out  or  promote  its  designs  or  purposes  are 
alike  unlawful  and  criminal,  and  will  be  prevented,  and,  if 
necessary,  dispersed  by  force. 

"And we  do  hereby  call  on  all  loyal  and  well-affected  sub- 
jects of  the  Crown  to  aid  us  in  upholding  and  maintaining  the 

338 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

authority  of  the  law  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Queen  in  this 
her  realm  of  Ireland. 

"Dated  Dublin  Castle,  this  20th  day  of  October,  1881. 

"By  his  Excellency's  commands, 

"W.    E.    FORSTER." 

It  was  now  war  to  the  knife.  The  fortunes  of  the  fight 
were  seemingly  all  on  the  side  of  the  man  armed  with  the  big 
battalions,  the  power  of  arbitrary  arrest,  and  the  keys  of  all 
the  prisons  of  Ireland.  Once  again,  however,  Mr.  Forster  had 
wofully  miscalculated  the  resources  of  Irish  resistance.  He 
had  his  chief  antagonists  under  lock  and  key,  an  army  of  fifty 
thousand  troops  and  military  police  at  his  command,  and  a 
state  of  siege  at  his  disposal,  only  to  find  himself  confronted 
by  a  quiet -looking,  slender,  and  handsome  young  girl,  but 
armed  with  a  will  and  purpose  of  iron,  at  the  head  of  a  body 
of  brave  Irish  girls  and  matrons  who  had  quietly  taken  up  the 
work  of  the  "suppressed"  league  at  the  offices  at  39  Upper 
O'Connell  Street,  Dublin,  just  where  the  events  of  the  pre- 
vious day  had  left  it.  The  crisis  contemplated  when  the 
Ladies'  Land  League  was  formed  eight  months  previously  had 
arrived,  and  the  force  which  was  to  pull  Mr.  Forster  and  his 
coercion  down  was  now  called  into  action. 

Shortly  before  the  arrest  of  Parnell,  the  chief  secretary,  in 
a  letter  to  Mr.  Gladstone,  admitted  where  the  weak  spot  in 
his  position  lay. 

"Unless  we  can  strike  down  the  boycotting  weapon  Parnell 
will  beat  us,  for  men,  rather  than  let  themselves  be  ruined, 
will  obey  him  and  disobey  the  law.  I  send  you  a  most  true 
description  of  this  weapon  as  spoken  in  Mr.  Parnell 's  presence 
at  Maryborough.  ...  It  would  be  useless  and  weak  merely  to 
continue  arresting  local  Land  -  Leaguers  and  to  let  off  the 
Dublin  leaders,  especially  Sexton  and  Parnell.  If  we  strike  a 
blow  at  all  it  must  be  a  sufficiently  hard  blow  to  paralyze  the 
action  of  the  league,  and  for  this  purpose  I  think  we  must 
make  a  simultaneous  arrest  of  the  central  leaders  and  of 
those  of  local  bodies  who  conduct  the  boycotting.  ...  I  see  no 
alternative  unless  we  allow  the  Land  League  to  govern  Ire- 
land, to  determine  what  rent  shall  be  paid,  what  decision  by 
the  commission  shall  be  obeyed,  what  farms  shall  be  taken, 
what  grass-lands  shall  be  allowed.  What  shops  shall  be  kept 
open,  and  what  laws  shall  be  obeyed."^ 

It  was  an  instance  of  what  may  be  termed  exquisite  dramatic 
irony  that  on  the  very  day  when   Mr.  Forster   struck  what 

'■  Wemyss  Reid,  Life  of  W.  E.  Forster,  pp.  257-8. 
339 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

was  expected  to  be  his  "paralyzing  blow"  at  the  league,  in 
the  total  "suppression"  of  that  body  by  proclamation,  the 
first  ssesion  of  the  new  land  commission  court  opened  in 
Dublin.  The  court  crier,  in  reading  the  ofificial  notice  which 
authorized  the  proceedings,  blurted  out  the  words,  "This 
Land  League  court  is  now  declared  open!"  to  the  great 
amusement  of  both  officials  and  public  alike.  In  one  sense 
the  blundering  clerk  was  not  far  wrong.  The  court,  with 
its  functions  and  its  labors,  was  the  result  of  the  work  of 
the  organization  which  was  that  day  declared  illegal  by 
Dublin  Castle. 

Boycotting,  more  systematic  and  relentless  than  had  ever 
yet  been  practised,  was  the  weapon  with  which  the  Ladies' 
Land  League  were  to  fight  Mr.  Forster,  and  to  beat  him. 
The  responsible  league  leaders  now  in  prison  had  to  some 
extent  checked,  where  that  was  possible,  extreme  boycotting. 
The  line  was  drawn  at  violent  intimidation.  Outrages  were 
never  encouraged  except  by  eccentric  characters  or  wild  men 
who  held  no  responsible  position  and  exercised  no  influence, 
while  the  meetings  of  the  local  branches  gave  some  stability 
to  the  movement  in  rural  districts,  and  offered  opportunities 
for  venting  angry  feeling  by  the  channel  of  speeches  and 
resolutions.  Mr.  Forster  put  these  restraining  powers  and 
influences  down  in  placing  in  prison  those  who  wielded 
them,  with  the  result  that  for  the  one  thousand  or  more 
local  leaders  whom  he  had  arrested  as  suspects,  double  that 
number  of  less  careful  and  less  scrupulous  men  volunteered, 
in  one  form  or  another,  to  carry  on  the  fight  of  the  league 
on  more  extreme  lines,  under  the  encouragement  lent  to  their 
efforts  by  a  body  of  patriotic  ladies  in  Dublin  led  by  the 
sister  of  the  imprisoned  national  leader.  It  was  neither 
the  business  nor  desire  of  the  ladies'  league  to  inquire  too 
closely  into  the  motives  or  methods  of  those  who,  driven 
from  open  combination  and  public  meetings,  resorted  to  such 
expedients  as  were  available  in  carrying  on  the  fighting  policy 
of  the  movement.  That  was  Mr.  Forster's  doing,  and  the 
repression  of  such  acts  was  his  concern  and  not  that  of 
Miss  Parnell.  Her  purpose  and  policy  were  to  render  Ireland 
ungovernable  by  coercion,  and  this  she  and  her  lieutenants 
succeeded  completely  in  doing. 

Their  system  of  operations  was  perfect  in  its  way.  Thanks 
to  the  continued  generous  help  from  America,  and  also  from 
Australia,  they  were  supplied  with  abundance  of  money  by 
Mr.  Egan  from  Paris.  Agents  passed  to  and  fro  between 
the  treasurer  of  the  league  and  the  new  league  government. 
Organizers  of  both  sexes  were  employed  to  distribute  copies 

340 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

of  the  no -rent  manifesto  through  Ireland,  to  visit  the  new- 
local  leaders,  to  organize  opposition  at  process-serving  and 
evictions,  and  to  encourage  and  stimulate  resistance  and 
intimidation.  The  evicted  families  were  looked  after,  as 
usual,  and  the  relatives  of  suspects  were  supported  by 
grants  from  the  central  office.  No  district  in  which  some 
form  of  opposition  had  not  been  offered  to  an  evicting  land- 
lord or  obnoxious  agent  would  receive  grants  from  Dublin 
until  the  weapon  of  the  boycott  was  applied.  Districts  were 
known  as  "courageous"  and  "timid"  as  they  merited  this 
distinction  by  their  record.  The  payment  of  rent  was  made 
an  offence  against  the  league,  and  was  denounced  as  the 
surest  means  of  keeping  the  suspects  in  prison. 

A  locality  with  a  grabbed  farm  was  deemed  to  be  un- 
worthy of  any  recognition,  and  no  matter  how  serious  the 
nature  of  an  agrarian  crime  was  with  which  a  person  or 
persons  stood  accused,  the  necessary  legal  defence  was  prompt- 
ly provided  by  the  ladies'  league.  In  fact,  under  the  very 
nose  of  Mr.  Forster,  and  in  utter  defiance  of  his  most  strenuous 
application  of  the  arbitrary  powers  at  his  disposal,  everything 
recommended,  attempted,  or  done,  in  the  way  of  defeating  the 
ordinary  law  and  asserting  the  unwritten  law  of  the  league, 
except  the  holding  of  meetings,  was  more  systematically 
carried  out  under  the  direction  of  the  ladies'  executive 
than  by  its  predecessor  in  existence  and  authority.  The 
result  was  more  anarchy,  more  illegality,  more  outrages, 
until  it  began  to  dawn  on  some  of  the  official  minds  that  the 
imprisonment  of  the  male  leaders  had  only  rendered  con- 
fusion worse  confounded  for  Dublin  Castle,  and  made  the 
country  infinitely  more  ungovernable  under  the  sway  of 
their  lady  successors. 

All  hunting  was  stopped.  Tenants  going  into  the  land 
courts  were  denounced.  Secret  league  meetings  were  en- 
couraged, until  finally,  and  as  heretofore,  Archbishop  McCabe 
had  once  again  to  come  forward  and  to  make  the  customary 
impotent  intervention  in  behalf  of  a  broken  and  beaten 
"law  and  order,"  which  popular  opinion  had  now  learned  to 
despise  all  the  more  for  the  character  of  some  of  its  sup- 
porters. 

Mr.  Forster's  position  became  hopeless  and  impossible. 
He  arrested  half  a  dozen  ladies — a  Miss  Hodnett,  in  County 
Kerry,  for  exhibiting  a  copy  of  the  no-rent  manifesto  in  her 
window,  and  Miss  Hannah  Reynolds,  a  handsome  young 
girl  and  league  emissary,  for  organizing  boycotting.  This 
action  of  the  chief  secretary's  drove  public  opinion  in  Ireland 
into  fury.     Hundreds  of  young  girls  were  eager  for  arrest 

341 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

in  such  a  cause  when  to  be  a  "  suspect "  became  the  passport 
to  a  popular  recognition  as  a  heroine.  Would  Mr.  Forster 
imprison  Miss  Parnell  and  her  council  of  fair  and  formidable 
conspirators  at  39  Upper  O'Conneli  Street,  Dublin?  A  bare 
rumor  to  this  effect  resulted  in  forty  ladies  "camping"  each 
night  for  a  whole  week  on  the  premises,  ready,  anxious,  eager 
to  follow  Miss  Reynolds,  Miss  O'Connor  (sister  of  Mr.  T. 
P.  O'Connor),  and  others  of  their  friends  to  the  prisons  set 
apart  for  the  sisters  and  daughters  of  Irish  political  ad- 
versaries of  English  coercion  under  the  ministerial  rule  of 
England's  greatest  statesman  and  most  outspoken  opponent 
of  despotic  measures  against  the  rights  of  combination,  free 
speech,  and  public  meeting  —  under  Turkish  or  any  other 
.except  English  government. 

Mr.  Forster  showed  all  the  grit  and  resource  of  a  brave 
Englishman  in  this  emergency.  Men  were  after  him  to 
kill  him.  He  was  in  daily  peril  of  his  life,  but  he  grimly  faced 
all  dangers,  including  that  of  ultimate  defeat  and  disgrace, 
rather  than  give  in.  He  asked  for  more  arbitrary  powers, 
and  in  doing  so  frightened  Mr.  Gladstone.  Where  was  this 
coercion  to  stop?  The  only  logical  step  onward  would  be 
martial  law,  and  that  was  a  mad  development  of  repressive 
force  from  which  he  shrank. 

Mr.  Forster's  pluck  and  daring  were  to  the  credit  of  his 
personal  courage,  but  it  had  no  effect  upon  the  steady,  per- 
sistent, and  equally  grim  resolve  of  the  band  of  young  ladies 
in  Dublin  to  keep  alive,  encourage,  and  direct  the  agencies  of 
boycotting,  intimidation,  and  of  disorder  which  operated  day 
and  night  at  hundreds  of  points  throughout  the  land  against 
the  hapless  chief  secretary's  blind  and  blundering  plan  of 
repressive  coercion.  Finally,  Mr.  Gladstone  had  to  acknowl- 
edge in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  hearing  of  the  world, 
that  the  then  state  of  Ireland  had  had  no  parallel  in  the 
history  of  fifty  years,  while  on  March  25,  1882,  the  London 
Times,  reflecting  English  feeling,  hung  out  a  virtual  flag  of 
distress  in  making  this  admission  of  defeat  for  all  the  forces 
and  powers  behind  England's  beaten  landlord  garrison  in 
Ireland : 

"The  Irishman  has  played  his  cards  well,  and  is  making 
a  golden  harvest.  He  has  beaten  a  legion  of  landlords, 
dowagers,  and  encumbrancers  of  all  sorts  out  of  the  field, 
driving  them  into  workhouses.  He  has  baffled  the  greatest 
of  legislatures  and  outflanked  the  largest  of  British  armies 
in  getting  what  he  thinks  his  due.  Had  all  this  wonderful 
advance  been  made  at  the  cost  of  some  other  country,  Eng- 
land would  have  been  the  first  to  offer  chaplets,  testimonials, 

342 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

and  ovations  to  the  band  of  patriots  who  had  achieved  it. 
As  the  sufferers,  in  a  material  sense,  are  chiefly  of  EngHsh 
extraction,  we  cannot  help  a  little  soreness.  Yet,  reason 
compels  us  to  admit  that  the  Irish  have  dared  and  done 
as  they  never  did  before." 

Previous  to  Mr.  Parnell's  arrest  and  the  proclamation  of  the 
league  in  October,  1881,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  Mr.  T.  M. 
Healy  were  deputed  to  proceed  to  the  United  States  to  assist 
the  auxiliary  league  in  America  to  collect  funds.  The  choice 
of  envoys  was  a  happy  one.  Mr.  O'Connor  was  then  and  is 
still  one  of  the  foremost  platform  speakers  in  public  life, 
while  his  colleague  had  the  prestige  of  the  big  reputation  he 
had  earned  in  Parliament  during  the  passage  of  the  land 
bill  into  law,  along  with  a  clear  and  earnest  style  of  speaking 
which  is  agreeable  to  American  audiences.  They  were  sub- 
sequently joined  in  their  mission  by  the  Rev.  Eugene  Sheehy, 
after  his  release  from  a  short  imprisonment.  The  delegation 
visited  the  chief  cities  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  and 
from  Canada  to  New  Orleans,  and  gathered  in  for  the  league 
funds  a  large  sum  of  money  before  returning  home. 

Conventions  of  the  American  league  had  been  held  in 
Buffalo  and  Chicago  during  1881,  to  which  fuller  reference 
will  be  made  hereafter. 

Canada  and  Australia  had  each  contributed  financial  help 
in  the  interval,  and  branches  of  the  league  were  formed  in 
all  the  chief  cities  in  these  colonies  and  in  New  Zealand. 

This  continued  encouragement  from  the  exiled  Irish  was 
an  important  factor  in  creating  the  condition  of  things  in 
Ireland  which  led  to  the  overthrow  of  Forster  and  coercion. 
Our  people  felt  they  were  not  fighting  without  powerful 
allies,  while  Mr.  Gladstone  saw  clearly  that  this  external 
help  rendered  the  task  of  putting  down  the  league  movement 
more  difficult  of  execution.  But  if  the  league  could  secure 
this  assistance  from  abroad  for  a  warfare  against  English 
law  and  authority  in  Ireland,  might  not  England's  prime- 
minister  seek  an  ally  abroad,  too?  He  did;  but  this  part  of 
our  story  will  be  told  in  a  chapter  on  "Rome  and  Ireland," 
when  developments  later  in  time  than  the  intrigue  with  the 
Vatican  against  the  Land  League  in  the  very  crisis  of  its 
existence  will  call  for  examination.  It  will  suffice  to  say 
here  that  it  was  this  intrigue  which  procured  a  cardinal's  hat 
for  Archbishop  McCabe  and  induced  his  Holiness  Pope 
Leo  to  address  to  the  Irish  bishops  a  letter  in  January,  1882, 
in  which  the  league  and  its  policy  were  censured,  and  the 
people  admonished  "not  to  cast  aside  the  obedience  due  to 
their  lawful  rulers,"  Mr.  Forster  being  one  of  these.      The 

343 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Irish  people  were  also  told  by  the  Pope,  "We  have  confidence 
in  the  justice  of  the  men  who  are  placed  at  the  head  of  the 
state,  and  who  certainly,  for  the  most  part,  have  great  prac- 
tical experience  combined  with  prudence  in  civil  affairs." 

The  Irish  hierarchy  were  thus  induced  to  issue  a  corre- 
sponding manifesto,  and  to  this  extent  to  do  Mr.  Gladstone's 
work  under  cover  of  pastoral  admonitions  to  their  flocks 
not  to  refuse  to  pay  "just  debts,"  not  to  injure  a  neighbor's 
(i.e.,  a  grabber's)  property,  "not  to  resist  the  law" — Mr. 
Forster's  law — or  otherwise  to  molest  the  agents  or  auxiliaries 
of  a  coercion  government.  Neither  from  Rome  nor  from 
the  bishops  as  a  body  did  a  word  of  condemnation  come 
against  the  despotic  laws  which  had  filled  the  jails  of  Ireland 
with  men  "reasonably  suspected"  only  of  having  been  ac- 
tive members  of  a  great  agrarian  and  political  organization. 

This  intervention  on  the  part  of  Rome  failed  in  its  purpose. 
The  Irish  people  stood  by  the  league,  and  it  was  reserved  for 
other  agencies  of  a  more  direct  kind  to  negotiate  with  the 
leader  of  the  league  in  Kilmainham  how  Mr.  Forster  and  his 
policy  were  to  be  disposed  of — or  rescued,  rather — from  the 
conquering  tactics  of  the  Ladies'  Land  League. 

Mr.  Forster  had  imprisoned  a  total  of  eight  hundred  and 
seventy-two  leaguers  as  "suspects,"  while  two  hundred  and 
eleven  persons  were  jailed  on  the  charge  or  suspicion  of 
having  been  engaged  in  "nocturnal  attacks" — in  all,  one 
thousand  and  eighty-three  of  the  most  representative  and 
active  members  or  supporters  of  the  movement  were  put  in 
prison  without  trial.  Among  these  Messrs.  Pamell,  Dillon, 
Sexton,  and  James  0' Kelly  were  the  only  members  of  ParHa- 
ment.  Messrs.  Brennan,  A.  J.  Kettle,  Wilham  O'Brien,  Matt 
Harris,  J.  P.  Quinn,  and  Dr.  Joseph  Kenny  were  prominent 
lay  leaders.  Two  or  three  priests  represented  the  clergy, 
while  the  ladies'  league  contributed  about  a  dozen  members 
to  the  roll  of  league  martyrs. 

These  suspects  were  distributed  in  the  prisons  of  Kilmain- 
ham, Nass,  Galway,  Kilkenny,  Limerick,  Clonmel,  Dundalk, 
Armagh,  and  Monaghan,  with  a  few  in  Grangegorman 
(Dublin),  Cork,  and  Enniskillen  jails.  The  treatment  of  the 
"suspects"  was  in  no  sense  vindictive,  being  that  of  untried 
prisoners,  while  the  Ladies'  Land  League  provided  each 
prisoner  with  good  food  from  outside  and  with  books  to 
read. 

Each  prisoner's  family  received  a  weekly  grant  of  ;^i, 
in  addition  to  the  keep  of  the  "suspect,"  the  total  sum  ex- 
pended in  this  manner,  and  in  contemporary  grants  to 
evicted    tenants,    cost    of    erecting    Land -League    huts    for 

344 


THE    NO-RENT    MANIFESTO 

evicted  families,  and  in  other  miscellaneous  ways  being  about 
;;^7o,ooo  from  October,  1881,  to  the  end  of  May,  1882. 

This  was  what  it  cost  the  movement  to  beat  Mr.  Forster 
and  all  the  forces  of  England's  coercion  law  and  order  in 
the  eight  months'  contest  between  them  and  the  Ladies' 
Land  League. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 

Mr.  Forster  was  not  beaten  without  a  struggle  on  his  part 
which  displayed  the  Englishman's  best  fighting  qualities. 
Instead  of  avoiding  risk  he  appeared  to  challenge  it  when, 
against  all  warnings,  he  journeyed  in  March,  1882,  down  to 
Clare,  thence  to  Limerick,  on  to  the  most  disturbed  district  in 
Galway,  and  back  to  Dublin  by  way  of  Tullamore,  in  King's 
County,  where  he  actually  addressed  a  meeting  in  the  public 
street,  almost  within  hearing  of  his  imprisoned  "suspects  "  in 
the  prison  of  the  town.  No  attempt  of  any  kind  was  made  to 
hurt  or  even  to  insult  him  during  the  whole  journey.  He 
obtained  a  respectful  hearing  even  from  his  impromptu 
audience  in  Tullamore.  His  pluck  as  thus  exhibited,  rather 
than  the  armed  escort  of  Clifford  Lloyd's  soldiers  and  police, 
was  deservedly  his  best  shield  against  attack. 

His  ministerial  fearlessness  was  on  the  same. level  of  in- 
dividual courage.  He  appointed  a  body  of  six  special 
magistrates,  or  commissioners,  on  his  own  authority,  put 
them  in  charge  of  the  most  disturbed  districts,  and  armed 
them  with  delegated  power  that  was  most  arbitrary.  Mr. 
Clifford  Lloyd  was  the  most  notorious  of  these  deputy  des- 
pots, and  he  has  given  the  public  an  account  of  his  experi- 
ences in  his  oflficial  autobiography.*  But  the  stars  in  their 
.courses  were  in  league  with  Miss  Parnell  against  the  chief 
secretary  and  his  policy.  Opinion  in  England  was  turn- 
ing against  him,  partly  through  the  ungrateful  attacks  made 
upon  him  by  the  miserable  Irish  landlords  whom  he  had  pre- 
served from  destruction.  These  men,  who  were  incapable  of 
doing  anything  good  for  any  cause,  did  not  help  him  in  any 
sense  in  his  most  diflficult  days,  and  finally  turned  against  him, 
as  they  always  did  against  all  their  allies,  because  he  did  not 
go  to  an  extreme  in  his  fight  against  his  and  their  foes  which 
would  meet  with  their  savage  approval.  Other  and  more 
reputable  opponents  arose  among  even  his  own  party  and 

*  Ireland  Under  the  Land  League.     Blackwood  &  Sons,  London. 

346 


THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 

in  the  Liberal  press  at  the  spectacle  of  prisons  crammed 
with  untried  political  adversaries,  and  of  the  arrest  and 
jailing  of  girls  and  women  for  their  active  sympathy  with 
their  imprisoned  brothers,  friends,  and  Ireland's  leaders.  This 
was  not  only  a  scandal  to  England's  name  and  Parliament, 
it  was  worse.  It  was  a  failure,  and,  what  was  more,  it 
threatened  the  very  existence  of  a  ministerial  majority  in 
the  House  of  Commons. 

Parliament  had  met  on  February  7, 1882.  The  Irish  party 
was  under  the  leadership  of  Mr.  Sexton,  who  had  been  re- 
leased from  Kilmainham  owing  to  ill  health  after  a  few 
weeks'  imprisonment.  The  government  soon  found  itself  in 
the  dangerous  position  of  being  involved  in  the  passage  of 
new  closure  rules,  with  the  prospect  of  a  coalition  between  the 
Tories,  hungering  for  office,  and  the  Irishmen,  thirsting  for 
revenge,  which  might  bring  about  a  defeat  or  a  greatly 
reduced  majority  of  the  ministerialists.  There  was  also  the 
necessity  for  renewing  the  coercion  act  which  had  been 
passed  in  1881  as  a  sessional  emergency  measure,  and  this 
could  not  be  done  without  a  prolonged  and  damaging  debate, 
in  which  every  act  of  Mr.  Forster's  would  be  reviewed  and 
assailed.  The  Radical  section  of  the  government  supporters 
disliked  being  dubbed  "coercionists,"  and  saw  no  gain  to 
cause  or  party  in  standing  by  a  chief  secretary  who  had  not 
succeeded,  even  with  almost  unlimited  powers,  in  calming 
Ireland  or  in  obtaining  fair  play  for  the  new  land  act  from 
a  people  exasperated  by  the  wholesale  imprisonment  of  their 
leaders.  When,  therefore,  on  March  28th,  an  ex-Tory  minister. 
Sir  John  Hay,  gave  notice  of  a  motion  against  the  renewal  of 
the  coercion  act,  Mr.  Sexton  saw  his  chance,  and  brought 
forward  a  demand  for  the  release  of  the  three  members  of  that 
House,  Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  O'Kelly,  who  were  pre- 
vented, without  trial,  from  attending  their  parliamentary 
duties.  The  motion  was  resisted  by  Mr.  Forster,  but  in 
language  which  created  an  unfavorable  impression  all  round, 
and  confirmed  the  growing  belief  in  the  parliamentary  mind 
that  he  had  failed  in  Ireland  and  that  his  methods  were 
hopelessly  at  fault. 

At  this  time,  too,  the  United  States  government,  at  the  in- 
stigation of  the  American  Land  League,  made  a  diplomatic  re- 
quest for  the  release  or  trial  of  those  "suspects"  who  were 
American  citizens,  and  this  transatlantic  reminder  of  the 
power  of  the  league  abroad  as  well  as  at  home  was  not  calcu- 
lated to  help  Mr.  Forster's  cause.  Early  in  April,  following  a 
strong  attack  upon  him  in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  by  Mr.  John 
Morley,  its  then  editor,  in  which  the   chief   secretary   was 

347 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

called  upon  to  resign,  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Gladstone  and  asked 
to  be  released  from  the  duties  of  his  post.  This  step,  how- 
ever, the  prime-minister  was  not  then  prepared  to  advise. 
The  alternative  to  resignation  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Forster  as 
more  coercion.  Trial  by  jury  in  serious  crimes  was  to  be 
superseded  by  trial  before  two  special  magistrates,  while, 
following  the  usual  practice  of  English  rulers  in  Ireland, 
the  proposed  blow  at  the  liberties  of  the  people  through 
the  jury  system  was  to  be  accompanied  by  a  concession. 
Provincial  councils  were  to  be  offered  to  Ireland,  endowed 
with  powers  of  local  self-government  analogous  to  those 
subsequently  given  to  county  councils,  and  this  dual  policy 
of  kicks  and  halfpence  was  expected  to  retrieve  the  situation. 
These  were  the  plans  which  were  under  the  prime-minister's 
consideration  when  a  totally  unexpected  piece  of  political 
good-fortune  came  to  his  assistance  in  a  proposal  for  terms 
from  Mr.  Parnell. 

The  league  leader  had  been  in  prison  just  six  months  at  this 
time.  He  was  virtually  under  no  prison  rules  except  a  bar 
against  his  walking  out  of  Kilmainham.  No  indignity  be- 
yond detention  was  offered  to  him,  and  he  wanted  for  no 
luxury  which  funds  or  friends  could  supply.  He  had  also 
the  association  of  intimates  and  colleagues,  and  could  not,  in 
addition,  deny  himself  the  keen  satisfaction  derived  from 
■   seeing  the  complete  failure  of  his  jailers  to  rule  the  cotmtry 

[  and  subdue  the  people  after  locking  him  up.  But  nature  and 
temperament  did  not  intend  Mr.  Parnell  ever  to  be  a  prisoner. 
Restraint  to  him  was  a  torture  and  an  insult.  His  disposition 
rebelled  against  it,  and  his  inordinate  pride  caused  him  to 
feel  keenly  the  outrage  he  was  subjected  to  by  a  man  whom 
he  considered  both  an  unscrupulous  assailant  and  a  social  in- 
ferior. But  it  is  now  manifest  that  there  were  two  other  in- 
fluences of  even  a  more  stimulating  character  at  work  to 
induce  him  to  seek  a  release  from  prison.  One  of  these  in- 
fluences can  be  inferred  from  the  discovery  made  in  Paris  in 
February,  1881,  by  his  colleagues  on  opening  his  letters. 
The  other  was  probably  the  determining  factor  in  causing  him 
to  open  up  negotiations  with  Mr.  Gladstone  for  a  treaty  or 
understanding.      It  was  this:  Extreme  men,  not  necessarily 

-4  belonging  to  the  Fenian  body,  had  become,  in  a  sense,  masters 
of  the  situation  outside  by  the  imprisonment  of  all  moral- 
force  local  leaders.  They  struck  at  the  law  which  had  a 
doubly  obnoxious  character  to  them,  in  being  alien  and  co- 
ercive, while  the  state  of  things  that  prevailed  encouraged 
them  to  plot  and  plan  measures  which  Mr.  Parnell,  as  a  non- 
revolutionist,    had   probably  never   contemplated,    even    as 

348 


THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 

justifiable  in  a  strike  against  rent.  The  general  state  of  the 
country  under  these  circumstances  seems  to  have  greatly 
alarmed  him,  as  leading  to  the  likelihood  of  precipitating  a 
condition  of  general  anarchy  in  which  the  league  movement 
would  be  used,  not  for  the  purposes  he  approved  of,  but  for  a 
real  revolutionary  end  and  aim.  It  was  precisely  at  this  time, 
too,  that  the  chief  secretary  had  to  confess  to  Mr.  Gladstone^ 
the  urgent  need  for  greater  coercive  powers.  "  My  six  special 
magistrates,"  he  wrote,  "all  bring  me  very  bad  reports. 
These  are  confirmed  by  constabulary  reports.  The  impunity 
from  punishment  is  spreading  like  a  plague.  I  fear  it  will  be 
impossible  to  prevent  very  strong  and  immediate  legislation." 

It  was  a  dramatic  coincidence  that  both  the  prisoner  and 
his  jailer  were  alike  alarmed  at  a  state  of  things  which  ought 
to  have  appealed  to  Parnell  to  concern  himself  only  with 
scientific  studies  in  the  tranquil  repose  of  Kilmainham,  and 
to  allow  Ireland's  enemies  to  reap  the  full  reward  of  the  brutal 
coercive  and  eviction  policy  they  had  so  long  pursued.^ 

It  was  the  vital  turning-point  in  Mr.  Parnell's  career,  and 
he  unfortunately  turned  in  the  wrong  direction.  He  had 
hitherto  been  in  everything  but  name  a  revolutionary  re- 
former, and  had  won  many  triumphs  at  the  head  of  the  most 
powerful  organization  any  Irish  leader  had  at  his  back  for  a 
century.  He  now  resolved  to  surrender  the  Land  League, 
and  to  enter  the  new  stage  of  his  political  fortunes  as  an 
opportunist  statesman. 

He  applied  for  a  parole  to  attend  the  funeral  of  a  nephew 
who  had  died  in  Paris.  This  was  granted  at  once  by  Mr. 
Forster.  In  passing  through  London  Mr.  Parnell  met  Mr. 
Justin  McCarthy,  and  spent  an  evening  at  his  house.  He  ex- 
plained some  of  the  plans  he  had  formed  in  prison.  These 
embraced  a  parliamentary  demand  for  a  bill  to  cancel  arrears 
of  rent  in  a  certain  class  of  holdings  on  payment  of  a  sum  to 
the  landlord  out  of  the  Irish  Church  surplus  fund.  Other 
amendments  of  the  act  of  1881  were  to  be  pressed  for,  and  as 
(in  his  opinion)  the  no-rent  policy  had  failed,  the  agitation 
could  be  "slowed  down,"  the  suspects  released,  and  the  Land 
League  be  thrown  overboard. 

He  also  saw  Captain  O'Shea,  M.P.,  who  was  a  member  of  his 

*  Lije  of  W.  E.  Forster,  p.   553. 

2  "With  a  political  revolution  we  have  ample  strength  to  cope. 
There  is  no  reason  why  our  cheeks  should  grow  pale  or  why  our  hearts 
should  sink  at  the  idea  of  grappling  with  a  political  revolution.  .  .  . 
But  a  social  revolution  is  a  very  different  matter.  .  .  .  The  seat  and 
source  of  the  movement  was  not  to  be  found  during  the  time  the 
government  was  in  power.  It  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the  foundation 
of  the  Land  League." — Gladstone,  House  of  Commons,  April  4,  1882. 

349 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

party  and  a  personal  friend,  and  he  repeated  to  him  what  he 
had  communicated  to  Mr.  McCarthy.  Mr.  Pamell  knew,  of 
course,  that  O'Shea  was,  in  reaHty,  more  of  an  emissary  of  the 
government  than  a  Home-Rule  member,  and  the  suggested 
policy  of  compromise,  in  being  imparted  to  him,  amounted  to 
an  indirect  proposal  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  Mr.  Pamell  left  Lon- 
don for  Paris,  and  O'Shea  communicated  at  once  both  to  the 
prime-minister  and  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  all  that  had  tran- 
spired. Mr.  Gladstone  responded  immediately  in  a  letter  to 
O'Shea,  in  which  he  said,  "Whether  there  be  any  agreement 
as  to  the  means,  the  end  in  view  is  of  vast  amount,  and  as- 
suredly no  resentment,  personal  prejudice,  or  false  shame,  or 
other  impediment  extraneous  to  the  matter  itself,  will  pre- 
vent the  government  from  treading  in  that  path  which  may 
most  safely  lead  to  the  pacification  of  Ireland." 

This  letter  was  dated  April  15th.  Mr.  Chamberlain  wrote 
on  the  17th  more  fully,  but  equally  anxious  to  close  with  an 
offer  that  would,  among  other  things,  probably  dispose  of  Mr. 
Forster  as  chief  secretary,  to  whose  policy  in  Ireland  the  mem- 
ber for  Birmingham  was  as  much  opposed  as  a  colleague  in  the 
same  cabinet  could  possibly  be. 

Mr.  Gladstone  made  Mr.  Forster  acquainted  with  the  O'Shea 
communications,  and  these,  with  the  knowledge  and  assent 
of  Mr.  Parnell,  who  had  returned  to  London  in  the  mean  time, 
were  submitted  to  the  cabinet  at  a  meeting  on  the  2 2d,  at 
which  the  chief  secretary  was  present. 

Mr.  Pamell  returned  to  Kilmainham,  and  on  the  25th  wrote 
a  memorandum  embodying  his  previous  proposals,  which  he 
desired  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  "to  take  the  earliest  opportunity 
of  showing  to  Mr.  Chamberlain."  This  document  gave  much 
satisfaction  to  that  member  of  the  government,  who  wrote,  in 
acknowledging  it:  "I  will  endeavor  to  make  good  use  of  it.  I 
only  wish  it  could  be  published,  for  the  knowledge  that  the 
question  still  under  discussion  will  be  treated  in  this  concilia- 
tory spirit  would  have  a  great  effect  on  public  opinion."  ^ 

So  far  had  Mr.  Parnell's  views  been  modified  by  the  influ- 
ences alluded  to  that  he  wrote  to  O'Shea  on  April  28th,  indi- 
cating a  settlement  of  the  arrears  question  (as  already  out- 
lined), an  admission  of  leaseholders  to  the  provisions  of  the 
land  act,  and  the  amendment  of  the  purchase  clauses  of  the 
same  act,  as  the  three  measures  for  which  the  following  price 
was  to  be  given: 

"The  accomplishment  of  the  programme  I  have  sketched 
would,  in  my  judgment,  be  regarded  by  the  country  as  a 

'  Barry  O'Brien,  Lije  of  Parnell,  vol.  i.,  p.  342. 


THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 

practical  settlement  of  the  land  question,  and  would,  I  feel 
sure,  enable  us  to  co-operate  cordially  for  the  future  with  the 
Liberal  party  in  forwarding  Liberal  principles ;  so  that  the  gov- 
ernment, at  the  end  of  the  session,  would,  from  the  state  of 
the  country,  feel  themselves  thoroughly  justified  in  dispensing 
with  further  coercive  measures."  * 

O'Shea  waited  upon  Mr.  Forster  and  laid  these  proposals 
before  him.  The  chief  secretary  has  given  his  version  of  this 
interview,  and  posterity,  Irish  as  well  as  English,  will  be  more 
inclined  to  believe  Mr.  Forster's  word  than  that  of  the  other 
witness  to  what  transpired.  He  declared,  subsequently,  in 
the  House  of  Commons  that  O'Shea  had  represented  Parnell 
as  promising  ' '  that  the  conspiracy  which  has  been  used  to  set 
up  boycotting  and  outrages  will  now  be  used  to  put  them 
down,  and  that  there  will  be  union  with  the  Liberal  party." 
Mr.  Parnell,  however,  denied  this  alleged  promise  of  his  when 
he  was  cross-examined  in  The  Times  Commission  upon  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  the  Kilmainham  treaty. 

Mr.  Forster  promptly  conveyed  to  Mr.  Gladstone  a  copy  of 
Parnell 's  letter  and  an  account  of  O' Shea's  conversation, 
which  the  chief  secretary  had  dictated  to  his  wife  immediately 
after  the  interview.  The  prime-minister's  satisfaction  was 
expressed  in  these  words  in  his  reply :^  "On  the  whole,  Par- 
nell's  letter  is,  I  think,  the  most  extraordinary  I  have  ever 
read.     I  cannot  help  feeling  indebted  to  O'Shea." 

This  letter  sealed  and  sanctioned  the  Kilmainham  treaty, 
and  as  Mr.  Forster  refused  to  be  a  party  to  the  compact 
his  resignation  was  only  a  question  of  convenience.  O'Shea 
visited  Parnell  in  prison  and  returned  again  to  London. 
The  release  of  Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  O 'Kelly  was 
determined  upon,  Mr.  Chamberlain  being  insistent  upon 
their  liberation.  He  had  worked  for  the  treaty  within  the 
cabinet  from  the  first  mooting  of  Mr.  Parnell's  terms,  knowing 
that  the  acceptance  of  these  by  the  government  would 
involve  Mr.  Forster's  resignation.  He  frankly  explained  his 
position  and  policy  to  a  number  of  the  Irish  members  at  an 
informal  meeting  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  intimated 
to  them  a  readiness,  or  rather  a  wish,  to  be  the  successor  of 
Mr,  Forster  in  the  chief-secretaryship,  the  better  to  carry 
out  the  new  policy  for  Ireland. 

Earl  Cowper  tendered  his  resignation  as  Lord  Lieutenant 
rather  than  agree  to  the  release  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  his 
colleagues,  and  Mr.  Forster  followed  suit,  for  similar  and  other 
reasons,  two  days  after.     On  May  2d  the  prime-minister  rose 

*  Barry  O'Brien,  Life  of  Parnell,  vol.  i.,  p.  342. 

*  Life  of  Forster,  p.  563. 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

in  his  place  in  the  House  of  Commons  and  announced  the 
startHng  change  of  poHcy  which  the  treaty,  then  unknown  to 
the  pubhc,  had  induced  the  cabinet  to  adopt.  Mr.  Forster 
and  his  coercion  were  thrown  over,  Mr.  Parnell  was  set  at 
Hberty,  and  the  pohtical  fortunes  of  the  ill-omened  treaty 
were  soon  to  be  at  the  mercy  of  the  registered  decree  of  an 
inscrutable  destiny. 

On  the  very  eve  of  Parnell 's  proposals  to  Mr.  Gladstone, 
through  O'Shea,  the  future  Home  Rule  prime-minister  wrote 
as  follows  to  Mr.  Forster,  in  reply  to  the  demand  for  further 
coercive  legislation: 

"About  local  government  in  Ireland,  the  ideas  which 
more  and  more  establish  themselves  in  my  mind  are  such 
as  these: 

"  I.  Until  we  have  seriously  responsible  bodies  to  deal 
with  us  in  Ireland  every  plan  we  frame  comes  to  Irishmen, 
say  what  we  may,  as  an  English  plan.  As  such  it  is  probably 
condemned.  At  best  it  is  a  one-sided  bargain,  which  binds  us, 
not  them. 

"  2.  If  your  excellent  plans  for  obtaining  local  aid  towards 
the  execution  of  the  law  break  down,  it  will  be  on  account 
of  this  miserable  and  almost  total  want  of  the  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility for  the  public  good  and  public  peace  in  Ireland, 
and  this  responsibility  we  cannot  create  except  through  local 
self-government . 

"3.  If  we  say  we  must  postpone  the  question  till  the 
state  of  the  country  is  more  fit  for  it,  I  should  answer  that 
the  least  danger  is  in  going  forward  at  once.  It  is  liberty  alone 
which  fits  men  for  liberty.  This  proposition,  like  every 
other  in  politics,  has  its  bounds;  but  it  is  far  safer  than  the 
counter  doctrine — wait  till  they  are  fit. 

"4.  In  truth,  I  should  say  (differing  perhaps  from  many) 
that  for  the  Ireland  of  to-day  the  first  question  is  the  rectifica- 
tion of  the  relations  between  landlord  and  tenant,  whicn 
happily  is  going  on ;  the  next  is  to  relieve  Great  Britain  from 
the  enormous  weight  of  the  government  of  Ireland  unaided 
by  the  people,  and  from  the  hopeless  contradiction  in  which 
we  stand  while  we  give  a  parliamentary  representation, 
hardly  effective  for  anything  but  mischief  without  the  local 
institutions  of  self-government  which  it  presupposes,  and 
on  which  alone  it  can  have  a  sound  and  healthy  basis."  ^ 

This  letter  was  written  on  April  12,  1882.  It  was  on  the 
very  next  day,  the  13th,  that  Mr.  Gladstone  received  from 
Captain  O'Shea  Parnell's  Kilmainham  proposals.     Tiiere  was 

'  Morley's  Ltfe  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.  58. 
352 


THE    KILMAINHAM    TREATY 

no  suggestion  of  self-government  contained  in  these  pro- 
posals. It  was,  therefore,  a  treaty  about  arrears  of  rent  and 
the  release  of  suspects  that  carried  with  it  the  fall  of  Forster, 
and,  as  sequence,  the  Phoenix  Park  tragedy  which  presented 
itself  to  the  prime-minister  who  wrote  the  above  memoran- 
dum to  his  coercionist  chief  secretary.  At  this  time  Mr.  Glad- 
stone was  at  the  head  of  the  strongest  Liberal  government  in 
the  history  of  England,  and  the  man  who  had  forced  the 
House  of  Lords  to  accept  the  land  bill  of  the  year  before 
was  abundantly  strong  enough  to  compel  them  to  pass  a 
Home-Rule  measure  on  the  lines  of  the  letter  to  Mr.  Forster. 

During  these  negotiations  Mr.  Parnell  had  not  imparted 
a  word  to  his  colleagues  in  Kilmainham  about  what  was 
proceeding.  Rumor  had  circulated  statements  while  he  was 
out  on  parole  about  some  impending  arrangements,  and 
suspicion  was  busy  in  weaving  conjectures  which  might  ex- 
plain the  release  of  the  three  members.  Mr.  Parnell  was 
careful,  too,  in  the  choice  of  his  intermediaries  with  the 
government.  They  were  men  who  were  in  no  sense  extreme, 
O'Shea  being,  in  fact,  a  hanger-on  of  the  Liberal  ministry. 

On  the  afternoon  of  May  4th,  in  a  House  crowded  in  every 
part  and  charged  with  the  excitement  peculiar  in  that 
chamber  to  a  ministerial  crisis,  Mr.  Forster  rose  from  a 
private  member's  seat  to  explain  to  the  Commons  and  the 
country  tlie  cause  of  his  resignation  and  the  reasons  for  his 
dissent  from  the  policy  which  had  occasioned  it.  He  received 
a  warm  and  marked  ovation.  He  was  in  appearance  and 
type  a  representative  of  the  sturdy  middle-class  Englishman, 
big  in  head  and  body,  and  pugnacious  in  look  and  manner. 
He  had  had  two  years'  of  a  fierce  struggle  against  the  Irish. 
Popular  sympathy  was,  therefore,  largely  with  him  outside. 
It  had  been  rumored  that  he  was  thrown  over  by  his  colleagues, 
who  preferred  to  sacrifice  nim  than  to  give  him  the  extra 
powers  he  had  asked  for  as  necessary  to  assert  the  dominance 
of  England's  authority  over  a  people  against  whom  a  latent 
antipathy  always  did  and  always  will  prevail  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  mind,  and  he  faced  the  Irish  benches  a  beaten  but  a 
defiant  foe,  who  felt  that  he  could  have  crushed  them  had 
ministerial  expediency  not  refused  him  the  necessary  weapons 
for  the  task.  He  spoke  well,  and  had  proceeded  half-way 
through  his  speech  when  cheers,  fierce,  passionate,  and  trium- 
phant, rang  through  the  chamber  from  the  Irish  members 
as,  with  measured  step  and  haughty  mien  and  a  face  set  in 
expression  of  proud  triumph  Mr.  Parnell,  who  had  entered 
the  House  after  release  from  Kilmainham,  made  his  way  to 
his  seat,  and,  folding  his  arms,  looked  across  the  floor  at  the 
»3  353 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

man,  now  in  ministerial  disgrace,  who  had  kept  him  under 
lock  and  key  for  the  previous  six  months.  It  was  one  of 
the  most  intensely  dramatic  episodes  of  the  great  Irish 
struggle,  which  will  some  day  inspire  a  painter's  brush  with 
the  subject  and  ambition  of  a  great  historical  picture.  Mr. 
Forster's  speech  was  to  English  minds  a  fair-enough  vindica- 
tion of  his  othcial  life  in  Ireland,  and  he  made  no  disclosures 
which  could  convey  to  the  House  or  the  public  the  real 
reason  of  Mr.  Pamell's  apparent  victory.  A  tragedy  of  un- 
exampled import  and  calamity  was  required  to  bring  all  the 
facts  to  light,  and  the  fates  were  busy  in  preparing  the  occasion 
and  the  need  for  explanation. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 
THE     PHCENIX     PARK    MURDERS 

The  morning  of  May  6,  1882,  was  bright  and  lovely,  even  ;  ^^ 
inside  prison  walls,  and  the  writer,  who  had  just  completed 
fifteen  months  of  a  sojourn  in  the  huge  convict  depot  at 
Portland,  was  enjoying  the  sunshine  in  the  infirmary  garden, 
when  the  governor  was  seen  approaching,  wearing  a  smile  and 
carrying  a  letter.  With  an  extensive  experience  of  no  fewer 
than  twelve  prison  governors,  Mr.  George  Clifton  was  the 
only  one  I  remembered  who  had  made  smiling  any  part  of 
our  relations.  Prison  is  not  a  place  for  smiling,  anyhow,  and 
unfortunate  governors  have  few  incentives  to  the  wearing 
of  cheerful  looks  in  the  daily  performance  of  cheerless  duties. 
It  was  a  hopeful  sign  on  this  occasion,  and  told  in  advance 
the  news  of  a  coming  release. 

"This  is  a  letter  from  Mr.  Parnell,  M.P.,"  said  the  governor, 
"who  is  coming  down  to  see  you  to-day.  You  will  be  re- 
leased this  afternoon." 

The  letter  read  as  follows: 

"  House  of  Commons  Library, 
"London,  May  5,  1882. 

"My  dear  Sir, — Dillon  and  I  propose  going  down  to  meet 
you  at  Portland  prison  to-morrow  on  your  liberation  and  to 
accompany  you  to  London. 

"We  were  ourselves  released  from  Kilmainham  only  on 
Tuesday  last,  Mr.  Forster  having  resigned,  and  further  legisla- 
tion on  the  land  question  promised.  We  shall  arrive  at  Port- 
land about  two  o'clock. 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"Chas.  S.  Parnell."^     _^ 

What  was  the  explanation  of  the  promiised  visit  and  of 
the  cold  and  formal  "My  dear  Sir"?  Changes  significant 
enough  were  announced  in  this  brief  message,  but  were  there 
others  behind  the  lines  that  would  tell  a  fuller  story  of  some 

'  Report  Special  Commission,  vol.  vii.,  p.  48. 
355 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

compromise  to  which  I  was  expected  to  be  a  party?  This 
thought  marred  some  of  the  pleasure  inseparable  from  a 
third  release  from  prison,  but  no  inkling  of  the  full  truth 
could  be  got  from  any  further  reading  of  the  strange  epis- 
tle or  from  the  altogether  unnecessary  and  un-Pamell-like 
visit  to  an  "At  Home"  at  Portland  prison. 

Messrs.  Parnell,  Dillon,  and  O'Kelly  arrived  in  a  few 
hours,  and  after  a  brief  inspection  of  the  huge  convict  es- 
tablishment-we  were  soon  en  route  for  London. 

"What  does  it  all  mean?"  was  a  natural  question  to  put 
by  one  who  had  been  deprived  of  all  means  of  knowing  what 
had  transpired  in  the  world  of  politics  since  February  4,  188 1. 
Mr.  Parnell  did  most  of  the  talking  on  the  railway  journey. 
His  reply  was,  in  substance,  this: 

"We  are  on  the  eve  of  something  like  Home  Rule.  Mr. 
Gladstone  has  thrown  over  coercion  and  Mr.  Forster,  and 
the  government  will  legislate  further  on  the  land  question. 
The  Tory  party  are  going  to  advocate  land  purchase,  almost 
on  the  lines  of  the  Land-League  programme,  and  I  see  no 
reason  why  we  should  not  soon  obtain  all  we  are  looking  for 
in  the  league  movement.  The  no-rent  manifesto  had  failed, 
and  was  withdrawn.  A  frightful  condition  of  things  prevailed 
in  Ireland  during  the  last  six  months,  culminating  in  several 
brutal  murders,  moonlighting  outrages,  and  alarming  violence 
generally." 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  explanation  of  the  sudden  anti- 
climax to  coercion  in  the  political  situation ;  but  a  reply  to  the 
question,  "What  has  become  of  the  Ladies'  Land  League?" 
let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  somewhat. 

"Oh,  they  have  expended  an  enormous  amount  of  money. 
They  told  me  in  Dublin,  after  my  release,  that  I  ought  to  have 
remained  in  Kilmainham.  I  fear  they  have  done  much  harm 
along  with  some  good."  "The  'harm'  is  evident  in  the  fall 
of  Forster  and  in  the  dropping  of  coercion  and  in  our  re- 
lease," was  the  obvious  retort.  "  It  appears  to  me  that  they 
have  given  good  value  for  the  money  which  was  contributed 
to  give  the  landlords  and  the  Castle  all  possible  trouble." 

"Yes,  but  you  don't  know  all.  To-morrow  I  will  go  into 
the  whole  matter  with  you,  and  explain  more  fully  than  is  de- 
sirable now  what  has  really  led  the  government  to  the  change 
of  policy  which  is  to  result  in  the  immediate  release  of  all  the 
suspects  and  in  the  measures  I  have  referred  to." 

There  was  some  amusing  conversation  on  the  way  to  Lon- 
don about  a  future  "  Home- Rule  cabinet"  in  Dublin.  Mr. 
Parnell  was  in  a  most  optimistic  mood,  and  joked  about 
O'Kelly  being  a  future  head  of  a  national  constabulary  force, 

356 


THE    PHCENIX    PARK    MURDERS 

with  Sexton  as  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  Dillon  home  sec- 
retary, and  myself  as  a  director  of  Irish  prisons. 

Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  the  new  chief  secretary,  was 
spoken  of  as  "one  of  the  most  modest  and  best  men  in  the 
House,  and  a  thorough  supporter  of  the  new  policy."  And 
in  this  temper  of  hopeful  expectancy  and  of  jubilant  triumph 
the  time  sped  by  and  the  train  reached  London.  We  were  i 
welcomed  by  hosts  of  friends,  the  first  to  greet  us  being  Mr. 
A.  M.  Sullivan,  with  many  of  the  leading  leaguers  of  London 
along  with  him. 

We  drove  to  the  Westminster  Palace  Hotel  accompanied 
by  a  score  of  the  more  intimate  friends  among  the  members 
of  the  throng,  where  a  couple  of  hours  were  spent  in  general 
talk;  "the  Home-Rule  Parliament  of  the  immediate  future" 
being  toasted  and  drank  to  in  the  true  spirit  of  Celtic  buoy- 
ancy.    Then  the  friends  departed  and  the  clouds  came. 

Scarcely  had  Mr.  Dillon  and  the  writer  sat  down  alone  than  f 
Mr.   Bennet  Burleigh,  the  since  famous  war  correspondent, 
rushed  into  the  room  and  spread  before  me  without  a  word  a 
telegram  which  read  as  follows: 

"The  Depot,  Phoenix  Park,  Dublin,  8  p.m. 
"  Lord   Frederick   Cavendish   and   Under-Secretary   Burke 
were  assassinated  with  knives  by  a  band  of  men  about  half- 
past  six  this  evening  opposite  the  Viceregal  Lodge." 

"Oh,  come,  Burleigh,  this  is  a  patent  bogus  outrage  for  to- 
morrow's Sunday  papers.  Surely  you  are  not  going  to  lend 
yourself  to  a  monstrous  scare  of  this  kind?" 

"I  hope  to  God  you  are  right,  but  see  where  the  message 
comes  from?  It  is  from  the  constabulary  headquarters  to 
the  Central  News." 

"Just  where  a  thundering  sensation  can  be  so  well  manu- 
factured," was  the  reply;  but  Burleigh  shook  his  head  and 
departed,  leaving  us  disturbed  in  mind  but  absolutely  incred- 
ulous that  so  dire  a  calamity  had  occurred  or  could  thus  cruelly 
dash  the  morning's  cup  of  bright  hope  and  promise  to  the 
ground. 

At  five  o'clock  the  following  morning  Henry  George  en- 
tered my  bedroom  with  an  open  telegram  in  his  hand  and  a 
scared  look  in  his  kindly,  big,  blue  eyes. 

"Get  up,  old  man,"  were  his  words.  "One  of  the  worst 
things  that  has  ever  happened  for  Ireland  has  occurred." 
And  a  message  handed  to  me  from  a  friend  in  Dublin  only  too 
literally  confirmed  the  discredited  tidings  of  the  night  before. 

A  short  time  afterwards  Mr.   Parnell  entered  the  room. 

357 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

His  face  was  deadly  pale,  with  a  look  of  alarm  in  the  eyes 
which  I  had  never  seen  in  any  expression  of  his  before  or  after. 
He  sat  down  on  a  sofa  and  said,  slowly  and  deliberately: 

"I  am  going  to  retire  at  once,  and  for  good,  out  of  Irish 
public  life.  I  shall  have  no  more  to  do  with  Irish  movements. 
What  is  the  use  of  men  striving  as  we  have  done,  and  calling 
on  the  country  to  make  such  sacrifices  as  those  the  people 
have  made  during  the  last  three  years,  if  we  are  to  be  struck 
at  in  this  way  by  unknown  men  who  can  commit  atrocious 
deeds  of  this  kind.''  I  shall  send  in  my  resignation  to  Cork 
to-night  and  retire  into  private  life." 

Against  any  such  step  as  this  an  instant  protest  was  made. 
It  would  look  like  running  away  from  danger.  Other  things 
had  to  be  thought  of  before  personal  wishes  could  be  consid- 
ered. What  was  to  be  done  to  mitigate  the  horror  of  the  sit- 
uation? There  might  be  a  spirit  of  murderous  retaliation  ap- 
pealed to  in  to-morrow's  British  press  against  our  people  in 
England.  Could  any  measures  of  any  kind  be  taken  which 
might  isolate  the  terrible  deed  as  far  as  possible  in  the  pub- 
lic mind  from  any  connection  with  the  league  movement? 
These  and  other  considerations  were  put  before  Mr.  Parnell, 
and  though  in  no  way  apparently  abating  his  resolve  to  act 
as  he  had  threatened,  he  listened  eagerly  to  every  suggestion, 
while  now  and  then  breaking  out  again  in  the  bitterest  invec- 
tive against  "irresponsible  men  "  who  could  stab  a  great  move- 
ment in  the  back  in  its  hour  of  triamph. 

Mr.  Joseph  Co  wen,  M.P.,  was  the  first  friend  to  call,  and,  to 
some  extent,  to  lift  every  one  out  of  the  very  depths  of  de- 
spair. 

"There  is  no  use  crying  over  spilled  milk,"  was  his  cheery 
remark.  "  The  horrible  deed  won't  be  undone  by  resignations 
or  anything  of  that  sort.  Issue  a  manifesto  condemning  the 
crime  in  strong  and  honest  language.  This  will  appear  in  to- 
morrow morning's  papers  side  by  side  with  the  details  of  the 
murders,  and  the  public  will  see  how  this  bad  deed  hits  you 
and  your  cause  more  than  even  your  opponents.  It  appears 
to  me  to  have  been  as  much  the  act  of  league  enemies  as  that 
of  foes  to  Dublin  Castle." 

Mr.  Parnell  agreed  to  this  suggestion,  and  left  the  hotel  in 
company  with  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  who,  together  with  a 
dozen  other  Irish  M.P.'s,  had  called,  in  the  mean  time,  to 
learn  if  any  light  could  be  thrown  upon  the  deed  in  Phoenix 
Park.  Mr.  Parnell  went  straight  to  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain's 
London  residence,  where  Sir  Charles  Dilke  subsequently 
called.  Both  these  members  of  the  government  strongly 
dissuaded  Mr.  Parnell  against  any  such  step  as  resignation, 

358 


THE    PHCENIX    PARK    MURDERS 

He  then  (as  it  transpired  afterwards)  wrote  to  Mr.  Glad- 
stone, and  offered  to  retire  from  public  life  if  the  prime- 
minister  thought  that  his  doing  so  would  in  any  way  tend 
to  appease  popular  or  political  feeling.  Here,  again,  he  was 
advised  not  to  resign. 

In  the  mean  time  the  manifesto  was  written  by  a  few  of  us 
in  the  hotel,  the  last  paragraph  being  added  by  Mr.  A.  M. 
Sullivan,  as  a  declaration  absolutely  necessary  to  imparting 
a  sentiment  of  unequivocal  sincerity  to  the  terms  in  which  the 
crime  was  looked  upon  and  condemned  by  the  Irish  people 
and  their  leaders.  It  was  sent  at  once  to  the  press  agencies 
in  Great  Britain,  cabled  to  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  of  Boston, 
for  the  widest  publication  in  America,  and  wired  to  Mr.  Alfred 
Webb,  of  Dublin,  to  be  printed  as  a  placard,  and  despatched 
by  Sunday  night's  last  train  to  every  city  and  town  in  Ireland, 
so  as  to  be  posted  on  the  walls  of  the  country  on  Monday 
m.orning. 

The  facts  relating  to  the  murders  were  few,  but  they  created 
a  world-wide  sensation.  Earl  Spencer,  the  new  Lord  Lieuten- 
ant, made  his  entry  into  Dublin  on  Saturday,  May  6th.  He 
was  accompanied  by  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish,  the  successor 
to  Mr.  Forster  in  the  chief-secretaryship.  After  the  official 
ceremonies  in  Dublin  Castle  were  concluded.  Lord  Frederick 
Cavendish  set  out  to  walk  to  his  official  residence  in  Phoenix 
Park,  about  a  mile  distant.  On  entering  the  park  gate  he 
was  joined  by  Mr.  Burke,  the  permanent  under-secretary  for 
Ireland  and  recognized  head  of  "The  Castle."  Both  men 
continued  walking  in  the  direction  of  the  chief  secretary's 
lodge.  On  nearing  a  spot  on  the  wide  roadway,  almost 
exactly  opposite  the  viceregal  residence,  and  distant  in  a 
direct  line  about  four  hundred  yards  therefrom,  four  or 
five  men  sprang  upon  Burke  and  attacked  him  with  knives. 
Lord  Cavendish  attempted  to  defend  the  assailed  under- 
secretary, and  was  himself  stabbed  and  also  killed.  The 
time  was  between  half-past  six  and  seven  o'clock  in  the 
evening.  It  was  still  daylight,  and  the  park  had  its  ordinary 
number  of  visitors  in  the  usual  places  of  resort.  The  as- 
sailants made  off  in  the  direction  of  Chapelizod,  mounting 
a  car  which  apparently  awaited  them  in  that  direction,  and 
got  clear  away  before  any  effort  could  be  made  to  capture 
or  to  track  them  in  their  flight.  Their  subsequent  arrest, 
six  months  later,  their  trial  and  execution  for  the  crime,  are 
now  matters  of  common  history. 

The  motive  of  the  attack  on  Mr.  Burke,  who  alone  was 
singled  out  for  vengeance,  was  entirely  political.  He  per- 
sonified the  Castle  system  of  rule,  being  an  Irishman  and 

359 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Catholic  who  became,  on  both  these  grounds,  in  the  view 
of  those  who  conspired  to  kill  him,  the  worst  type  of  anti- 
national  official  and  the  strongest  prop  of  alien  power.  He 
was  credited  with  being  the  arch-coercionist  of  the  admin- 
istration, the  employer  of  informers,  and  active  antagonist 
of  all  revolutionary  movements.  Those  who  had  resolved  to 
kill  him  were  not  animated  by  any  purpose  friendly  to  the 
Land  League  in  their  deadly  design.  It  transpired  that  the 
chief  instigators  of  the  deed  of  vengeance  were  inimical  to 
the  league  movement.  But  Mr.  Burke  typified  to  them  the 
embodiment  of  English  dominance  and  oppression.  He  had, 
they  believed,  been  Mr.  Forster's  evil  adviser,  and  he  had 
imprisoned  men  and  women  of  his  own  race  and  creed  in  a 
despotic  manner,  his  coercionist  policy  and  measures  being 
applied  against  many  men  suspected  of  being  Fenians  as 
well  as  against  Land- Leaguers  and  others.  He  alone  was 
the  object  of  attack  on  that  fatal  Saturday  evening.  Lord 
Cavendish's  murder  was  accidental  to  his  presence  with  and 

L^attempted  defence  of  his  companion. 

The  British  press  acted  on  the  whole  admirably,  under  the 
great  provocation  of  a  crime  so  calculated  to  appeal  to  Eng- 
lish passion.  There  was  no  savage  outcry  such  as  was  dreaded 
against  the  Irish  people  in  England.  Racial  prejudices  were 
not  appealed  to,  nor  was  there  any  vindictive  feeling  evoked 
against  the  prominent  Land-Leaguers,  except,  singular  to 
say,  in  my  own  case.  The  London  Standard,  ordinarily  a 
judicially  minded  organ  of  conservative  opinion,  which  had 
distinguished  itself  a  year  previously  by  hinting  that  the 
only  effective  way  of  dealing  with  the  leading  leaguers  in 
Ireland  was  the  way  of  Loris-Melikoff — to  shoot  or  to  hang 
them  forthwith — made  a  direct  appeal  to  me  to  hand  over 
to  justice  the  men  who  had  assassinated  the  two  secretaries 
in  Phoenix  Park!  Nothing  could  be  more  exquisitely  Eng- 
lish in  the  way  of  judging  an  Irish  political  opponent.  I  had 
been  seized,  arbitrarily,  fifteen  months  previously,  hurried 
away  from  Dublin  to  London,  remitted  to  penal  servitude, 
without  any  charge  of  any  kind  being  made  against  me— 
and  without  any  trial — and  kept  in  the  closest  confinement 
until  the  morning  of  May  6th,  reaching  London  direct  from 
Portland  prison  about  seven  o'clock  that  evening — half  an 
hour  after  the  crime  had  been  committed  in  Dublin.  In 
face  of  such  facts,  who  was  there,  in  all  the  wide  world, 
more  likely  than  the  person  thus  kidnapped  on  April  4,  1881, 
and  caged  securely  in  an  English  prison  until  the  very  morn- 
ing of  the  murders,  to  know  all  about  the  crime  and  its  per- 
petrators ? 

^  360 


THE    PHCENIX    PARK    MURDERvS 

My  friend  Henry  George,  who  was  with  me  when  this  article 
appeared,  wrote  a  prompt  reply.  It  appeared  in  the  Standard 
over  my  name.  Some  expressions  in  this  letter,  which  would 
very  naturally  express  his  un-Irish  views  of  what  should  be 
said  in  retort  by  me,  caused  some  pain  to  former  associates 
of  mine  in  the  Fenian  movement,  as  tending  to  create  an 
impression  that  I  had  abandoned  the  doctrines  of  physical 
force  and  had  made  some  sort  of  apology  in  this  letter  to 
English  feeling  for  my  revolutionary  career.  This,  of  course, 
was  absurdly  untrue.  My  name  was  to  the  Standard  letter, 
however,  and  the  inference  thus  drawn  was  not  an  unfair  one 
in  the  absence  of  an  explanation  which  I  refused,  under 
the  circumstances,  to  make. 

The  sensational  anti-climax  to  the  bright  anticipations  of 
the  journey  from  Portland  to  London  created  by  the  tragedy 
in  Dublin  did  not  prevent  Mr.  Parnell  fulfilling  his  promise 
on  the  following  day  to  explain  the  policy  which  had  led 
to  Forster's  downfall  and  to  our  release.  The  explanation 
in  substance  was  this :  The  no-rent  manifesto  had  failed.  The 
tenants,  instead  of  working  his  plan  of  testing  the  land  act 
in  the  manner  suggested  by  the  Land -League  convention, 
broke  away  and  entered  the  courts.  They  thereby  con- 
tracted obligations  for  a  term  of  fifteen  years.  All  other 
tenants  not  weighted  down  with  arrears  would  follow  suit. 
The  ruined  tenants,  mostly  those  of  small  holdings,  would 
be  sacrificed  unless  an  arrears  act  could  be  obtained  which 
would  wipe  out  most  of  their  indebtedness  and  give  them 
a  clear  road  into  the  land  court,  too.  To  accomplish  this  a 
"parley"  with  the  government  became  necessary.  But  the 
reason  by  which  he  was  chiefly  influenced  in  the  negotiations 
through  O'Shea  was  the  growing  power  of  "secret  societies" 
and  the  alarming  growth  of  outrages.  By  "secret  societies" 
he  did  not  necessarily  mean  Fenian  bodies.  He  believed 
the  obnoxious  societies  to  be  more  or  less  local,  like  those 
that  had  sprung  up  in  past  periods  of  agrarian  warfare  in  the 
wake  of  evictions  and  coercion.  He  saw  in  this  development, 
and  in  the  growtn  of  the  revolutionary  feeling  inside  the 
movement,  a  menace  to  the  existence  of  the  constitutional 
agitation  and  a  peril  to  the  country  which  could  only  be 
successfully  resisted  and  arrested  by  the  release  of  those  who 
could  wield  a  counter  influence  and  who  could  calm  down 
popular  feeling.  Then  it  was  evident  that  Mr.  Chamberlain 
and  his  friends  in  the  ministry  were  equally  anxious  for  other — 
that  was,  cabinet — reasons  to  abandon  coercion,  and  to  face 
the  larger  question  of  self-government,  which  could  not  be 
done  while  Ireland  continued  in  a  condition  of  semi-anarchy. 

361 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

There  was  also  a  powerful  personal  reason  which  in- 
fluenced his  action  that  cannot  be  recorded  here.  In 
this  explanation  he  made  no  mention  of  his  own  letters 
from  Kilmainham,  nor  of  the  undertaking  given  by  him  in 
one  of  those,  that  "the  agitation  would  be  slowed  down," 
and  that  the  Irish  party  could  then  see  its  way  to  co-operate 
with  the  English  Liberal  party  in  passing  measures  of  com- 
mon necessity  or  advantage  to  both  countries.  These  parts 
of  the  treaty  only  leaked  out  months  afterwards. 

;         The  situation  created  by  the  Kilmainham  treaty  was  still 

''■  further  complicated  by  the  Phoenix  Park  tragedy,  inasmuch 
as  coercion,  instead  of  being  modified,  as  agreed  to  by  Mr. 
Gladstone,  would  probably  become  more  stringent,  while  the 
deep  anti-Irish  feeling  aroused  in  Great  Britain  by  the 
killing  of  Lord  Cavendish  would  render  all  present  thought 
of  concessions  in  the  direction  of  Home  Rule  an  impossible 
task  for  any  ministry. 

Probably  no  political  leader  ever  found  himself  in  so 
dangerous  a  position  as  Mr.  Parnell  occupied  at  this  time. 
The  "treaty"  had  done  him  great  harm  in  Ireland.  Al- 
most all  the  "suspects"  repudiated  its  rumored  terms.  It 
was  "a  deal"  with  the  government,  and  under  the  circum- 
stances that  condemned  it  in  their  eyes.     In  America  it  was 

-'  denounced  as  "the  sale  of  the  Land  League."  On  the  face 
of  it,  it  wore  the  appearance  of  a  bargain  with  the  defeated 
coercionists  to  get   out   of   Kilmainham,   and   as   a  virtual 

[surrender  of  the  movement  to  its  enemies.  On  this  state 
of  things  the  park  murders  came  as  a  cyclonic  sensation, 
sweeping  everything  else  out  of  the  path  of  a  tragic  event 
fraught  with  disastrous  consequences  to  a  movement  which 
had  a  few  hours  previously  reached  almost  to  the  goal  of 
success.  In  fact,  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  saved  Mr. 
Parnell  from  the  perils  which  lurked  in  the  terms  of  the 
compact,  while  both  events  snatched  from  the  Land  League 
the  guerdon  of  triumph,  and  literally  smote  it  to  the  death 
which  the  treaty  had  planned  for  it  by  other  means. 

Apart  from  the  effect  made  upon  his  mind  by  the  act  of  the 
Invincibles,  Mr.  Parnell  left  prison  resolved  to  have  no  more 
semi-revolutionary  Land  Leagues  and  no  more  relations 
with  men  or  movements  which  could  involve  him  or  any 
party  under  his  lead  in  any  conflict,  open  or  secret,  with  law 
and  order  in  Ireland.  The  event  of  May  6th  having  almost 
driven  him  from  public  life,  necessarily  increased  his  resolve 
never  again  to  engage  in  any  fight  like  that  of  the  Land 
League.  And  this  resolve  he  never  deviated  from  after- 
wards for  a  single  hour. 

362 


THE    PHCENIX    PARK    MURDERS 

To  the  compact  agreed  to  in  the  treaty  the  advanced 
men  in  the  league  movement  would  be  no  parties.  They 
gathered  courage  to  speak  in  a  few  days'  time,  when  the 
paralyzing  effects  of  the  crime  of  May  6th  began  to  subside. 
Mr.  Parnell  grew  very  uneasy,  and  requested  me  not  to 
address  meetings  in  Manchester  and  Liverpool,  to  which  I 
had  been  invited  by  the  leagues  of  these  cities.  This  I  could 
not  see  my  way  to  agree  to.  I  had  been  no  party  to  any 
arrangement  with  the  ministry,  and  did  not  see  why  I  should 
forego  my  right  to  put  my  own  position  before  the  public, 
and  to  do  my  best  to  carry  on  the  Land  League  fight  as  near 
the  old  lines  as  possible.  To  this  resolve  he  only  offered  a 
kindly  remonstrance,  but  he  was  resolved  to  "slow  things 
down"  all  the  same. 

The  motive  and  the  making  of  the  Kilmainham  treaty  ap- 
pealed to  diverging  views  for  support  and  disapproval.  To 
conservative  nationalists  and  to  the  large  element  of  Mr.  Par-  ,  X 
nell's  personal  following  the  treaty  was  an  adroit  political  ' '' 
manoeuvre  and  a  notable  triumph  of  party  leadership.  It 
appeared  to  turn  the  flank  of  his  enemy's  position,  while  it 
procured  at  the  same  time  the  fall  from  power  of  his  chief  ad- 
versary. There  was  also  the  release  of  all  the  suspects  se- 
cured, together  with  the  promise  of  a  concession  which  would 
relieve  :.  large  number  of  small  tenants  from  the  risk  of  im- 
mediate eviction.  In  addition,  there  was  the  prestige  of  a 
victorious  compromise  obtained  out  of  what  was  felt  to  be  a 
most  dangerous  situation,  and  it  was  reasoned  that  the  leader 
who  had  accomplished  all  this,  while  he  was  still  a  prisoner  in 
the  hands  of  his  enemy,  had  gained  a  tactical  and  decided  vic- 
tory for  himself  along  with  very  good  terms  for  the  people 
whom  he  represented. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  concessions  were  obtained  on  the 
condition  that  the  forces  which  compelled  Mr.  Gladstone  to 
change  his  policy  were  to  be  disbanded,  while  the  movement 
that  had  given  Mr.  Parnell  his  position  and  power  was  to  dis- 
appear. This  was  virtually  the  other  side  of  the  bargain. 
The  price  was  too  great,  and  the  terms  were  so  obnoxious  to 
the  league  sentiment  in  Ireland  and  America  that  had  not  the 
Phoenix  Park  catastrophe  intervened  as  a  stroke  of  Ireland's 
unfriendly  destiny,  Mr.  Parnell's  leadership  would  have  trem- 
bled in  the  balance,  even  should  it  survive  the  shock  of  such  a 
surrender.  English  rule  in  Ireland  had  never  been  so  shaken 
and  demoralized  since  1798  as  it  was  in  1881-82,  nor  had 
Castle  rule  ever  been  so  fiercely  and  effectively  assaulted 
in  the  century.  The  country  was  absolutely  ungovernable, 
while    an    organization    having    nearly  a  million  members 

363 


THE    PALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

throughout  the  world  stood  behind  Mr.  Pamell's  lead,  with 
abundant  friends  and  ample  power  to  keep  the  struggle  going 
until  the  whole  system  of  anti-national  administration  would 
fall  to  pieces  and  necessitate  a  radical  and  fundamental 
change.  The  need  for  a  decentralizing  policy  in  the  rule  of 
Ireland  had  already  been  recognized  even  by  Mr.  Forster  and 
suggested  by  Mr.  Gladstone.  Provincial  councils  were  to  ac- 
company the  temporary  fall  of  trial  by  jury,  and  a  change  in 
that  direction  would  be  a  direct  road  to  a  national  council  as 
an  inevitable  logical  sequence.  In  this  view  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  treaty  led  directly  to  the  Phoenix  Park  trag- 
edy, not  as  an  actual  cause  and  effect,  but  as  a  result  of  the 
change  which  the  acceptance  by  Mr.  Gladstone  and  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain of  Mr.  Parnell's  terms  necessarily  made  in  the  chief- 
secretaryship.  Knowing,  as  we  do  now,  what  the  fighting 
policy  of  the  league  movement  and  Mr.  Parnell's  leadership 
led  to  in  1885-86,  in  the  adoption  of  Home  Rule  by  the  Liberal 
party,  it  is  right  and  fair  to  assume  that  there  would  have 
been  less  opposition  on  the  part  of  English  popular  opinion 
against  Mr.  Gladstone's  plans  in  those  years  had  the  Castle 
system  and  landlordism  been  still  more  battered  and  broken 
in  1882,  without  the  accompanying  nightmare  memory  for 
England  of  the  Phoenix  Park  murders. 

The  arrears  act,  which  followed  the  agreement  of  April, 
1882,  was  a  curse  and  not  a  blessing  in  disguise.  The  spirit 
and  meaning  of  the  land  act  condemned  as  legal  robbery  the 
exaction  of  such  rents  from  land  reclaimed  entirely  by  the 
occupant's  labor,  and  a  recognition  of  arrears  thus  contracted 
was  a  surrender  of  the  principle  fought  for  in  the  Healy  clause. 
These  poor  people  would  not  have  been  evicted  wholesale. 
There  would  be  no  fear  of  that  while  the  league  had  its  power 
still  unbroken.  Landlords  or  agents  by  the  score  would  have 
paid  the  penalty  of  any  such  plan  of  extermination,  while 
public  opinion  everywhere  would  condemn  the  system  of  rule 
in  Ireland  which  could  appoint  a  land  court  to  reduce  ex- 
cessive rents  and  at  the  same  time  allow  landlords  to  turn 
thousands  of  families  out  of  their  homes  because  of  rents 
which  were  too  excessive  to  be  paid.  Looked  at,  therefore, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  policy  and  purpose  of  the  Land 
League,  to  destroy  landlordism  and  to  demoralize  Dublin- 
Castle  rule  so  as  to  force  a  settlement  of  the  agrarian  and 
national  problems  on  radical  but  rational  lines,  the  Kilmain- 
ham  treaty  was  a  victory  for  these  menaced  institutions  and 
a  political  defeat  of  the  forces  led  by  Mr.  Parnell. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

THE  NATIONAL  LEAGUE 

A  BRIEF  resume  of  the  work  done  for  the  league  in  America 
from  the  first  to  the  fourth  convention  of  the  branches  in  the 
United  States  is  required  here  by  the  plan  of  our  story,  and  in 
order  to  place  on  record  this  account  of  the  help  thus  rendered 
to  the  movement  in  Ireland  during  its  combat  with  Mr.  For- 
ster's  coercion. 

The  first,  or  Trenor  Hall,  New  York,  convention  has  been 
already  described.  References  have  also  been  made  to  the 
spread  of  league  branches  in  1881,  and  the  amount  of  money 
thus  raised  and  forwarded  to  Ireland  has  been  given. 

On  January  12th  and  13th  the  second  convention  of  the 
league  assembled  in  Buffalo.  There  were  two  hundred  and 
ninety-tv/o  branches  represented  by  one  hundred  and  twenty 
delegates.  The  Irish  World  refused  to  recognize  the  authority 
of  those  who  summoned  this  conference,  and  those  branches 
which  remitted  subscriptions  through  Mr.  Ford's  paper  were 
not  represented. 

Mr.  P.  A.  Collins,  a  prominent  Boston  lawyer  and  local  lead- 
er of  the  Democratic  party,  was  elected  president,  and  Mr. 
Thomas  Flatley,  of  Boston,  secretary.  Resolutions  condemn- 
ing the  state  prosecutions  (at  that  time)  in  Dublin,  promising 
support  to  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  leaders  at  home,  and  ap- 
pealing for  continued  financial  help  from  the  friends  of  Ireland 
in  America  were  moved  by  Rev.  Dr.  Conaty,  of  Worcester, 
and  adopted. 

As  already  recorded,  Messrs.  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  T.  M. 
Healy  were  despatched  by  the  league  in  Ireland  as  envoys  to 
the  United  States  shortly  before  Mr.  Parnell's  arrest  in  Oc- 
tober, 1 88 1.  They  were  subsequently  joined  by  Father 
Sheehy.  Meetings  were  addressed  by  the  envoys  in  all  the 
principal  centres  in  the  republic,  and  a  great  stimulus  was 
thus  given  to  the  work  of  the  auxiliary  organization  beyond 
the  Atlantic.  The  imprisonment  of  Mr.  Parnell,  the  suppres- 
sion of  the  Land  League,  and  the  issuing  of  the  no-rent  mani- 
festo in  Ireland  healed  for  the  time  the  differences  between 

365 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  American  league  presided  over  by  Mr.  Collins  and  the 
branches  which  recognized  Mr.  Ford,  and  a  joint  call  was 
issued  for  a  united  convention  to  meet  in  Chicago.  This  con- 
vention held  its  sessions  on  November  30  and  December  i 
and  2,  1 88 1.  One  thousand  delegates  attended  from  thirty- 
eight  States  and  Territories.  Mr.  John  Finerty,  of  Chicago, 
called  the  convention  to  order,  and  Mr.  W.  J.  Hynes,  also  of 
that  city,  was  elected  chairman. 

The  resolutions  declared  that  English  rule  was  without  any 
moral  sanction  in  Ireland ;  that  England's  government  was  try- 
ing to  subjugate  the  Irish  nation  by  evictions  and  arbitrary 
arrests;  that  the  convention  stood  by  the  Irish  people  in  re- 
sisting the  violation  of  their  liberties;  that  the  no-rent  mani- 
festo was  endorsed ;  and  that  the  convention  pledged  its  dele- 
gates to  raise  a  special  fund  of  $250,000  within  twelve  months 
for  the  movement  in  Ireland. 

These  resolutions  were  put  forward  by  Rev.  Dr.  Conaty,  of 
Worcester,  and  were  unanimously  adopted.  Messrs.  O'Con- 
nor and  Healy  and  the  Rev.  Eugene  Sheehy  attended  and 
addressed  the  convention. 

On  April  12  and  13,  1882,  the  fourth  league  convention  was 
held  in  Washington,  D.  C.  Mr.  P.  A.  Collins,  the  president, 
occupied  the  chair.  The  Irish  World  branches  were  not  rep- 
resented. Mr.  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  submitted  the  platform  of 
resolutions,  which  supported  the  stand  made  by  the  people  of 
Ireland  against  coercion,  their  demand  for  national  self-gov- 
ernment; thanked  the  Ladies'  Land  League  for  upholding  the 
flag  of  the  Land  League  while  its  leaders  were  in  prison,  and 
expressed  a  feeling  of  pride  at  the  splendid,  passive  resistance 
made  by  the  people  of  Ireland  to  the  forces  of  England's  gov- 
ernment. Mr.  James  Mooney,  of  Buffalo,  was  elected  presi- 
dent and  Mr.  John  J.  Hynes,  secretary,  for  the  ensuing 
term. 

The  Irish  envoys  had  returned  by  this  date  to  Ireland,  and 
the  leagues  throughout  the  States  had  responded  to  the  prom- 
ises made  in  their  behalf  at  the  two  last  conventions.  On  my 
release  from  Portland  prison,  on  May  6th,  I  was  invited  by  the 
leagues  of  Boston  to  attend  a  demonstration  in  that  city  near 
the  end  of  June.  The  invitation  was  accepted,  and,  in  com- 
pany with  Mr.  William  Redmond,  that  and  a  dozen  other  meet- 
ings were  addressed  in  a  brief  tour  which  extended  over  a  few 
weeks  only.  The  Ford  and  Collins  sections  of  the  league  were 
still  at  variance,  the  former  being  strongly  opposed  to  the 
Kilmainham  treaty  and  in  favor  of  pushing  on  the  Land 
League  struggle,  the  latter  supporting  Mr.  Parnell's  more  con- 
servative policy.     The  leaders  of  both  sections  were  recon- 

366 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

ciled  to  a  common  programme  at  a  conference  held  in  the 
Astor  House,  New  York,  when  the  following  resolution  was 
agreed  to  and  published: 

''Resolved,  that  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  Irish  National  Convention,  held  at  Chicago,  and 
of  the  general  convention  of  the  Irish  National  Land  League 
of  America,  held  in  Washington,  D.  C,  this  conference  earnest- 
ly recommends  that  the  executive  of  the  Land  League  of  Ire- 
land be  requested  to  delegate  Mr.  Parnell  and  others  of  their 
number  to  meet  with  this  body  as  soon  as  may  be  for  the  pur- 
pose of  devising  means  and  perfecting  arrangements  for  the 
union  or  confederation  of  the  Celtic  race  in  America  to  effec- 
tively aid  the  people  of  Ireland  in  their  struggle  for  the  free- 
dom of  the  land  and  for  self-government. 

''Resolved,  that,  as  Ireland  is  now  passing  through  a  crisis 
which  strains  to  the  utmost  the  moral  and  financial  resources 
of  the  people  under  the  merciless  reign  of  coercion  and  evic- 
tion, we  earnestly  appeal  to  the  whole  race  in  America  to 
steadily  continue  their  efforts  in  their  several  organizations, 
and  to  forward  ample  contributions  to  enable  the  Irish  people 
to  fight  to  the  end  their  great  battle.  M.  Boland,  Patrick 
Ford,  Patrick  A.  Collins,  W.  B.  Wallace,  D.  C.  Birdsall,  Alex- 
ander Sulhvan,  A.  F.  Brown,  Executive  Committee  Irish  Na- 
tional Congress;  James  Mooney,  Rev.  Laurence  V/alsh,  John 
J.  Hynes,  Central  Council  Land  League  of  America;  Michael 
Davitt."  ^ 

The  object  of  this  conference  was  a  twofold  one:  First,  to 
unite  the  various  Land  Leagues  of  America  and  co-operating 
bodies  for  a  continued  fighting  policy  on  league  lines;  and, 
secondly,  to  bring  pressure  to  bear  on  Mr.  Parnell  to  advance 
again  from  the  Kilmainham  treaty  compromise  to  the  more 
combative  line  of  action  with  which  his  leadership  had  been 
associated.  The  first  of  these  purposes  was,  in  a  sense,  se- 
cured, but  the  advocates  of  action  had  to  reckon  with  Mr. 
Parnell  in  accomplishing  the  second. 

The  names  Boland  and  Birdsall  in  the  above  list  are  not 
identified  with  any  notable  services  rendered  to  the  American 
Land  League.  Their  presence  at  the  conference  was  due  to 
the  accident  of  having  been  nominated  on  a  committee  with  a 
temporary  mission  at  the  Chicago  convention.  Dr.  Wallace 
had  been  an  ardent  worker  for  the  league  in  New  York  since 
its  foundation  in  that  city.  Alexander  Sullivan  was  a  man 
of  note  and  power  in  the  Clan-na-Gael  at  the  time  and  a 
strong  supporter  of  the  movement   led  by  Parnell.     Rev. 

'  Report  Special  Coiiiimssion,  and  Irish  World,  July  22,  1882. 

367 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Laurence  Walsh,  of  Waterbury,  was  treasurer  of  the  American 
league  since  the  Trenor  Hall  convention,  and  was  a  zealous 
upholder  of  the  cause.  A.  F.  Brown  represented  a  friendly 
organization,  the  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  which  had 
helped  the  league  very  materially  in  almost  every  city  in 
which  the  new  movement  had  found  a  footing.  Messrs. 
Mooney  and  Hynes  were  elected  to  their  respective  positions 
at  the  Washington  convention  in  recognition  of  their  services 
in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  league. 

Returning  to  London  almost  direct,  I  met  Mr.  Parnell  by 
appointment  to  discuss  the  New  York  programme  and  the 
advisability  of  reorganizing  the  Land  League  under  another 
name.  He  peremptorily  declined  to  take  any  such  action. 
He  did  not  object  to  others  taking  this  step,  if  they  believed 
it  wise  to  do  so,  which  he  did  not.  He  was  not  prepared  to 
fight  Earl  Spencer  armed  with  coercion,  or  to  plunge  the  coun- 
try again  into  the  turmoil  of  violent  agitation.  He  preferred 
waiting  until  more  opportune  circumstances  might  encourage 
such  a  movement  in  Ireland  as  would  fall  more  into  line  with 
parliamentary  action,  in  which  he  now  thought  more  hopes 
and  reliance  than  ever  might  be  placed  to  win  needed  reforms 
for  the  country.  To  the  suggestion  that  he  should  nominate 
representatives  to  meet  the  Astor  House  conference  commit- 
tee he  was  emphatically  opposed,  and  while  as  friendly  as 
ever  in  his  manner  and  speech,  he  was  resolutely  against  any 
attempt  to  identify  hi;n  with  any  more  Land  Leagueism  of 
the  1881-82  order  or  to  have  any  more  intimate  relations  with 
Irish-American  bodies. 

This  attitude  was  not  an  unreasonable  one  in  view  of  the 
very  little  that  was  then  known  of  the  treaty,  outside  his  own 
immediate  circle,  and  after  the  event  of  May  6th.  Prejudice 
against  him  had,  if  possible,  grown  more  truculent  in  the 
anti-Irish  press,  and  fair  allowance  had  to  be  made  for  the 
difficulties  which  beset  him.  But  the  feeling  in  Ireland,  es- 
pecially among  the  lately  imprisoned  suspects,  was  strongly 
for  a  renewal  of  the  league  struggle.  Evictions  were  going  on 
as  ever.  Coercion  was  active  and  unopposed.  The  land  act 
had  done  nothing  yet  for  hundreds  of  thousands  of  rack- 
rented  tenants,  while  the  land  courts  were  engaged  in  whit- 
tling away  the  benefits  which  the  legislature  had  tried  to 
secure  for  the  farmers,  and  it  was  felt  that  the  fight  for 
the  complete  abolition  of  landlordism  should  be  renewed. 
Then  there  were  the  agricultural  laborers  to  be  considered. 
Nothing  had  been  done  in  the  land  act  of  188 1  for  this 
large  class,  numbering  (at  that  period)  fully  three  hundred 
thousand  of  the  working  population.     They  had  grievances 

368 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

and  claims  for  redress,  too,  and  their  discontent  could  not  be 
ignored.  Above  all  these  considerations  there  was  the  para- 
mount claim  of  the  country  for  national  self-government. 
This  was  the  first  plank  in  the  platform  of  the  new  depart- 
ure of  1878,  and  it  was  strongly  felt  by  men  who  had  labored 
and  sacrificed  much  in  the  building-up  of  the  great  combina- 
tion which  had  almost  paralyzed  alien  rule  in  Ireland  that 
this  organization  should  not  be  allowed  to  fall  away  without 
its  giant  strength  being  further  utilized  in  the  carrying  for- 
ward of  the  task  first  resolved  upon. 

In  fact,  on  the  admissions  of  the  heads  of  the  government 
as  to  the  condition  of  the  country,  the  waiting  policy  of  the 
treaty  was  impossible  of  endurance  to  the  tenantry,  and 
called  for  a  renewal  of  the  contest  against  the  evicting  power 
of  the  landlords. 

Sir  George  Trevelyan,  the  new  chief  secretary  for  Ireland, 
speaking  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  May  22,  1882,  made  this 
statement : 

"At  this  moment,  in  one  part  of  the  country,  men  are  being 
turned  out  of  their  houses  actually  by  battalions,  who  are  no 
more  able  to  pay  the  arrears  of  these  bad  years  than  they  are 
able  to  pay  the  national  debt.  ...  In  three  days  one  hundred 
and  fifty  families,  numbering  seven  hundred  and  fifty  persons, 
were  turned  out  in  one  district  alone.  ,  .  .  They  were  not 
whiskey-drinkers ;  they  were  not  in  terror  of  the  Land  League. 
...  I  am  told  that  in  this  district  there  are  thousands  in  this 
position — people  who  have  been  beggared  for  years,  people 
who  have  been  utterly  unable  to  hold  up  their  heads  since 
these  bad  years,  and  whose  only  resource  from  expulsion  from 
their  homes  is  the  village  money-lender." 

This  was  how  the  landlords  were  helping  to  "slow  down  the 
agitation." 

Two  days  subsequently  Mr.  Gladstone,  in  dealing  with 
evictions  as  human  incitations  to  outrage,  said: 

"Eviction  is  the  exercise  of  a  legal  right  which  may  be  to 
the  prejudice  of  your  neighbor,  which  may  involve  the  highest 
responsibility,  nay,  even  deep  moral  guilt.  There  may  be 
outrages  which — all  things  considered,  the  persons  and  the 
facts — may  be  less  guilty  in  the  sight  of  God  than  evictions." 

Archbishop  Croke,  who  had  fearlessly  defended  the  league 
during  the  Forster  regime,  but  who  condemned  the  no-rent 
manifesto,  gave  voice  to  the  national  desire  for  a  continuance 
of  the  fight  about  this  time,  in  face  of  these  and  similar  con- 
tinued legal  outrages.  He  felt  that  the  work  of  uprooting 
landlordism  was  only  half  done,  and  in  a  speech  at  Galbally, 
he  spoke  out  as  follows: 

24  369 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"The  Irish  people  have  now  paused  in  the  fight  in  order  to 
commence  the  struggle  afresh  for  their  rights.  They  want  no 
leaders  now,  either  lay  or  clerical,  as  they  are  well  enough 
educated  as  to  what  their  rights  are.  Landlordism  has  been 
brought  to  its  knees  by  the  Land  League;  but  I  do  not  know 
whether  the  male  branch  or  the  ladies'  branch  of  the  league 
deserves  most  thanks,  for  when  the  men  were  put  in  prison 
the  ladies  stepped  into  the  breach  and  did  their  part  nobly. 
I  congratulate  myself  on  having  defended  the  ladies'  league 
from  the  aspersions  cast  upon  it  at  its  inception,  and  will  be 
always  ready  when  called  upon  to  take  the  part  of  the  people 
in  asserting  their  rights." 

Though  Mr.  Parnell  was  averse  to  reviving  the  league  in  any 
aggressive  way,  he  was  not  inactive  in  relation  to  the  trying 
position  of  the  evicted  tenants.  He  formed  a  committee  in 
Dublin,  in  August,  1882,  with  the  object  of  raising  a  special 
fund  for  their  relief,  and  to  keep  the  question  of  their  wrongs 
before  the  public.  Messrs.  T.  M.  Healy,  Arthur  O'Connor, 
and  William  O'Brien  were  honorary  secretaries  of  this  com- 
mittee. It  only  had  a  brief  existence,  as  it  was,  in  a  sense, 
absorbed  in  the  National  League  which  was  shortly  afterwards 
fotinded. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Parnell's  gifted  sister,  Fanny,  died 
after  a  brief  illness  at  her  home,  Bordentown,  New  Jersey. 
She  was  deeply  attached  to  him,  and  had  watched  the  growth 
of  his  fame  and  prestige  with  admiring  affection.  She  and 
T.  D.  Sullivan  were  the  songsters  of  the  Land  League.  Her 
verses  had  all  the  fire  and  revolutionary  purpose  of  Speranza's 
poetic  clarion-calls  in  The  Nation  of  1848.  Intense  hatred  of 
England's  sordid  rule  and  arrogance  in  Ireland  gave  a  burning 
fervor  to  her  impassioned  pleas  for  her  country's  freedom 
from  so  degrading  a  subjection.  She  was  a  rebel  to  her 
heart's  core,  and  her  songs  were  those  of  liberty  only — the 
freedom  of  the  peasant  from  the  social  and  industrial  bondage 
of  landlordism  and  of  her  native  land  from  foreign  power. 
It  was  Fanny  Parnell  who  first  thought  of  and  suggested  the 
Ladies'  Land  League,  and  among  those  whose  names  may  yet, 
in  generations  to  come,  be  associated  in  the  minds  of  an  eman- 
cipated peasantry  with  the  fight  against  and  the  fall  of  Eng- 
land's feudal  land  system  in  Ireland  hers  will  deserve  a  grate- 
ful recollection. 

Mr.  Barry  O'Brien,  in  his  Life  of  Parnell,  is  unintentionally 
in  error  (vol.  i.,  pp.  375,  376)  where  he  implies  that  Mr.  John 
Dillon  left  Ireland  for  America  on  failing  to  induce  Mr.  Parnell 
to  revive  the  league  movement:  "It  was  about  this  time 
that  Mr.  Dillon  went  to  Avondale  to  ask  him  point-blank  if 

370 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

he  meant  to  '  slow  down '  the  agitation.  On  receiving  his 
chief's  answer,  deHvered  with  inexorable  precision,  and  act- 
ing on  the  advice  of  his  medical  attendant,  Mr.  Dillon  sailed 
for  Colorado  and  troubled  Parnell  no  more." 

This  is  wrong.  Many  of  Pamell's  supporters,  including  Mr. 
Dillon,  had  repeatedly  tried  to  induce  him  to  reconsider  his 
decision,  given  in  August,  not  to  encourage  the  revival  of  the 
agitation.  These  efforts  were  not  unavailing.  Moreover,  the 
revengeful  evictions  by  the  landlords  and  the  savage  nature 
of  Lord  Spencer's  coercive  measures,  coupled  with  the  growing 
discontent  in  the  country  over  the  apparent  abandonment  of 
the  fighting  policy  of  the  league,  told  on  Parnell's  hesitating 
decision,  and  on  learning  that  a  movement  would  be  set  going 
soon,  whether  he  liked  it  or  not,  he  gave  way,  and  sought  the 
advice  of  Mr.  Dillon,  Mr.  Brennan,  and  myself  at  his  home  in 
Avondale,  as  to  what  steps  should  be  taken. ^ 

The  following  contemporary  account  of  the  result  of  this 
visit  to  Avondale  deals  with  the  facts  as  they  occurred.  It  is 
copied  from  notes  made  at  the  time  by  me  for  purposes  of 
American  correspondence. 

"September  i8,  1882. 

"The  outcome  of  the  consultation  alluded  to  in  my  last 
letter  will  be  best  explained  by  the  following  circular: 

"  '  Dublin,  September  18,  1882. 
"  '  Dear  Sir, — You  are  hereby  invited  to  attend  a  confer- 
ence of  representative  men  to  be  held  in  the  Antient  Concert 
Rooms,  Dublin,  on  Tuesday,  October  17th,  for  the  purpose  of 
discussing  a  programme  of  reform  for  Ireland,  which  will  be 
submitted  for  adoption  by  us.     The  chief  feature  of  this  pro- 
gramme will  be  the  uniting  together  on  one  central  platform 
of  the  various  movements  and  interests  that  are  now  appeal- 
ing to  the  country  for  separate  sanction  and  support. 
"  '  Yours  truly, 
"'C.    S.   Parnell,    Michael    Davitt,    John    Dillon, 
Thomas  Brennan,  Thomas  Sexton,  T.  M.  Healy, 
Arthur  O'Connor.'" 

"...  The  programme  which  is  to  be  submitted  to  the  con- 
ference will,  of  course,  be  very  closely  scanned  on  this  side, 
both  by  friends  and  foes,  and  will,  no  doubt,  be  as  eagerly 

*  "At  Mr.  Pamell's  suggestion,  Mr.  Dillon,  Mr.  Brennan,  and  myself 
are  to  accompany  him  to  Avondale  this  evening  and  deliberate  upon 
what  is  best  to  be  done,  on  discussing  the  whole  situation,  and  how 
to  place  a  full  and  satisfactory  programme  before  the  country." — 
Letter  from  Dublin  to  the  New  York  Daily  News,  September  12,  1882. 

371 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

waited  for  and  as  keenly  criticised  on  yours.  .  .  .  Mr.  Parnell 
is  to  define  the  policy  to  be  pursued  on  the  land  question. 
That  policy  is,  in  his  opinion,  dictated  by  the  circumstances 
under  which  we  are  compelled  to  act,  and  will  be  almost 
similar  to  the  parliamentary  policy  pursued  anterior  to  the 
suppression  of  the  Land  League.  To  work  for  the  abolition 
of  landlordism  in  any  other  way  than  the  channels  of  re- 
duced rent  and  the  amendment  of  the  purchase  clauses  of 
the  land  act  is,  in  Mr.  Parnell's  opinion,  now  legally  im- 
possible, and  he  therefore  contends  that  the  course  he 
proposes  taking  is  determined  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
situation,  and  is,  therefore,  the  sine  qua  non  of  his  participa- 
tion in  another  national  movement  (of  this  kind)." 

The  result  of  the  Avondale  "treaty,"  as  it  was  amusingly 
named  by  Mr.  Parnell,  was  that  he  was  to  lay  down  the 
lines  on  the  land  question  for  the  country,  at  the  conference, 
on  a  strictly  parliamentary  basis,  and  on  condition  that  I 
would  not  raise  any  rival  land  issue  at  such  conference. 
These  were  the  terms,  and  they  were  easily  agreed  to,  because 
it  was  only  on  these  conditions  the  league  movement  could  be 
revived,  with  Mr.  Parnell  at  its  head,  while  the  programme 
would  be  sufficiently  elastic  to  leave  room  for  all  views  to 
obtain  expression  when  once  the  country  was  rallied  to 
action  again. 

It  was  also  agreed  that  the  name  of  the  revived  organization 
should  be  "The  Irish  National  League,"  which  would  be 
that  of  the  suppressed  Irish  National  Land  League  with  the 
word  "  land  "  omitted,  so  as  to  avoid  an  illegality.  It  was  not, 
therefore,  until  Mr.  Parnell  had  been,  in  a  sense,  coerced  in  a 
friendly  way  to  consent  to  a  renewal  of  the  agitation,  and 
after  a  policy  and  programme  for  the  new  league  had  been 
discussed  and  decided  upon,  that  Mr.  Dillon,  on  health 
grounds  alone,  left  Ireland  for  an  eighteen  months'  residence 
in  Colorado. 

Mr.  Parnell  presided  at  the  conference,  which  was  rep- 
resentative of  the  old  fighting  forces  of  the  league  and  of  his 
parliamentary  following.  Most  of  the  prominent  leaguers 
who  had  been  in  prison  were  present;  "ex-suspect"  being  a 
rival  distinction  among  the  delegates  to  the  legend  "M.P." 

For  the  interest  attaching  to  a  statement  of  the  kind,  and 
as  a  well-merited  tribute  to  one  who  has  loyally  served 
and  sacrificed  greatly  for  Ireland,  the  following  letter  and 
words  of  Mr.  Parnell  are  reproduced  here.  It  is,  I  believe, 
true  to  say  that  no  other  treasurer  of  any  Irish  political 
movement  ever  had  to  acknowledge  and  to  account  for  a 
larger  fund  than  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  had  under  his  direction 

372 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

during  a  period  of  three  years.      The  conference  was  opened 
by  the  reading  of  this  letter: 

"99  Avenue  de  Villiers,  Paris,  October  14,  1882. 
"Dear  Mr.  Parnell, — In  view  of  the  fact  that  a  new 
national  organization  is  likely  to  spring  from  the  conference 
to  be  held  on  the  17th  inst.,  and  as  it  is  not  possible  for  me 
to  longer  absent  myself  from  my  business  in  Dublin,  I  must 
earnestly  beg  of  you  and  my  other  friends  of  the  Land  League 
to  make  such  arrangements  as  will  relieve  me  from  the 
duties  of  treasurership. 

"Since  I  undertook  the  position  in  October,  1879,  there 
has  passed  through  my  hands  in  all  a  sum  of  ;^244,82o, 
made  up  as  follows : 

£         s.    d. 

Relief  Fund 59.178     14     3 

Land  League  Fund  to  February  3,  1881 30,825       o     7 

Defence  Fund,  per  Land  League 6,563       8     5 

Defence  Fund,  per  Freeman's  Journal 14,514       o     o 

Received  since  my  arrival  in  Paris,  February  3,  1881, 

3,280,168  francs,  at   25.25 129,907        o     o 

Amount  coupons  on  investments,  65,396  francs,  at 

25.25 2,582       o     o 

Profit  realized  on  sale  of  91,000  dols.  U.  S.  Four-per- 
cent. Bonds 1.250       o     o 

;£244,82o        3      3 

"  Of  this  sum  about  ;^5o,ooo  (I  have  not  the  exact  figures 
at  the  moment,  as  the  books  are  in  Dublin)  was  disbursed  in 
the  relief  of  distress  in  1879  and  1880,  as  per  accounts  already 
published;  over  ;^i5,ooo  was  spent  on  the  state  trials  of 
December,  1880,  and  January,  1881.  Nearly  _;^i 48, 000  has  been 
expended  through  the  general  Land  League  and  the  Ladies' 
Land  League  in  support  of  evicted  tenants,  providing  wooden 
houses,  law  costs,  sheriffs'  sales,  defending  against  ejectments, 
various  local  law  proceedings,  and  upon  the  general  expenses 
of  organization,  and  I  have  now  on  hand  the  balance  of 
;^3i,9oo  to  turn  over  to  whoever  shall  be  duly  authorized  to 
take  charge  of  it. 

"For  my  own  protection  as  well  as  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  members  of  the  league,  I  would  ask  that  some  two 
members  of  the  executive  be  deputed  to  examine  into  and 
vouch  my  account. 

"I  am  prepared  to  find  my  desire  to  retire  from  the  office 
of  treasurer  seized  upon  by  our  enemies  for  the  purpose  of 
repeating  the  stale  falsehoods  about  differences  and  dis- 
sensions in  our  ranks.  I  therefore  avail  myself  of  this 
opportunity  to  say  that  at  no  time  have  I  had  greater  con- 

373 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

fidence  in  the  patriotism,  ability,  and  prudence  of  yourself 
and  the  other  leaders  of  the  people  than  now,  and  never 
since  I  have  taken  a  part  in  politics  have  I  felt  more  hopeful 
of  the  long  struggle  for  Ireland's  national  rights. 

"As  an  ordinary  member  of  the  new  organization  I  shall 
be  always  prepared  to  do  my  part  in  forwarding  the  good 
cause. 

"  I  remain,  dear  Mr.  Parnell,  yours  very  faithfully, 

"Patrick  EGA.>r. 

"C.  5.  Parnell,  Esq.,  M.P." 

The  following  resolution  was  proposed: 

"That  this  conference,  on  behalf  of  the  Irish  people,  tender 
to  Patrick  Egan,  Esq.,  its  warmest  expression  of  thanks  for 
the  patriotism,  self-sacrifice,  and  ability  with  which  he  has 
discharged  the  responsible  duty  of  treasurer  of  the  Land 
League  from  its  inception  to  the  present  hour,  and  that  in 
voluntarily  exiling  himself  and  his  family  during  the  past 
two  years  in  the  service  of  Ireland  he  merits  the  grateful 
admiration  of  his  country  and  the  highest  tribute  which  it 
is  in  the  power  of  his  colleagues  in  the  Land  League  to  offer 
him,  that  of  unabated  confidence  in  his  unselfish  and  un- 
swerving devotion  to  the  cause  of  his  country." 

Whereupon  Mr.  Parnell  said: 

"I  wish  to  endorse  every  word  that  has  been  said  by  Mr. 
Davitt  and  Mr.  McCarthy  with  regard  to  Mr.  Egan.  We  who 
have  been  working  with  him  know  well  what  his  services  have 
been,  and  how  enormously  he  has  suffered  by  the  voluntary 
exile  which  he  took  on  himself  during  the  last  eighteen 
months  or  so.  I  do  think  that  no  tribute  we  could  pay  to 
him  in  this  conference  can  at  all  afford  any  criterion  as  to 
the  way  in  which  the  people  of  Ireland  regard  the  sacrifices 
and  sufferings  he  has  made  for  their  cause.  Mr.  Egan  has 
always  been  a  silent  worker  in  the  national  movement.  He 
has  been  content  to  work  and  not  to  speak,  while  other  men 
have  gained  the  credit  of  much  that  he  has  been  able  to 
do  in  his  own  way;  and,  having  worked  with  Mr.  Egan  for 
many  years,  I  wish  to  pay  my  humble  tribute  to  the  un- 
assuming devotion  which  he  has  always  exhibited  in  forward- 
ing the  national  cause  of  Ireland.  I  will  now  call  on  you 
to  adopt  the  resolution  unanimously  and  by  acclamation."^ 

The  programme  adopted  by  the  conference  and  the  con- 
stitution of  the  new  body  followed  the  general  outline  of  the 
Avondale  "treaty,"  but  the  work  of  drafting  both  for  the 

'  The  Freeman's  Journal,  October  i8,   1882. 
374 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

consideration  of  the  delegates  was  done  by  Messrs.  Healy  and 
Harrington,  under  Mr.  Parnell's  direction.  These  documents 
are  worth  reproducing.  They  show  the  wide,  progressive 
scope  of  the  programme  discussed  and  approved  of  by  this 
Land-League  congress  years  before  many  of  the  political  and 
social  changes  here  put  forward  were  adopted  for  either 
Great  Britain  or  Ireland  by  the  Imperial  Parliament: 

"THE   PROGRAMME  OF  THE   NATIONAL  CONFERENCE 

''October  17,  1882 

"Resolved,  that  an  association  be  formed  to  attain  for 
the  Irish  people  the  following  objects:  i.  National  self-gov- 
ernment.    2.  Land -law  reform.     3.  Local   self-government. 

4.  Extension  of  the  parliamentary  and  municipal  franchises. 

5.  The  development  and  encouragement  of  the  labor  and  in- 
dustrial interests  of  Ireland. 

"That  this  association  be  called  '  The  Irish  National  League.' 
"That  the  objects  of  the  league  be  defined  as  follows: 

"  Article  i 

"The  restitution  to  the  Irish  people  of  the  right  to  manage 
their  own  affairs  in  a  parliament  elected  by  the  people  of 
Ireland. 

"Article  2 

"  (a)  The  creation  of  an  occupying  ownership  or  peasant 
proprietary  by  an  amendment  of  the  purchase  clauses  of 
the  land  act  of  1881,  so  as  to  secure  the  advance  by  the 
state  of  the  whole  of  the  purchase  money  and  the  extension 
of  the  period  of  repayment  over  sixty-three  years. 

"(6)  The  transfer  by  compulsory  purchase  to  county 
boards  of  land  not  cultivated  by  the  owners  and  not  in 
the  occupation  of  tenants,  for  resale  or  reletting  to  laborers 
and  small  farmers  in  plots  or  grazing  commonages. 

"(c)  The  protection  from  the  imposition  of  rent  on  im- 
provements made  by  the  tenant  or  his  predecessors  in  title, 
to  be  effected  by  an  amendment  of  the  Healy  clause  of  the 
land  act  of  1881. 

"  {d)  The  admission  of  leaseholders  and  other  excluded 
classes  to  all  the  benefits  of  the  land  act,  with  the  further 
amendments  thereof  included  in  the  land-law  (Ireland)  act 
amendment  bill  of  Mr.  Redmond. 

"  Article  3 

"  (a)  The  creation  of  county  boards  and  the  transfer  thereto 
of  the  fiscal  and  administrative  powers  of  grand  juries. 

375 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"(6)  The  abolition  of  the  principle  of  nomination  by 
government  to  membership  of  the  following  boards:  The 
Local  Government  Board,  the  Board  of  Works,  the  General 
Valuation  and  Boundary  Survey,  the  Board  of  National 
Education,  the  Reformatory  and  Industrial  Schools  Board, 
the  Prisons  Board,  the  Fishery  Board,  and  the  transfer  of 
their  powers  to  representatives  elected  by  county  boards. 

"(c)  The  transfer  to  county  boards  of  the  management 
of  union  workhouses,  lunatic  asylums,  and  other  institutions 
supported  by  local  rates. 

"  (d)  The  substitution  of  local  for  imperial  control  in  the 
appointment  and  management  of  the  police. 

"  ((?)  The  extension  to  county  boards  of  the  power  to 
nominate  county  sheriffs,  as  at  present  exercised  by  munici- 
palities in  the  case  of  city  sheriffs. 

"  (/)  The  vesting  in  county  boards  of  the  right  of  nominat- 
ing magistrates  now  enjoyed  by  lord  lieutenants  of  counties. 

"(g)  The  abolition  of  the  office  of  Lord  Lieutenant  of 
Ireland. 

"Article  4 

"(a)  The  extension  and  assimilation  of  the  Irish  parlia- 
mentary and  municipal  franchises  to  those  of  England. 

"(b)  The  adoption  of  the  English  system  in  the  registra- 
tion of  voters. 

"  (c)  The  securing  that  any  measure  of  popular  enfranchise- 
ment introduced  for  Great  Britain  shall  also  be  extended  to 
Ireland. 

"Article  5 

"  Separate  legislation  to  elevate  the  condition  of  agricultural 
laborers,  to  secure: 

"  (a)  The  providing  of  laborers'  dwellings  with  half-acre 
allotments  in  the  proportion  of  one  to  every  £2$  valuation 
in  the  case  of  all  holdings,  pastoral  or  agricultural. 

"(b)  The  abolition  of  payment  of  poor  rate  in  respect  of 
laborers'  dwellings. 

"(c)  The  repeal  of  the  quarter-acre  clause  so  as  to  entitle 
laborers  to  out-door  relief  during  illness. 

"Co-operation  in  the  movement  for  fostering  Irish  in- 
dustries by  the  appointment,  in  connection  with  each  branch 
of  the  organization,  of  an  industrial  committee,  on  which 
manufacturers,  shopkeepers,  artisans,  and  farmers  shall  have 
proportional  representation,  and  the  functions  of  which 
shall  be: 

"  (a)  To  encourage  the  use  and  sale  of  Irish  products. 

"(b)  To  co-operate  with  the  National  Exhibition  Com- 
pany in  securing  the  genuineness  of  articles  offered  for  sale 

376 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

as  Irish  manufacture,  and  in  the  organization  of  local  ex- 
hibitions from  time  to  time. 

"  (c)  To  obtain  scientific  reports  of  the  industrial  capacities 
of  their  various  districts,  and  stimulate  the  establishment 
of  local  manufacturing  and  cottage  industries. 

"  Rules 

"The  Irish  National  League  shall  consist  of  branches  and 
central  council. 

"The  council  shall  consist  of  forty-eight  members,  thirty- 
two  to  be  elected  by  county  conventions  and  sixteen  by  the 
Irish  parliamentary  party.  The  branches  in  each  county 
shall  send  delegates  to  an  annual  county  convention,  and 
each  delegate  shall  cast  his  vote  for  the  candidate  nominated 
to  the  central  council  in  manner  provided  by  the  rules. 
Members  of  Parliament  shall  be  ineligible  for  election  to  the 
council  by  a  county  convention. 

"The  branches  to  be  organized,  rules  framed,  and  the 
method  of  nomination  and  election  to  the  council  settled 
by  an  organizing  committee. 

"The  organizing  committee  shall  consist  of  five  members 
of  the  Mansion  House  committee  for  the  relief  of  evicted 
tenants,  five  members  of  the  executive  of  the  labor  and 
industrial  union,  five  members  of  the  council  of  the  Home- 
Rule  League,  and  fifteen  other  gentlemen. 

"The  organizing  committee  shall  have  all  the  powers  of  a 
central  council  until  the  council  is  elected,  and  no  longer." 

This  conference,  and  the  transition  which  it  marked  from 
the  Land  League  of  pro-revolutionary  origin  and  purpose  to 
the  dominance  of  a  parliamentary  programme  and  control, 
was  a  veritable  new  departure.  It  was  the  counter-revolu- 
tion or  reaction  which  invariably  follows  the  application  of 
extreme  principles  or  policies.  The  country  had  passed 
through  a  grave  crisis,  and  the  fruits  of  all  that  had  been  sown 
and  suffered  for  were  neither  matured  nor  in  evidence.  On 
the  contrary,  there  were  a  large  number  of  "wounded  sol- 
diers," or  evicted  tenants,  and  others  who  had  seen  the  seamy 
side  of  the  battle-field,  and  the  position  and  claims  of  these 
were  a  discouraging  factor  and  argument  with  those  who  had 
lost  less.  They  were  reluctant  in  face  of  these  results  to  go  on 
risking  a  similar  fate. 

The  outcome  of  the  conference  of  October,  1882,  was  the 
complete  eclipse,  by  a  purely  parliamentary  substitute,  of 
what  had  been  a  semi-revolutionary  organization.  It  was,  in 
a  sense,  the  overthrow  of  a  movement  and  the  enthronement 

377 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  a  nian;;thQ  replacing  of  nationalism  by  Pamellism;  the  in- 
vesting of  the  fortunes  and  guidance  of  the  agitation,  both  for 
national  self-government  and  land  reform,  in  a  leader's  nom- 
inal dictatorship. 

I  do  not  know  who  first  invented  the  term  "Pamellism." 
It  was  either  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  or  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  and  it 
came  significantly  into  vogue  about  this  time.  It  triumphed 
completely  in  the  constitution  of  the  governing  body  of  the 
National  League.  This  body  was  made  almost  exclusively 
pro-Parnellite,  as  against  the  extreme  men  who  had  worked 
loyally  with  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  Land  League,  but  who  were 
not  prepared  to  look  upon  the  name  Parnellite  as  a  substitute 
for  nationalist,  either  in  practice  or  in  principle,  or  to  invest 
him,  or  any  individual,  with  arbitrary  power.  The  new  blood 
in  the  public  life  of  the  country,  the  men  who  had  found  a 
field  of  honorable  distinction  under  Parnell's  lead  in  the  House 
of  Commons  and  in  Ireland,  were  impatient  of  what  had 
largely  been  a  non-parliamentary  control  of  the  movement. 
It  was  a  natural  impulse,  and  not  unfairly  acted  upon,  as 
public  men  are  influenced  in  such  contingencies.  Mr.  Egan, 
Mr.  Brennan,  and  myself  had  been,  by  circumstance,  thrust 
into  prominence  in  the  old  league,  and  in  all  political  bodies 
the  element  of  human  rivalry  and  ambition,  of  jealousy,  and 
of  intrigue  operates  in  the  direction  of  "capturing  the  ma- 
chine." Mr.  Egan  had  to  exile  himself,  as  a  result  of  his  great 
sacrifices  for  the  Land  League;  Mr.  Brennan  attended  the 
conference  of  October,  was  made  an  honorary  secretary  of  the 
new  league,  but  soon  followed  his  friend  over  the  Atlantic. 
Those  who  could  remain  were  far  too  few  in  number  to  count 
against  the  successful  rivalry  of  the  young  M.P.'s. 

It  was  not  Mr.  Parnell  who  built  up  the  name  and  legend  of 
"Pamellism"  or  claimed  or  declared  his  own  dictatorship, 
but  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  Mr.  James  O'Kelly, 
Mr.  William  O'Brien  in  United  Ireland,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Sex- 
ton. In  fact,  I  always  found  Mr.  Parnell  far  less  Parnellite, 
in  the  anti-extreme  sense,  and  infinitely  less  intolerant,  in 
matters  of  principle  and  policy,  than  his  brilliant  young  lieu- 
tenants. He  was  always  fair  and  considerate  in  his  dealings 
with  the  non-parliamentary  sentiment  in  the  movement 
which  he  led,  much  more  so  than  any  of  these  deputy  leaders, 
excepting  Mr.  Sexton,  and  was  seldom  or  ever  personally  dic- 
tatorial in  the  use  of  his  power  or  the  assertion  of  his  authority. 
It  was,  in  fact,  a  curious  instance  of  the  irony  of  fate  in  after 
years  that  those  who  had  preached  Parnell's  autocracy  as  a 
dogma  of  absolute  political  faith  for  nearly  ten  years  were  the 
chief  opponents  of  the  same  leader  in  the  crisis  of  1890.     It 

378 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

was  their  previous  intemperate  and  unwise  overlaudation 
that  had  persuaded  him  he  was  absolutely  indispensable  to 
the  cause  of  Ireland,  and  by  right  and  reason  possessed  a 
dictator's  claim  to  guide  that  cause. 

Of  the  many  legends  about  Parnell  which  had  origin  in 
the  more-Parnellite-than-Parnell  feeling  of  these  and  sub- 
sequent years  among  those  who  ruled  the  party  and  organiza- 
tion in  his  name  was  that  which  led  the  public  to  believe  he 
governed  the  party  with  "an  iron  hand"  and  sternly  put 
down  all  disobedient  members.  This  is,  in  truth,  an  absurd 
fiction.  No  leader  was  ever  more  indulgent  in  the  exercise  of 
power  or  interfered  less  with  his  followers  or  gave  a  wider 
field  for  discussion  or  criticism  on  platforms  or  policies  within 
the  ambit  of  the  national  movement.  I  could  give  fifty  in- 
stances to  support  this  view  of  his  character  as  a  leader.  One 
significant  instance  in  connection  with  this  conference  will 
suffice  at  this  stage. 

It  had  been  agreed  in  the  consultation  at  Avondale  that  I 
would  not  raise  the  question  of  land  nationalization  as  against 
Mr.  Parnell's  position  before  the  delegates.  This  was  my  own 
proposition  and  not  Mr.  Parnell's  suggestion.  Mr.  Parnell 
was,  in  a  sense,  as  I  shall  show  later,  almost  as  much  in  favor 
of  James  Fintan  Lalor's  principles  as  I  was  myself,  and  he  had 
no  wish  to  ask  me  not  to  do  what  he  could  claim  no  right  to 
compel  me  to  forego.  His  lieutenants,  however,  were  then, 
as  later,  far  more  dictatorial,  and  being  resolved  upon  the 
overthrow  of  the  extreme  section,  they  framed  their  plans  ac- 
cordingly. Mr.  Parnell,  thereupon,  wrote  me  as  follows  from 
a  sick-bed  in  Morrison's  Hotel  on  the  eve  of  the  conference: 

"On  further  consideration  I  think  it  will  be  better  that  I 
should  confine  myself  in  my  opening  statement  to  an  explana- 
tion of  the  constitution,  and  then,  if  you  should  think  that  it 
is  necessary  for  you  to  make  any  explanation  of  your  own 
position,  it  will,  of  course,  be  open  for  you  to  do  so  at  any 
period  of  the  proceedings  that  you  desire." 

Having  had  to  differ  with  him  frequently  on  points  of  prin- 
ciple and  of  policy,  and  sometimes  in  a  most  marked  manner,  I 
never  experienced  any  "iron"  or  other  imaginary  "disci- 
pline," or  unjust  or  arbitrary  action  on  his  part,  up  to  the  eve 
of  the  calamitous  split  of  1890.  His  rule  was  loyally  acknowl- 
edged by  his  party,  because  it  was  eminently  sagacious  and 
fair,  and  especially  because  there  was  no  man  in  his  following 
who  could,  without  exciting  ridicule,  put  himself  in  opposition 
as  a  rival  claimant  or  pretender.  In  many  respects  he  was 
far  too  indulgent  as  a  leader  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
permitted  a  wider  exercise  of  eccentric  egoism  and  self-ad- 

379 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

vertisement  among  some  of  his  men  in  the  most  severely 
critical  assembly  in  the  world  than  was  serviceable  to  the 
cause  he  had  the  guardianship  of  there.  "Oh,  you  must  let 
them  show  themselves  off  now  and  then  a  little,"  he  once  re- 
marked to  me,  in  good-humor,  "otherwise  they  might  inflict 
the  same  speeches  upon  you  in  Ireland."  No;  Mr.  Parnell's 
"iron  dictatorship"  was  a  carefully  constructed  legend.  Be- 
hind the  screen  of  this  figment  a  group  of  his  ablest  followers 
wielded  an  influence  and  a  power  which  the  real  leader's  lack 
of  attention  to  details  and  growing  absence  from  the  duties  of 
the  party  and  the  headship  of  the  National  League  from  1883 
to  1889  invited  them  to  exercise  under  the  power  of  his  name. 

Though  Messrs.  Brennan  and  Harrington  were  nominated 
joint  honorary  secretaries  of  the  new  league,  the  latter  be- 
came the  permanent  secretary  of  the  organization.  He  had 
been  the  most  prominent  of  the  Kerry  Land-Leaguers,  and 
was  imprisoned  twice  for  his  part  in  the  movement  up  to  the 
date  of  the  conference.  He  proved  to  be  a  most  trusted  and 
efficient  organizing  secretary,  careful  of  the  interests  of  the 
movement,  steady  and  resourceful  in  dealing  with  the  mul- 
titudinous characters  and  matters  which  demand  a  daily  at- 
tention in  a  combination  embracing  almost  every  parish  in 
Ireland.  The  old  Land -League  branches  soon  sprang  into 
existence  again  under  the  new  name,  and  though  Mr.  Pamell 
did  very  little  to  re-enlist  the  people  in  the  revived  organiza- 
tion, his  prominent  followers  soon  rallied  the  country  again, 
and  gave  its  cause  the  hope  and  protection  of  a  powerful  polit- 
ical influence  outside  and  inside  of  Parliament. 

The  rule  of  Earl  Spencer  and  his  chief  secretary,  Mr.  George 
Trevelyan,  was  a  potent  recruiting  influence  for  the  league. 
It  expressed  itself  in  every  obnoxious  way  possible.  Jury- 
packing  became  notorious.  Evictions  were  brutally  carried 
out  in  the  presence  of  overwhelming  forces.  Meetings  were 
put  down  on  the  sworn  testimony  of  any  opponent  that  "he 
apprehended"  a  breach  of  the  peace  if  speeches  were  per- 
mitted in  certain  places.  All  these  acts  exasperated  popular 
feeling  and  encouraged  that  "divine  discontent"  which  is 
the  right  impulse  and  potent  leverage  for  reform. 

The  new  organ  of  the  national  movement.  United  Ire- 
land, under  Mr.  William  O'Brien's  direction,  assailed  the 
Spencer  regime  with  unsparing  vituperation.  In  a  relentless 
spirit  of  hostility  and  with  great  ability  every  act  of  the 
executive  was  mercilessly  criticised,  every  fault  exposed,  and 
every  measure  directed  against  free  speech  or  fair  trial  de- 
nounced in  a  strain  of  invective  never  surpassed  in  passionate 
ferocity  of  expression  in  Ireland  since  John  Mitchel's  United 

380 


THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE 

Irishman  had  lashed  a  frightened  DubHn  Castle  into  fury  and 
prosecution.  A  prosecution  in  Mr.  O'Brien's  instance  also 
bore  testimony  to  the  directness  with  which  his  barbed 
shafts  had  gone  home  to  the  executive  understanding,  but 
the  jury  disagreed  and  he  was  discharged. 

The  year  1882  had  been  signalized  by  several  savage  mur- 
ders, one  in  the  month  of  January  being  that  of  two  bailiffs  near 
Lough  Mask,  in  County  Mayo.  These  men  were  killed  and 
then  thrown  into  the  lake  in  sacks.  Their  bodies  were  found, 
and  search  was  made  for  the  murderers  without  avail. 
In  the  following  August,  however,  the  country  was  startled 
by  the  news  of  a  crime  almost  without  a  parallel  for  its 
atrocity  in  the  annals  of  agrarian  outrages.  A  family  named 
Joyce,  residing  among  the  wild  fastnesses  of  the  Connemara 
hills,  were  murdered  in  cold  blood  by  a  band  of  midnight 
assassins.  It  transpired  that  some  member  of  the  family 
knew  who  the  perpetrators  of  the  Lough  Mask  murders  were, 
and  the  fell  purpose  of  the  men  who  resolved  to  kill  the 
Joyces  was  to  save  themselves  by  committing  a  yet  more 
heinous  crime.  The  details  of  this  revolting  deed  of  blood 
inspired  wide-spread  horror,  and  the  trial  of  the  accused 
persons  was  an  event  of  sensational  importance.  Both  the 
culprits  and  the  witnesses  against  them  were  Irish-speaking 
peasants,  living  under  conditions  of  poverty  and  squalor, 
and  one  of  the  accused,  named  Myles  Joyce,  who  protested 
his  innocence  insistently  in  the  only  tongue  he  could  speak, 
was  found  guilty,  with  three  others,  and  hanged.  Myles  Joyce 
was  undoubtedly  innocent,  but  so  eager  was  the  Castle  to 
obtain  an  adequate  legal  vengeance  for  the  abominable 
double  murders  of  the  Huddys  and  the  Joyces  that  this 
"judicial  murder,"  as  United  Ireland  rightly  termed  it,  was 
carried  out  despite  every  effort  that  could  be  made  to  induce 
Lord  Spencer  to  grant  a  reprieve. 

This  Maamtrasna  crime  brought  to  Ireland  as  a  visitor  for 
the  first  time  a  young  Englishman  of  fine  parts  and  of  great 
promise,  who  had  passed  through  Oxford  with  distinction, 
the  late  Arnold  Toynbee.  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting  him 
in  Dublin,  on  his  return  from  Connemara,  and  the  great 
satisfaction  of  hearing  him  say  truly  that  such  a  horrible 
crime  was  due  to  the  social  and  industrial  condition  of  the 
peasantry  he  had  seen  down  there,  and  also  to  the  unnatural 
system  of  government,  which  concerned  itself  more  with 
measures  of  defence  for  itself  than  with  means  for  lifting  the 
people  it  failed  rightly  to  rule  out  of  conditions  of  hardship 
and  despair.  He  was  of  the  highest  type  of  open-minded 
Englishmen,  and  had  he  only  lived  he  would  have  been  in 

381 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

every  noble  and  just  sense  a  credit  to  the  England  he  loved 
so  proudly. 

Two  letters  which  he  wrote  me  subsequently,  and  shortly 
before  his  untimely  death,  will  show  the  trend  of  his  feeling 
and  determination  to  work  for  a  better  rule  of  Ireland: 

"Dear  Mr.  Davitt, —  ...  I  shall  criticise  Henry  George 
from  the  point  of  view  of  a  Social  Democrat,  and  shall  try  to 
show  that  his  theory  of  economic  progress  is  to  a  very  large 
extent  mistaken.  At  the  same  time,  I  am  myself  in  favor 
of  very  sweeping  measures  of  social  reform;  but,  then,  I  wish 
to  see  them  justified  on  their  true  grounds. 

"I  have  read  your  letter  in  the  Freeman's  Journal, on  the 
distress  in  the  West  of  Ireland.  I  am  not  surprised  at  any- 
thing you  say  against  the  English  government,  under  the 
circumstances,  but  I  do  wish  you  could  win  the  Radicals 
to  your  side  by  showing  that  it  is  not  hatred  of  England  that 
actuates  you  but  of  English  misgovernment. 
"Yours  very  truly, 

"Arnold  Toynbee. 

"  December  ^o,  1882." 

"  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  January  16,  1883. 

"Dear  Mr.  Davitt, — The  one  thing  I  care  for  in  the 
world  is  to  soften  a  little  the  fierce  enmity  between  England 
and  Ireland.  I  was  delighted  with  your  speech  at  Haslingden. 
If  you  could  allow  such  a  humble  person  as  myself  to  co- 
operate with  you  I  should  be  most  grateful.  I  am  not  a 
politician,  but  a  student  who  loves  books,  but  I  am  dragged 
out  of  my  seclusion  by  the  turmoil  that  is  going  on  around 
me.  I  cannot  be  quiet  while  this  terrible  crisis  in  the  history 
of  the  English  and  Irish  nations  is  before  my  eyes.  On 
Thursday  I  am  going  to  speak  on  Ireland.  I  shall  strain 
every  nerve  to  make  the  English  understand  what  is  going  on. 
My  visit  to  Maamtrasna  this  summer  opened  my  eyes. 

"With  best  wishes  for  your  future  and  the  future  of  Ireland, 
I  remain, 

"Yours  sincerely, 

"Arnold  Toynbee." 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

I.  — THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

The  friends  of  Ireland  in  the  Australasian  colonies  began 
a  generous  support  of  the  Land  League  movement  early  in 
its  existence.  The  first  branch  of  the  organization  was 
founded  in  Gympie,  Queensland,  in  1880,  under  the  presidency 
of  the  Rev.  M.  Horan  of  that  gold -mining  centre.  This 
clergyman  was  very  popular  among  the  miners,  and  he  soon 
enlisted  a  large  number  of  those  of  Irish  parentage  in  the 
premier  branch  of  the  colony.  He  was  zealously  assisted 
by  such  representative  citizens  as  Messrs.  J.  A.  Shanahan, 
J. P.;  James  Farrell,  P.  Lillis,  J. P. ;  J.  C.  Polland,  J.  B.  Carroll, 
M.  Cogan,  M.  CoUison,  J.  Comerford,  T.  McMahon,  T.  Mc- 
Sweeney,  A.  Crotty,  and  later  by  Mr.  John  Flood,  of  the 
"Chester  Castle  Raid"  fame,  who  was  sentenced  to  fifteen 
years'  penal  servitude  in  Dublin,  in  1867,  for  his  prominent 
position  in  the  Fenian  movement.  He  was  transported 
to  West  Australia  in  company  with  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  and 
other  political  prisoners  in  1870. 

This  Gympie  branch  attracted  much  public  attention  in 
Australia,  in  October,  1882,  by  having  the  following  resolu- 
tion adopted  at  a  public  meeting: 

"Whereas  the  recent  action  of  the  Propaganda  in  regard  to 
the  great  Irish  land  agitation  is  not  only  calculated  to  drive  the 
people  into  unconstitutional  courses  for  the  redress  of  griev- 
ances, but  is  likely  to  be  fraught  with  disaster  to  the  Catholic 
religion  and  the  Papal  authority  among  the  Irish  people, 
Be  it  therefore  resolved  that  an  address  embodying  our 
views  be  forwarded  to  His  Holiness  the  Pope,  to  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Irish  College  at  Rome,  to  the  Irish  public  bodies, 
and  the  Irish  newspapers  throughout  the  world.  Moved  by 
J.  Farrell,  seconded  by  John  Mahoney." 

In  January,  1881,  a  public  meeting  was  held  in  Melbourne, 
with  the  object  of  rendering  assistance  to  the  league.  The 
then  minister  of  lands,  Mr.  Francis  Longmore,  M.P.,  presided, 
and  had  the  assistance  of  Messrs.  Dow,  M.P.,  J.  J.  Walsh, 
D.  Fogarty,  T.  P.  O'Callaghan,  M.P.,  and  J.  Fitzgerald,  of 

383 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Ballarat,  as  speakers.  The  meeting  was  soon  followed  by- 
active  organization,  in  which  work  Mr.  Joseph  Winter  and 
Mr.  M.  McDonald  took  a  leading  part,  assisted  by  the  men 
whose  names  will  be  found  in  connection  with  the  records 
of  the  first  convention  of  Australasian  leaguers  held  in  Mel- 
bourne. 

In  South  Australia  Messrs.  P.  Whelan,  Hewitt,  O'Loghlin, 
McConville,  O 'Sullivan,  and  Dixon  were  pioneers  in  the  work 
of  auxiliary  organization  in  that  colony. 

Early  in  1881  Mr.  John  W.  Walshe,  of  Balla,  County  Mayo, 
one  of  the  chief  organizers  of  the  Irishtown  meeting,  was  sent 
to  Australia  by  the  executive  of  the  Land  League  on  an  or- 
ganizing mission.  This  was  done  in  response  to  requests 
from  antipodean  friends  for  some  properly  authorized  envoy 
from  Ireland.  Mr.  Walshe  was  received  in  Melbourne  by  Mr. 
Joseph  Winter,  who  was  then,  and  has  ever  since  remained,  the 
most  earnest  and  active  worker  for  Ireland  among  all  the  stanch 
volunteers  in  Australia  who  have  rendered  valued  aid  to  the 
Irish  movement  continuously  from  1880  to  the  present  day. 
In  1882  the  organization  had  spread  into  most  of  the  Austra- 
lasian colonies,  and  it  became  necessary  to  send  out  some 
prominent  leader  whose  representative  position  would  appeal 
with  greater  effect  to  supporters  and  to  the  press.  The  late 
Rev.  George  W.  Pepper,  of  Ohio,  U.S.A.,  was  recommended 
to  Mr.  Parnell  by  American  league  leaders  for  the  mission,  but 
a  better  and  happier  choice  than  even  that  of  the  eloquent 
Irish-American  divine  was  made  in  the  person  of  Mr.  John  E. 
Redmond,  M.P.  The  member  for  New  Ross  had  already 
made  his  mark  in  the  House  of  Commons  as  an  eloquent  and 
able  debater,  and  he  was  in  every  sense  qualified  to  perform 
the  work  required. 

He  was  accompanied  by  his  brother,  Mr.  W.  K.  Redmond. 
They  were  joined  on  arrival  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Walshe,  and  forth- 
with undertook  an  organizing  tour  which  was  successful  be- 
yond all  anticipation.  Mr.  Redmond's  advent  in  Australia 
cruelly  coincided  with  the  examination  of  the  Invincibles  who 
were  implicated  in  the  Phoenix  Park  murders.  The  informer 
Carey's  evidence,  hinting  at  a  complicity  in  these  crimes  of 
certain  prominent  Land-Leaguers  was  cabled  to  the  Austra- 
lasian press,  and  created  such  anti-Irish  feeling  in  the  news- 
papers and  among  the  general  public  that  no  public  halls 
except  those  owned  by  Irish  organizations  could  be  obtained 
for  the  meetings  of  the  boycotted  envoys.  So  rabid  did  this 
feeling  become  under  the  daily  incitations  of  a  bigoted  press 
that  Mr.  (afterwards  Sir)  Henry  Parkes,  one  of  the  most  prom- 
inent New  South  Wales  politicians,  actually  proposed  the  ex- 

384 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

pulsion  of  the  Messrs.  Redmond  from  the  colonies.  Even 
hotels  refused  to  give  them  accommodation.  In  Sydney  they 
were  hospitably  received  by  Mr.  Thomas  Curran,  proprietor 
of  a  leading  hotel,  and  a  very  generous  supporter  of  the  Irish 
cause.  He  returned  to  Ireland  in  subsequent  years  and  was 
elected  member  of  Parliament  for  South  Sligo,  retiring,  how- 
ever, and  returning  to  Sydney  again  in   1900. 

Stanch  men  of  his  own  race  stood  loyally  by  Mr.  Redmond 
in  that  and  in  other  cities,  and  his  own  courage,  tact,  and  ad- 
mirable capacity  enabled  him  to  bear  down  all  opposition. 
His  was  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  the  many  missions  un- 
dertaken in  behalf  of  the  movement  led  by  Parnell,  and  no 
man  ever  acquitted  himself  more  creditably  and  more  com- 
pletely under  the  fire  of  a  relentless,  hostile  press,  and  in  face 
of  a  violent  public  sentiment,  than  the  then  comparatively 
young  Irishman  did  in  his  Australian  tour. 

A  league  convention  was  held  in  Melbourne  on  November 
7,  1883,  and  the  official  report  of  this  gathering  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  work  done  up  to  that  date  by  the  respective  mis- 
sions of  Mr.  J.  W.  Walshe  and  of  the  Messrs.  John  and  William 
Redmond.  It  likewise  supplies  the  names  of  the  representa- 
tive men  of  the  Land  Leagues  of  Australasia  who  had  been 
most  prominent  in  the  work  of  the  auxiliary  movement  under 
the  Southern  Cross  from  its  inception. 

The  convention  was  held  in  St.  Patrick's  Hall,  one  of  the 
historic  buildings  of  Melbourne.  It  had  been  used  as  a  legis- 
lative chamber  under  the  old  Victorian  constitution  from 
1851  to  1856.  The  new  (Home-Rule)  constitution  was  dis- 
cussed and  adopted  in  the  same  building,  where  it  was  like- 
wise proclaimed  by  the  then  governor,  Sir  Charles  Hotham, 
after  it  had  been  finally  sanctioned  by  the  Imperial  Parlia- 
ment. 

Dr.  Kevin  Izod  O'Doherty  presided  at  the  league  conven- 
tion as  the  leading  league  delegate  from  Queensland.  He  had 
been  tried  in  1848,  in  Dublin,  with  John  Martin  and  others, 
for  seditious  articles  written  in  The  Irisli  Felon  after  the  sup- 
pression of  John  Mitchel's  United  Inslunan,  and,  like  the  two 
illustrious  "felons,"  he  was  sentenced  to  transportation  and 
domiciled  in  Tasmania.  After  being  amnestied  he  remained 
in  Australia,  and  ultimately  settled  down  in  Brisbane  with 
his  family. 

The  following  are  the  names  of  the  delegates  who  were 
present : 

Victoria 

T.  Taylor,  J. P.,  Sandhurst;  D.  O'Keefe,  Sandhurst;  J.  J. 
Fitzgerald,  J. P.,  Ballarat;  W.  O'Callaghan,  Ararat;  Rev.  J.  L 
^s  385 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Hegarty,  Sale;  Rev.  M.  O'Connor,  Myrtleford;  Rev.  M.  J. 
Gilsenan,  Sandhurst;  D.  Slattery,  J. P.,  Sale;  T.  Cahill,  Gee- 
long;  John  Barry,  Kyneton;  J.  Minogue,  Kyneton;  Michael 
Molphy,  J. P.,  Sale;  —  Carroll,  Ballarat;  James  Burjce,  Warr- 
nambool;  E.  L.  Nolan,  East  Melbourne;  P.  Doheney,  East  Mel- 
bourne; —  Samers,  Inglewood;  C.  J.  O'Sullivan,  Beechworth; 
John  M'Intyre,  Central  Branch,  Melbourne;  —  King,  Wan- 
garatta;  James  Hurley,  Richmond;  Andrew  Byrne,  Wan- 
garatta;  P.  F.  Ryan,  Tatura;  Thomas  Hogan,  Tatura;  Denis 
O'Brien,  J. P.,  Geelong;  Michael  Hynes,  Allandale;  Michael 
Toohey,  Allandale;  P.  M'Cabe,  Horsham;  Thomas  Hodgins, 
Horsham;  John  M'Mahon,  Charlton;  Patrick  O'Sullivan, 
Woornook;  Thomas  M'Loughlan,  Woornook;  R.  Walshe,  St. 
Ambrose;  M.  Mulcare,  Nar-Nar-Goon;  J.  Dore,  Nar-Nar-Goon; 
John  Lee,  J. P.,  Garvoc;  P.  Brodrick,  Malmsbury;  A.  Troy, 
Abbotsford;  A.  Duff,  Malmsbury;  John  Hyland,  Garvoc;  P.  ]. 
Hoban,  Donald;  P.  Finn,  Donald;  S.  Fitzgerald,  Seymour;  J. 
O'Leary,  St.  Ambrose;  —  Brodie,  Claremorris;  P.  J.  Fleming, 
Yan  Yean;  J.  Eveston,  Sandy  Creek;  P.  Quirk,  Sandy  Creek; 
J.  Coyle,  Collingwood;  J.  Howard,  Charlton;  John  Butler,  Sun- 
bury;  Leslie  Counsell,  Sunbury;  Patrick  M'Mahon,  Gordons; 
John  Maher,  Gordons;  Patrick  Hehir,  Shepparton;  E.  J.  Daly, 
Shepparton;  Nicholas  Delaney,  Nagambie;  George  Coyne, 
Richmond;  James  Madden,  Richmond;  J.  Gill,  Bet  Bet  and 
Timor;  Michael  Harty,  Bet  Bet  and  Timor;  P.  Fennelly, 
Warrnambool;  William  Broadrock,  Daylesford;  C.  Fitzgerald, 
Gordons;  William  Sheehan,  Nagambie;  John  Costelloe,  Gor- 
dons; James  Ryan,  North  Fitzroy;  P.  M'Ardle,  Prahran;  M. 
Rahilly,  Carlton;  J.  Curtain,  North  Fitzroy;  P.  Hunt,  Reedy 
Creek;  J.  M'Namara,  Hotham;  P.  D.  O'Reilly,  Central  Branch, 
Melbourne;  D.  M'Loughlin,  Collingwood;  P.  Hayes,  Central 
Branch,  Melbourne;  D.  Noonan,  Central  Branch,  Melbourne; 
M.  Hickey,  Central  Branch,  Melbourne;  F.  M'Cann,  Lands- 
borough;  J.  J.  Murphy,  Abbotsford;  — Miller,  Camperdown;  P. 
Power,  Echuca;  J.  Shortrill,  Eltham;  P.  H.  O'Leary,  Hotham 
Y.  M.  Society;  H.  W.  Sheridan,  Warrnambool  H.  S. ;  W.  O'Dea, 
Ballarat  C.  Y.  M.  S.;  P.  O'Dowd,  Ballarat  C.  Y.  M.  S.; 
G.  Russell,  St.  Michael's  Branch  H.  A.  C.  B.  S.;  —M'Cann, 
St.  Patrick's  Society;  P.  Campbell,  Emerald  Hill;  P. 
Daly,  Ballarat  C.  Y.  M.  S.;  J.  F.  Ryan,  St.  Patrick's 
Society;  W.  Birmingham,  St.  Patrick's  Society;  C.  H. 
O'Leary,  St.  Patrick's  Society;  M.  Donald,  St.  Patrick's  So- 
ciety; Hugh  Rawson,  J. P.,  Kyneton  H.  A.  C.  B.  S. ;  W.  Hester, 
Central  Branch;  M.  Kennedy,  Dunnstown;  P.  Toole,  J. P., 
Richmond  H.  A.  C.  B.  S. ;  R.  Evans,  Richmond  H.  A.  C.  B.  S. ;  J. 
Cullinan,  Sale  H.  A.  C.  B.  S.;  L.  Kenyon,  St.  Patrick's  Society; 

386 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

M.  Hood,  St.  Patrick's  Society;  J.  L.  Freeman,  St.  Patrick's 
Society,  Melbourne  District;  J.  Whelan,  St.  Patrick's  Society, 
Melbourne  District;  T.  P.  Deegan.  C.  Y.  M.  S.,  Daylesford;  T. 
Quilligan,  Central  Branch,  Melbourne;  —  Henning,  Abbots- 
ford  Branch  St.  Patrick's  Society;  F.  B.  Keogh,  Hotham 
C.  Y.  M.  S. ;  P.  Cody,  St.  Patrick's  Society ;  James  Millar,  Cam- 
perdown;  P.  Fagan,  Victorian  Central  Branch;  M.  M'Donald, 
Victorian  Central  Branch;  J.  O'Grady,  Victorian  Central 
Branch;  P.  M'Cann,  Victorian  Central  Branch;  M.  Timmins. 

New  South  Wales 
T.  Flannery,  Vegetable  Creek;  P.  M'Cormack,  Glen  Innes; 
J.  J.  Dalton,  Orange;  Rev.  T.  Hanley,  Deniliquin;  P.  E. 
Fallon,  AlbuT}'-;  James  Gallagher,  Bathurst;  —  Kelleher, 
Bathurst;  Patrick  Murray,  Temora;  J.  M'Grath,  Prospect; 
E.  O'Farreil,  Prospect;  Daniel  Regan,  Tamworth;  George 
Maher,  West  Maitland;  Michael  Murray,  West  Maitland; 
Bernard  Gaffney,  Sydney;  J.  G.  O'Connor,  Sydney;  William 
Walshe,  Sydney;  F.  B.  Freehill,  M.A.,  Sydney;  Rev.  E.  J. 
Fallon,  Burrowa;  Rev.  William  M'Grath,  Young;  Very  Rev.  P. 
Dimne,  V.G.,  Wagga  Wagga;  D.  Dougharty,  Stanafa  and 
Tingha;  T.  Curry,  Sydney;  —  Burns,  Albury. 

Queensland 
Hon.  Dr.  O'Doherty,  M.L.C.,  President,  Brisbane  Branch 
and  Charters  Towers;  P.  O'SuUivan,  J.P.,  Ipswich  and  War- 
wick; C.  O'Loan,  J. P.,  Herberton;  M.  Collison,  Gympie;  P. 
Lillis,  J. P.,  Gympie;  Francis  M'Donnell,  Brisbane;  J.  Sul- 
livan, Ipswich. 

Tasmania 
James  Gray,  M.L.A.;  Charles  Galvin,   E.   O'Brien,   R.   G. 
Fitzsimons,  —  Sheehan,  —  Dillon,  P.  Tynan,  Launceston. 

New  Zealand 
M.  Landers,  Auckland;  M.  Sheehan,  Christchurch ;  L.  W. 
Gegan,  Christchurch;  P.  Foley,  Kumara; —  Flannigan,  New 
Zealand;    —  Browne,  J.  J.  Connor,  Dunedin. 

South  Australia 
Messrs.   Hewitt,   O'Loughlin,   Dixon,   M'Conville,  Whelan, 
and  Laffan. 

Prominent  public  men  of  Irish  extraction  wrote  approving 
of  the  objects  of  the  movement,  among  them  being  M.  H. 
Higgins,  M.L.A.,  of  Melbourne;  Mr.  John  Macrossan,  M.P.,  of 
Queensland;  Mr.  James  Toohey,  of  Sydney;  Rev.  J.  F. 
Rogers,  of  Ballarat,  and  others. 

387 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Mr.  Joseph  Winter  submitted  the  following  report  of  the 
work  done  by  the  envoys  and  the  league  branches  in  obtaining 
monetary  assistance  for  the  movement  in  Ireland: 

"Gentlemen, — It  gives  me  pleasure  to  submit  a  statement 
of  the  financial  affairs  of  the  league  since  its  inception  in 
Australia.  You  will  perceive  from  the  printed  balance 
sheets  that  the  statement  has  been  divided  into  two  parts. 
The  first  deals  with  the  mission  of  Mr.  Walshe,  the  pioneer  of 
the  movement,  and  refers  to  the  Irish  National  Land  League; 
and  the  other  contains  the  result  of  the  labors  of  Mr.  J.  E. 
Redmond,  Mr.  W.  Redmond,  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Walshe  in 
connection  with  the  Irish  National  League.  In  the  first 
statement  two  items  require  a  passing  notice.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  magnificent  sum  of  nearly  ^^^looo  collected  by 
the  Ladies'  Land  League,  established  by  Mr.  Walshe  during 
his  tour  through  the  colonies.  The  next  item  is  the  return 
from  an  art  union  which  was  organized  to  aid  the  funds  of 
the  league,  and  from  which  a  sum  of  /^io8i  45  7  J  was  realized. 
Before  the  arrival  of  the  Messrs.  Redmond  ;^6i3o  had  been 
remitted,  leaving  a  balance  of  ;^83o  165  ^d,  as  the  nucleus 
of  the  Irish  National  League  funds,  besides  some  large  sums 
in  the  hands  of  the  central  committees.  In  the  second 
balance  an  item  of  ;^2  2  15  ^d  appears  as  an  outstanding 
check.  This  check  was  a  remittance  from  the  Sandhurst 
branch,  and  was  either  lost  or  stolen  in  transmission  through 
the  post-office.  Payment  of  the  check  was  stopped,  and  I 
have  no  doubt  but  that  a  second  check  for  the  amount  will 
be  remitted. 

"The  total  amount  forwarded  to  Dublin  since  the  arrival 
of  the  Messrs.  Redmond,  in  February  last,  has  been  ;^i3,ooo, 
leaving  a  balance  of  ;^864  145  yd  in  my  hands,  and  it  is 
expected  that  this  will  be  increased  by  the  receipt  of  another 
;^iooo  from  New  Zealand.  Besides  these  amounts  some  large 
sums  have  been  sent  to  the  treasurers  in  Ireland,  which 
would  bring  the  amount  of  money  collected  in  Australia  up 
to  nearly  ;^25,ooo.  This  must  be  a  gratifying  fact  to  all  con- 
cerned. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  beg  to  bear  testimony  to  the  vast  amoimt 
of  energy,  labor,  and  perseverance  shown  by  the  envoys. 
Thanking  you,  gentlemen,  for  the  confidence  reposed  in  me 
in  the  past,  I  remain  yours  faithfully, 

"Joseph  Winter." 

Warm  and  generous  testimony  was  borne  by  all  the  speakers 
to  the  brilliant  work  that  had  been  done  by  the  Messrs. 

388 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

Redmond  in  the  various  cities  throughout  the  colonies  in 
which  they  had  spoken,  and  appropriate  thanks  were  voted 
them  by  the  assembled  delegates. 

Mr.  John  Redmond  spoke  as  follows  of  the  labors  of  Mr. 
Walshe  in  preparing  the  way  for  the  larger  mission  from 
Ireland : 

"He  wished  also  to  acknowledge  the  unselfish  support 
which  he  and  his  brother  received  from  Mr.  Walshe  and  Mr. 
Winter.  Probably  no  one  would  ever  know  the  labor  which 
Mr.  Walshe  had  devoted  to  the  work  which  brought  him  to 
Australia.  He  was  a  man  of  an  unobtrusive,  retiring  dis- 
position, but  he  worked  hard  and  quietly,  and  without  his 
co-operation  they  would  never  have  had  the  slightest  chance 
of  succeeding  as  they  had  done.  Another  element  of  success 
was  that  the  great  bulk  of  the  working  population  of  the 
Irish  in  Australia  were  thoroughly  sound  in  this  matter. 
He  had  received  from  them  an  enthusiastic  support  which 
he  could  never  forget." 

The  convention  voted  the  following  officers  and  regulations, 
and  then  adjourned: 

The  delegates  of  the  different  colonies  retired,  and  agreed 
to  the  following  representatives  in  the  federal  council: 
Victoria,  Mr.  J.  J.  Fitzgerald,  J. P.,  and  Mr.  H.  Rawson,  J. P.; 
New  South  Wales,  Very  Rev.  Dr.  Dunne  and  Messrs.  F. 
Freehill  and  J.  Toohey;  South  Australia,  Messrs.  William 
Dixon,  J.  A.  Hewitt,  and  H.  M'Conville;  Tasmania,  Messrs. 
Gray,  M.L.A.,  and  Fitzsimons;  Queensland,  Hon.  J.  Ma- 
crossan  and  Messrs.  Lillis  (Gympie)  and  P.  O'Sullivan,  J. P.; 
New  Zealand,  Messrs.  Perrin,  Landers,  and  Devereau;  St. 
Patrick's  Society,  Mr.  Louis  Kenyon. 

It  was  resolved: 

"That  Dr.  O'Doherty  (Queensland)  be  the  first  president, 
J.  G.  O'Connor  (New  South  Wales)  and  the  Hon.  F.  Longmore 
(Victoria)  vice-presidents;  Mr.  M.  M'Donald  (Victoria), 
honorary  secretary;  and  Mr.  J.  Winter  (Victoria),  honorary 
treasurer. 

"That  a  convention  of  delegates  from  all  branches  of  the 
league  be  held  annually ;  that  the  next  convention  be  held  in 
Sydney  in  September,  1884,  and  that  the  federal  council 
now  elected  shall  till  that  date  hold  office. 

"That  the  central  executive  committees  now  existing 
in  the  colonies  shall  each  have  authority  to  manage  all  local 
business  in  connection  with  the  league,  but  that  in  any 
crisis  of  Irish  affairs  calling  for  combined  action  on  the  part 
of  the  Irish  National  League  of  Australasia  the  federal 
council  alone  shall  have  power  to  direct  what  course  should 

389 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

be  taken ;  and  if  a  meeting  of  such  council  be  found  impracti- 
cable, the  officers  shall  be  empowered  to  take  the  votes  of  its 
members  by  proxy. 

"That  all  funds  shall  be  remitted  through  the  various 
central  committees  to  the  honorary  treasurer  of  the  federal 
council,  who  shall  be  charged  with  the  duty  of  periodically 
forwarding  the  same  to  the  treasurer  of  the  league  in 
Dublin." 

Dr.  O'Doherty,  in  dismissing  the  delegates,  said: 

"  He  had  never  altered  his  views.  In  Queensland  he  gener- 
ally found  himself  in  opposition  to  the  government,  which 
was  a  wholesome  sign.  If  the  people  of  Ireland  obtained  the 
liberty  which  we  enjoyed  here,  there  would  be  a  more  free, 
independent,  and  loyal  people  in  that  country.  The  best 
government  which  ever  held  office  in  Queensland,  and, 
perhaps  the  best  that  ever  existed  in  any  of  these  colonies, 
was  one  which  included  three  Irishmen,  two  of  whom  were 
Catholic  gentlemen — John  Macrossan  from  the  mountains 
of  Donegal,  and  another  gentleman  from  Tipperary.  There 
was  a  fifth  wheel  to  the  coach  in  the  form  of  one  Patrick 
O'Sullivan.  These,  with  a  couple  of  Scotchmen  and  an 
Australian  native,  made  up  a  ministry  of  unusual  ability,  who 
worked  steadily  and  in  harmony.  He  would  say,  in  con- 
clusion, that  a  more  respectable  assembly  he  had  never  had 
the  honor  to  preside  over  than  this  convention."^ 

A  subsequent  mission  to  Australia  by  Mr.  John  Dillon,  M.P., 
Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  M.P.,  and  the  late  Mr.  John  Deasy, 
M.P.,  will  be  briefly  referred  to  in  the  order  of  date. 

The  Messrs.  Redmond  returned  to  Ireland  by  way  of  the 
United  States  early  in  1884,  and  were  warmly  welcomed  by 
the  leagues  of  San  Francisco,  Chicago,  and  New  York,  in  each 
of  which  cities  they  delivered  addresses. 

On  arriving  home  they  were  presented  with  complimentary 
addresses  by  various  public  bodies,  and  eulogized  by  Mr. 
Parnell  for  their  successful  labors  at  the  antipodes. 

Mr.  John  W.  Walshe  made  the  city  of  Sydney  his  permanent 
residence,  where  he  still  lives. 


II.  — THE    NATIONAL    LEAGUE    OF    AMERICA 

The  fifth  convention  of  the  Land  League  and  first  of  the 
National  League  of  America  took  place  conjointly  in  Phila- 
delphia on  April  25,  26,  and  27,  1883.     The  Land  League  was 

^Melbourne  Advocate,  November,  1883. 
390 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

dissolved,  in  name,  after  the  first  day's  session,  and  revived 
under  that  of  the  National  League  of  America  on  the  second. 
There  were  eight  hundred  and  fifty-four  branches  of  the  Land 
League  represented  in  the  first  day's  proceedings,  and  a  total 
of  one  thousand  one  hundred  and  nine  delegates  present  at 
the  subsequent  sessions.  The  retiring  president,  Mr.  James 
Mooney,  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  voiced  the  feelings  of  the 
delegates  in  these  remarks: 

"We  are  here  to-day  chiefly  to  reorganize  upon  the  same 
basis  as  that  upon  which  the  new  National  League  in  Ireland 
stands.  We  shall  have  the  great  advantage  of  the  advice 
and  suggestions  of  one  who  helped  to  inaugurate  that  body, 
Thomas  Brennan,  of  Ireland.  In  it  are  joined  together  there 
all  who  can  lay  any  claim  to  patriotic  feeling — priests  and 
laymen.  Catholic  and  Protestant.  It  is  necessary  for  us  to 
be  affiliated  with  the  new  organization,  that  we  may  m^ore 
effectively  co-operate  with  our  brethren  in  Ireland.  How 
to  make  the  change  will  be  for  this  convention  to  deter- 
mine. 

"In  spite  of  England,  the  Irish-American  will  be  a  most 
important  factor  in  her  Irish  question  till  that  vexed  ques- 
tion shall  have  reached  solution.  From  sire  and  grandsire  we 
have  brought  down  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation  the 
tradition  of  a  long  score  of  grievances  to  lay  at  England's  door 
some  day  for  settlement.  It  has  been  truly  said  of  us  that 
we  'hate  England'  with  an  intensity  of  detestation  un- 
equalled by  any  class  of  Irishmen  in  Ireland.  Even  here 
she  still  imposes  burdens  on  us;  we  still  pay  tribute  to  the 
power  which  has  driven  us,  or  from  which  we  have  fled,  into 
exile,  for  yearly  the  poorest  among  us  pours  out  his  mite  in 
aid  of  kindred  she  oppresses.  Civilization  and  progress  have 
made  brighter,  happier,  and  better  the  homics  of  men  in  every 
land — save  Ireland  alone.  Since  first  the  English  set  foot 
within  her  border  to  the  present  time  the  same  cruelties, 
the  same  injustices  have  been  repeated  to  curse  and  blight  her. 
Silenced,  coerced,  crushed,  let  her  people  not  despair.  We 
are  untrammelled.  We  can  speak,  act,  organize  in  their 
behalf.  To  evolve  a  union  in  their  interests  from  all  the 
elements  that  make  up  our  race  in  America  we  are  here 
assembled  in  this  city.  Here,  whence  little  more  than  one 
hundred  years  ago  went  forth  those  glorious  words,  signed 
by  our  forefathers,  men  of  our  race  and  blood,  those  words 
that  have  fired  the  hearts  and  inspired  the  labors  of  freemen 
everywhere,  we  will  set  ourselves  unselfishly  and  patriotically 
to  this  task  of  union." 

The  delegates  who  took  part  in  the  convention  represented 

39^ 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

branches  of  the  league  in  the  following  American  States  and 
parts  of  Canada:  Alabama,  Colorado,  California,  Connecticut, 
Georgia,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Kansas,  Kentucky,  Louisiana, 
Maryland,  Maine,  Mississippi,  Missouri,  Michigan,  Minnesota, 
Massachusetts,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  New  Hampshire, 
Nevada,  Nebraska,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Rhode  Island,  South 
Carolina,  Texas,  Virginia,  Vermont,  Wisconsin,  Tennessee,  and 
District  of  Columbia;  Prince  Edward  Island,  Canada,  New 
Brunswick,  Nova  Scotia,  British  territory. 

The  report  read  by  Secretary  John  J.  Hynes  showed  that  a 
total  sum  of  $79,197  had  been  received  from  branches  and  in 
donations  since  the  previous  convention,  and  that  $74,123 
had  been  remitted  to  Treasurer  Egan,  Paris,  the  balance 
remaining  in  the  hands  of  the  American  treasurer.  Rev. 
Laurence  Walsh,  of  Waterbury. 

Messrs.  Patrick  Egan  and  Thomas  Brennan,  Land  League 
treasurer  and  secretary,  respectively,  were  present  at  the 
convention  and  addressed  the  assembly. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  convention  the  change  in  the 
name  of  the  league  was  effected.  The  credentials  of  the 
combined  delegates  were  duly  examined  by  a  committee, 
when  it  was  reported  that  one  thousand  one  Inmdred  and 
nine  were  entitled  to  take  part  in  the  business  of  the  united 
convention. 

The  following  cable  message  was  read  and  loudly  cheered : 

London,  April  26,  18S3. 
"My  presence  at  the  opening  of  the  most  representative 
convention  of  Irish-American  opinion  ever  assembled  being 
impossible,  owing  to  the  necessity  of  my  remaining  here  to 
oppose  the  Criminal  Code  Bill,  which  re-enacts  permanently 
the  worst  provisions  of  coercion,  and  which,  if  passed,  will 
leave  constitutional  movements  at  the  mercy  of  the  govern- 
ment, I  would  ask  you  to  lay  my  views  before  the  convention. 
I  would  respectfully  advise  that  your  platform  be  so  framed 
as  to  enable  us  to  continue  to  accept  help  from  America  and 
at  the  same  time  avoid  offering  a  pretext  to  the  British 
government  for  entirely  suppressing  the  national  movement 
in  Ireland.  In  this  way  only  can  unity  of  movement  be 
preserved  both  in  Ireland  and  America.  I  have  perfect 
confidence  that  by  prudence,  moderation,  and  firmness  the 
cause  of  Ireland  will  continue  to  advance,  and,  though  perse- 
cution rests  heavily  upon  us  at  present,  before  many  years 
have  passed  we  shall  have  achieved  those  great  objects  for 
which  through  many  centuries  our  race  has  struggled. 

"Charles  Stewart  Parnell." 
392 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

A  series  of  resolutions  arraigning  the  injustice  and  in- 
famy of  England's  government  in  Ireland  in  the  past,  and 
exposing  its  continued  unconstitutional  character  in  periodical 
resorts  to  coercion,  to  imprisonments  without  trial  in  political 
and  agrarian  offences,  and  in  the  abolition  of  trial  by  jury  in 
such  cases,  on  frequent  occasions,  in  the  present,  were 
adopted,  in  conjunction  with  the  following  declaration  of 
principles : 

"  Be  it  resolved  by  the  Irish-American  people,  in  convention 
assembled,  that  the  English  government  in  Ireland,  originating 
in  usurpation,  perpetuated  by  force,  having  failed  to  dis- 
charge any  of  the  duties  of  government,  never  having  ac- 
quired the  consent  of  the  governed,  has  no  moral  right  what- 
ever to  exist  in  Ireland,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Irish 
race  throughout  the  world  to  sustain  the  Irish  people  in 
the  employment  of  all  legitimate  means  to  substitute  for  it 
national  self-government. 

"That  we  pledge  our  unqualified  and  constant  support, 
moral  and  material,  to  our  countrymen  in  Ireland  in  their 
efforts  to  recover  national  self-government;  and,  in  order 
the  more  effectually  to  promote  this  object  by  the  consolida- 
tion of  all  our  resources  and  the  creation  of  one  responsible 
and  authoritative  body  to  speak  for  greater  Ireland  in 
America,  that  all  the  societies  represented  in  this  conven- 
tion, and  all  that  may  hereafter  comply  with  the  conditions 
of  admission,  be  organized  into  the  Irish  National  League 
of  America,  for  the  purpose  of  supporting  the  Irish  National 
League  of  Ireland,  of  which  Charles  Stewart  Parnell  is 
president." 

Mr.  Alexander  Sullivan,  of  Chicago,  was  elected  president 
of  the  renamed  league,  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  O'Reilly,  of  Detroit, 
as  treasurer,  vice  Rev.  L.  Walsh,  who  resigned. 

The  constitution  discussed  at  the  Astor  House  conference 
in  1882,  as  referred  to  in  a  previous  chapter,  was  with  some 
slight  modifications  adopted  as  that  of  the  National  League 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  and  a  council  representative 
of  each  State  and  of  British  territory  in  America  for  the 
government  of  the  organization  was  duly  elected,  as  follov/s: 
California,  Judge  M.  Cooney;  Connecticut,  James  Reynolds; 
Colorado,  J.  J.  O'Boyle;  Delaware,  James  A.  Bourke;  Georgia, 
J.  F.  Armstrong;  Illinois,  John  J.  Curran;  Indiana,  D.  J. 
Sullivan;  Iowa,  M.  V.  Gannon;  Kentucky,  William  M.  Collins; 
Louisiana,  John  Fitzpatrick;  Maryland,  Rev.  M.  J.  Brennan; 
Michigan,  John  C.  Donnelly;  Massachusetts,  Rev.  P.  A. 
McKenna;  Minnesota,  C.  M.  McCarthy;  Missouri,  Dr.  Thomas 
O'Reilly;  Maine,  J.  A.  Gallagher;  Nevada,  James  G.   Fair; 

393 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Nebraska,  P.  J.  Smith;  New  Hampshire,  John  Hayes;  New 
Jersey,  William  F.  O'Leary;  New  York,  Dr.  "William  B.  Wal- 
lace; Ohio,  William  J.  Gleason;  Pennsylvania,  M.  F.  Wilhere; 
Rhode  Island,  John  McElroy ;  South  Carolina,  M.  F.  Kennedy; 
Tennessee,  C.  J.  McCarty;  Vermont,  C.  J.  Wheeler;  Virginia, 
Patrick  McGovern;  Wisconsin,  J.  G.  Donnelly;  Arizona, 
Thomas  Fitch;  District  of  Columbia,  Peter  McCartney;  Can- 
ada, John  P.  Whelan. 

The  work,  temper,  and  outcome  of  the  convention  were 
pithily  recorded  in  the  head-lines  of  the  last  day's  report  in 
the  New  York  Herald  of  April  28th: 

UNITED 

HAPPi'    OUTCOME    OF    THE    GREAT    IRISH    CONVENTION 

A  Celtic  Federation 

The    Irish    National    League    of    America    Organized 

its  platform  and  purpose 

Stirring   Arraignment   of    English    Misgovernment   in 

Ireland 

its  robberies  and  tyrannies 

All  Irishmen  to  Unite  Against  Oppression — A  War  on 
English  Goods 

parnell  to  be  upheld 

Alexander    Sullivan,     of     Chicago,     President;    John 
Byrne,  of  Cincinnati,  Vice-President 

"  [By  telegraph  to  the  Herald] 

"  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  April  27,  1883. 
"  The  great  convention  of  the  Irish  race  is  over.  Its  work 
of  organizing  the  new  Irish  National  League  of  America  and 
putting  forth  a  platform  is  fairly  accomplished.  The  Land 
League  is  merged  in  the  new  body,  which  now  contains  hun- 
dreds of  societies  heretofore  acting  on  their  own  account  for 
Ireland's  good.  The  deliberations  were  for  the  most  part 
harmonious.  Dynamite  was  not  heard  of.  The  president 
of  the  new  organization,  Mr.  Alexander  Sullivan,  and  the 
vice-president.    Major   John    Byrne,    are   from    the    West — 

394 


THE    LEAGUE    IN    AUSTRALASIA 

the  first  from  Chicago,  the  second  from  Cincinnati — and  both 
are  popular  with  the  delegates,  who  seem  greatly  pleased  with 
the  outcome  of  their  deliberations.  The  management  of  a 
convention  of  nearly  twelve  hundred  members,  containing, 
too,  if  in  small  quantity,  some  very  fiery  material,  required 
delicate  judgment,  and  this  was  certainly  not  wanting." 

The  Chicago  Times  of  the  same  date  was  equal  to  its  New 
York  contemporary  in  a  spicy  summary  of  that  part  of  the 
proceedings  which  the  London  press  seized  upon  as  giving  a 
"dynamite  character"  to  the  Philadelphia  Irish-American 
parliament : 

"Then  came  the  fight  of  the  day.  The  nitro  -  glycerine 
folks  wanted  a  chance.  Rossa  had  a  speech  in  his  pocket; 
so  had  Sheridan.  Both  wanted  to  fire  them  off.  A  motion 
to  adopt  the  resolutions  as  a  whole  brought  out  a  dyna- 
mite man  from  Chicago,  who  denounced  gag  law  and  lashed 
the  convention  into  a  fury.  There  was  a  lively  time  for  a 
few  minutes.  A  hundred  men  were  on  their  feet  demand- 
ing to  be  heard,  and  cries  of  'Question!'  rang  out  from 
all  parts  of  the  hall.  The  chairman  pounded  his  table,  and 
like  a  whirlwind  the  dynamite  people  were  swept  from  their 
feet.  They  were  hopelessly  beaten.  After  this  scene  the 
committee  on  reorganization  reported,  and  the  articles  of 
the  new  league  were  received  with  loud  cries  of  approba- 
tion. The  platform  is  essentially  the  Dublin  platform. 
Then  came  the  nominations  for  president,  and  a  dozen  or 
so  prominent  names  were  brought  forward.  When  the  vote 
was  taken.  State  after  State  wheeled  into  line  for  Alexander 
Sullivan.  Time  and  time  again  he  protested,  but  cheers 
drowned  out  his  voice.  When  he  had  been  formally  de- 
clared elected  he  came  forward  on  the  stage  and  per- 
emptorily declined,  but  the  delegates  would  not  have  it 
so.  They  tabled  his  declination  and  fairly  drove  him  into 
the  office.  The  rest  of  the  session  was  harmonious  and 
devoid  of  interest,  and  with  the  election  of  the  other  officers 
the  convention  adjourned." 

The  "confederation"  which  Mr.  Parnell  had  dreaded  to 
sanction  after  the  Phoenix  Park  tragedy  was  adopted  in 
Philadelphia,  and  without  any  war  upon  his  more  con- 
stitutional policy  and  methods.  The  hitherto  conservative 
Land-Leaguers  of  the  United  States,  who  looked  to  Mr.  P.  A. 
Collins,  of  Boston,  and  to  Rev.  Dr.  Conat3^  of  Worcester,  as 
leaders,  joined  at  Philadelphia  with  the  more  extreme 
sections  in  a  united  organization;  Dr.  Conaty  being  one  of 
those  who  induced  Mr.  Sullivan  to  accept  the  presidency  of 
the  league. 

395 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

The  Irish  World  had  abandoned  the  support  of  Mr.  Parnell 
and  of  his  policy  after  the  Kihriainham  treaty,  and  adopted 
a  dynamite  propaganda,  in  retaHation  for  continued  Enghsh 
coercion.  Its  circulation  had  been  prohibited  by  Dublin 
Castle  in  Ireland  in  consequence.  Mr.  Ford's  followers  were, 
therefore,  not  represented  at  the  Philadelphia  congress  of 
Irish- Americans. 


CHAPTER  XXXII 
ROME    AND    IRELAND 

Early  in  this  year  (1883)  it  seemed  right  to  the  nationalists 
of  Ireland  to  present  to  Mr.  Parnell  some  substantial  recogni- 
tion of  his  services  to  the  country.  It  was  reported  that  his 
property  in  County  Wicklow  was  heavily  mortgaged,  and 
that  he  was  in  danger  of  being  financially  embarrassed 
thereby.  This  state  of  things  was  believed  to  be  in  some 
measure  due  to  his  undivided  attention  to  the  Irish  move- 
ment. The  savage  attack  made  upon  him  in  the  House  of 
Commons  by  Mr.  Forster  and  in  the  English  press  by  the 
league's  most  malignant  enemies  rendered  the  time  most 
opportune  for  a  testimonial  of  Ireland's  regard  for  the  man 
so  bitterly  assailed  by  England.  An  appeal  was  therefore 
issued  to  the  country  for  subscriptions.  A  fairly  generous 
response  was  being  made  by  the  people  when  the  following 
letter,  signed  by  the  Prefect  of  the  Propaganda  Fide,  and 
addressed  to  the  Irish  bishops,  astounded  the  public  of 
Ireland  and  delighted  that  of  Great  Britain  on  its  appearance 
in  the  press: 

"Whatever  may  be  the  case  as  regards  Mr.  Parnell  himself 
and  his  objects,  it  is  at  all  events  proved  that  many  of  his 
followers  have  on  many  occasions  adopted  a  line  of  conduct  in 
open  contradiction  to  the  rules  laid  down  by  the  supreme 
pontiff  in  his  letter  to  the  Cardinal  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
and  contained  in  the  instructions  sent  to  the  Irish  bishops  by 
this  sacred  congregation,  and  unanimously  accepted  by  them 
at  their  meeting  at  Dublin.  It  is  true  that,  according  to 
these  instructions,  it  is  lawful  for  the  Irish  to  seek  redress 
for  their  grievances  and  to  strive  for  their  rights;  but  always 
at  the  same  time  observing  the  divine  maxim  to  seek  first 
the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  justice,  and  remembering  also 
that  it  is  wicked  to  further  any  cause,  no  matter  how  just, 
by  illegal  means. 

"  It  is  therefore  the  duty  of  all  the  clergy,  and  especially  the 
bishops,  to  curb  the  excited  feelings  of  the  multitude,  and  to 
take  every   opportunity  with  timely  exhortation  to  recall 

397 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

them  to  the  justice  and  moderation  which  are  necessary  in 
all  things,  that  so  they  may  not  be  led  away  by  greed  of  gain 
to  mistake  evil  for  good  or  to  place  their  hopes  of  public 
prosperity  in  the  shame  of  criminal  acts.  Hence  it  follows 
that  it  is  not  permitted  to  any  of  the  clergy  to  depart  from 
these  rules  themselves,  or  to  take  part  in  or  in  any  way  to 
promote  movements  inconsistent  with  prudence  and  with 
the  duty  of  calming  men's  minds.  It  is  certainly  not  for- 
bidden to  collect  for  relief  of  distress  in  Ireland;  but,  at  the 
same  time,  the  aforesaid  apostolic  mandates  absolutely  con- 
demn such  collections  as  are  raised  in  order  to  inflame  popular 
passions,  and  to  be  used  as  means  for  leading  men  into  re- 
bellion against  the  laws.  Above  all  things,  they  (the  clergy) 
must  hold  themselves  aloof  from  such  subscriptions,  when 
it  is  plain  that  hatred  and  dissensions  are  aroused  by  them; 
that  distinguished  persons  are  loaded  with  insults ;  that  never 
in  any  way  are  censures  pronounced  against  the  crimes  and 
murders  with  which  wicked  men  stain  themselves;  and 
especially  when  it  is  asserted  that  the  measure  of  true  patriot- 
ism is  in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  money  given  or  refused, 
so  as  to  bring  the  people  under  the  pressure  of  intimidation. 

"Quibus  positis,  it  must  be  evident  to  your  lordships  that 
the  collection  called  the  '  Parnell  Testimonial  Fund '  cannot 
be  approved  by  this  sacred  congregation,  and  consequently 
it  cannot  be  tolerated  that  any  ecclesiastic,  much  less  a 
bishop,  should  take  any  part  whatsoever  in  recommending 
or  promoting  it. 

"Meanwhile  we  pray  God  long  to  preserve  your  lordship. 

"Rome,  May  ii,   18S3." 

A  feeling  of  intense  indignation  swept  through  the  country 
at  this  attack  upon  the  Protestant  leader  of  a  people  whose 
Catholicity  was  being  used  as  a  cover  for  an  unwarranted 
interference  in  their  political  and  national  concerns.  It  was 
at  once,  and  rightly,  divined  that  England's  hand  was  behind 
this  action,  and  that  it  was  to  subserve  some  ulterior  purpose 
that  Rome  was  thus  made  a  cat's-paw  of  by  a  power  that 
had  been  the  deadly  enemy  alike  of  the  fatherland  and  faith 
of  the  mass  of  the  Irish  people.  This  feeling  was  aggravated 
by  the  exultation  and  mockery  of  the  British  press  at  the 
open  assumption  of  a  high  Propaganda  dignitary  of  the  right 
to  meddle  in  the  national  affairs  of  Ireland.  The  name  of  the 
sovereign  pontiff  was  so  used  as  to  assert  a  power  to  permit 
or  refuse  the  right  of  the  people  of  Ireland  to  seek  redress 
for  grievances  or  to  assert  their  right  to  such  reforms  as 
their  country  required  for  its  progress  and  prosperity.     The 

398 


ROME    AND    IRELAND 

language  of  the  letter  was  likewise  insulting  in  its  terms 
towards  "  Parnell  himself  and  his  objects,"  and  this  was 
hotly  resented. 

It  was  bitterly  remembered,  too,  that  this  was  no  less  than 
the  third  interference  of  the  same  or  similar  kind  made  in  the 
politics  of  Ireland  under  the  guise  of  a  moral  concern  for  our 
spiritual  welfare  since  the  Land  League  movement  began. 
In  1881  we  were  admonished  "to  obey  the  laws,"  while  one 
thousand  of  us  were  in  prison  without  trial.  In  1882  in- 
structions from  the  Sacred  Congregation  of  the  Propaganda 
ordered  the  entire  hierarchy  of  Ireland  to  assemble,  and  to 
issue  admonitions  against  the  Ladies'  Land  League  and  the 
participation  of  curates  in  meetings  without  due  permission 
from  their  superiors,  and  otherwise  to  discourage  clerical 
support  of  the  agitation  which  had  already  won  the  Land 
Act  of  1 88 1.  The  "Qualecumque  de  Parnellio"  document 
was  worse  still,  from  its  assumption  of  a  sovereign  right 
to  determine  what  Ireland's  political  weapons  and  concerns 
should  be,  and  the  contemptuous  allusions  made  therein  to 
the  leader  of  the  Irish  nation  and  his  followers. 

The  whole  country  took  fire.  There  was  a  spontaneous  out- 
burst of  indignant  protest  from  all  quarters  of  nationalist 
Ireland,  and  the  word  went  round,  "Make  Peter's  pence  into 
Parnell's  pounds."  Instinctively  this  was  done.  People 
who  had  subscribed  already  doubled  their  donations.  Numbers 
who  probably  had  not  thought  of  aiding  the  testimonial  came 
forward  to  do  so  in  obedience  to  the  national  sentiment, 
which  rebelled  against  England's  attempt  to  have  her  purposes 
served  in  Ireland  through  the  loyalty  of  the  Catholic  Irish 
to  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church.  The  feeling  that  was 
stirred  up  among  even  the  peasantry  by  the  intrigue  which 
had  produced  this  letter  was  well  illustrated  in  the  remark 
made  by  an  old  Tipperary  woman  to  Archbishop  Croke: 

"Arrah,  yer  Grace,"  said  the  old  lad3%  "i^  it  true  that  the 
English  are  trying  to  make  a  Protestant  of  the  Pope?" 

The  Parnell  testimonial  had  reached  a  sum  of  about  £1 2 ,000 
when  the  Propaganda  manifesto  appeared.  It  looked  as  if  the 
fund  would  barely  touch  the  figure  of  £20,000,  the  amount 
which  the  promoters  had  anticipated  being  able  to  raise.  The 
mortgage  on  the  Avondale  estate  was  some  £1^,000,  and  it 
was  expected  that  £7000  above  that  figure  would  make  a 
generous  presentation  to  Mr.  Parnell  for  his  services.  Noth- 
ing could  have  been  more  fortunate  for  the  languishing  fund 
than  the  attack  from  Rome.  Subscriptions  rushed  in  from 
all  quarters,  until,  finally,  a  sum  of  £'39,000  was  obtained  as 
a  protest  of  the  most  emphatic  kind  against  the  Propaganda 

399 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

intervention.  And  it  Is,  I  believe,  on  record  that  the  col- 
lection in  Ireland  for  Peter's  pence  in  the  same  year  was  the 
lowest  that  had  been  made  during  the  generation. 

Before,  however,  the  success  of  the  testimonial  had  been  so 
completely  achieved,  in  a  manner  thus  doubly  creditable  to  a 
Catholic  people,  Archbishop  Croke,  who  had  been  con- 
spicuous in  his  generous  support  of  it,  was  summoned  ad 
audicndum  verbiim  to  Rome.  The  English  press  commented 
upon  this  summons  with  unctuous  satisfaction.  He  had  been 
"the  Land  -  League  archbishop."  Miss  Pamell  and  her 
courageous  lady  associates  during  the  coercionist  reign  of 
terror  in  1881-82  had  been  defended  and  lauded  by  him  for 
their  services  and  patriotism,  while  he  had  been  in  other 
ways  a  fearless,  outspoken  enemy  of  landlordism.  The 
rumor  of  his  intended  humiliation  for  the  part  he  had  played 
in  Ireland  was,  therefore,  a  promised  triumph  for  English 
influence  over  Irish  in  Rome,  and  was  gloated  over  by  the 
entire  British  press. 

Dr.  Croke  gave  me  an  interesting  account  of  his  experiences 
in  Rome  shortly  after  his  arrival  back  in  Ireland.  His 
Holiness  Pope  Leo  had  received  him  in  a  most  unfriendly 
manner.  He  examined  him  with  reference  to  his  advocacy 
of  the  movement  led  by  Parnell  and  the  attacks  which  he 
(the  archbishop)  had  made  upon  Dr.  McCabe  after  the  head 
of  the  see  of  Dublin  had  censured  the  Ladies'  Land  League, 
winding  up  with  the  charge  that  he  (Dr.  Croke)  had  been 
complained  of  to  his  Holiness  as  "a  kind  of  Irish  Garibaldi 
against  law  and  authority." 

This  last  shot  roused  the  fiery  Celt  in  the  accused  archbishop, 
who  at  once  flung  back  this  crushing  rejoinder:  "Well,  Holy 
Father,  all  I  need  say,  in  that  connection,  is  this:  If  Gari- 
baldi had  the  same  amount  of  support  from  the  priests  and 
people  of  Italy  behind  him  that  I  have  had  in  the  stand  I 
have  taken  against  landlordism  and  English  injustice  in 
Ireland,  it  no  longer  surprises  me  to  find  your  Holiness  a 
prisoner  in  the  Vatican."  This  retort  went  home.  Pope 
Leo  had  a  real  liking  and  admiration  for  the  Irish  people,  and 
did  not  fail  to  recognize  the  honesty  of  character  and  purpose 
which  lay  behind  the  courage  of  this  reply.  Dr.  Croke  was 
then  invited  to  offer  his  views,  and  to  give  information  upon 
the  condition  of  Ireland,  and  the  interview  which  began  in  a 
threatened  storm  ended  without  any  mark  of  censure  or 
humiliation  being  inflicted  upon  the  stout-hearted  Irish 
prelate.  He  returned  forthwith  to  Ireland,  and  took  the 
first  available  opportunity  after  landing  to  declare,  both 
to    England    and    Rome,   that    he    came    back   "  imchanged 

400 


ROME    AND    IRELAND 

and  unchangeable"  in  all  his  convictions  on  the  Irish 
question. 

The  interferences  of  Rome  in  Irish  affairs  of  a  non-religious 
nature  have  been  invariably  antagonistic  and  injurious,  either 
in  their  direct  motives  or  indirect  consequences.  Ireland, 
in  fact,  has  been  treated  as  if  she  stood  in  the  relation  of  a 
semi  -  temporal  fief  to  the  holy  see.  The  greatest  of  all 
Ireland's  evils  and  misfortunes  were  due  to  the  action  of  one 
of  the  popes,  who  commissioned  King  Henry  II.,  of  England, 
to  invade  and  subdue  the  country.  "The  honor  and  glory  of 
God"  was,  probably,  the  pretext  of  this  commission.  The 
results,  unfortunately,  would  lead  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  enemy  of  mankind's  salvation,  rather  than  the  glory  of 
our  Redeemer,  was  more  served  in  the  acts  of  conquest  and 
aggression  which  drew  their  justification  from  the  bull  of 
Pope  Nicholas  Brakespeare.  Be  that  as  it  may,  the  secular 
or  political  effects  upon  Ireland  of  Roman  intervention  in  our 
struggles  to  regain  the  right  of  nationhood  of  which  we  were 
thus  despoiled,  have  generally  been  selfish,  short-sighted,  or 
unfair. 

True,  one  of  our  poets  has  sung: 

"There's  wine  from  the  royal  Pope 
Upon  the  ocean  green." 

But  histor}^  teaches  us  that  popes  Paul  V.,  Urban  VIIL,  and 
Innocent  X.  were  friendly  to  the  Irish  rebellious  chiefs, 
because  many  if  not  most  of  those  were  fighting  for  the  cause 
of  the  Church  in  Ireland  and  in  Great  Britain  as  much  if  not 
more  than  for  that  of  Irish  freedom  from  England's  rule. 
In  other  words,  it  was  resistance  to  her  own  enemies  which 
Rome  encouraged  in  Ireland.  Faith  as  well  as  fatherland 
was,  in  a  sense,  involved  in  the  struggles  which  triumphed 
at  Benburb  and  succumbed  in  the  surrender  of  the  treaty 
of  Limerick — when  Sarsfield  took  more  Irish  troops  from 
Ireland  to  the  service  of  a  deposed  Catholic  English  king 
abroad  than  would  free  his  country,  if  he  and  they  would 
only  fight  for  her  liberty.  But  no  pope  has  ever  lent  direct 
aid,  in  wine  or  in  weapons,  or  indirect  encouragement  of  any 
kind,  to  the  cause  of  an  independent  Irish  nation. 

Edmund  Burke  urged  Pitt  to  emancipate  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland,  otherwise  they  would  join  the  Protestant  United- 
Irishmen  conspiracy  hatched  in  Belfast.  Pitt  promised 
Archbishop  Troy  and  the  Irish  bishops  he  would  do  this, 
and  on  the  strength  of  this  insidious  pledge  the  Catholic 
hierarchy  were  parties  to  the  sale  of  the  Irish  Parliament. 
Wolfe  Tone  and  the  men  who  could  have  liberated  the  country 
26  401 


r  H  E  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

at  the  time,  had  there  been  any  patriotism  among  the  bishops 
and  priests  of  the  period,  were  thrown  over  for  English 
promises,  and  Archbishop  Troy  and  his  pro-English  con- 
spirators got  their  reward  in  the  usual  English  breach  of 
faith  in  engagements  based  upon  their  proverbial  deception 
and  treachery.  When  emancipation  did  come  it  was  granted 
through  a  fear  of  insurrection,  in  which  the  bishops  would 
have  played  no  part,  and  not  in  any  decent  desire  to  redeem 
the  broken  pledge  of  the  chief  architect  of  the  Act  of  Union. 

O'Connell's  immortal  dictum,  that  while  he  would  accept 
his  faith  from  Rome  he  would  no  more  take  his  politics 
from  there  than  from  Stamboul,  reflected  the  independent 
character  of  Irish  nationalism.  The  great  tribune's  defeat 
of  the  Quarantotti  intrigue  to  place  the  independence  of  the 
Irish  Catholic  bishops  at  the  mercy  of  an  English  govern- 
ment w^as  a  blow  delivered  at  a  direct  attempt  on  the  part  of 
Rome  to  make  the  Church  in  Ireland  subservient  to  a  com- 
bined English  and  Vatican  political  policy.  It  was  a  blow, 
however,  which  probably  served  the  cause  of  Catholicity 
much  more  than  that  of  Irish  nationalism. 

In  more  modern  times  Vatican  policy  towards  Ireland  has 
been  almost  entirely  influenced  by  the  intrigue  of  certain 
English  ecclesiastics  always  resident  in  Rome.  They  are  only 
a  few,  but  they  are  able  men,  both  in  diplomacy  and  in 
linguistic  accomplishments.  They  are  constantly  in  touch 
with  the  English  embassy  in  the  Eternal  City,  and  are  the 
mediums  through  whom  communications  are  made  when 
Catholic  affairs  in  India,  or  in  some  other  part  of  the  British 
Empire  outside  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  call  for  negotia- 
tion with  the  imperial  government.  They  consequently  wield 
much  influence  in  Propaganda  circles,  and  being  English 
Tories  they  are  avowed  enemies  of  Home  Rule.  It  was 
through  these  sources  and  corresponding  anti  -  nationalist 
Catholic  circles  in  Dublin  that  the  various  pronouncements 
and  rescripts  against  the  Land  League  were  obtained  on  a 
onesided  and  prejudiced  representation  of  the  causes  which 
led  to  certain  events  in  Ireland  from  1881  to  the  plan  of 
campaign. 

For  this  state  of  things  in  Rome  the  Irish  hierarchy  are, 
by  omission  of  duty  to  Ireland,  entirely  responsible.  They 
never  assert  themselves  there  in  any  Irish  national  sense. 
There  are  probably  not  one  hundred  thousand  Catholics  of 
English  blood  in  the  whole  Catholic  population  of  Christen- 
dom. There  are,  on  the  other  hand,  within  the  British 
Empire,  fully  ten  million  CathoHcs,  and  eight  out  of  every 
ten  of  these  are  of  Irish  blood.     In    the   United  States  the 

402 


ROME    AND    IRELAND 

Irish  are  a  vast  majority  of  the  Catholic  citizens  of  the 
great  repubHc.  There  must  be  a  milHon  of  these  to  every 
thousand  Cathohcs  who  are  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  In 
Australasia  and  in  South  Africa,  as  in  England  and  Scotland, 
the  Irish  have  been  the  missionary  agencies  for  spreading 
the  faith  of  Rome,  and  the  generous  creators  of  the  countless 
churches,  convents,  and  schools  which  have  been  erected 
there  by  their  means  during  the  past  eighty  years. 

But,  despite  all  this,  the  representatives  in  Rome  of  the 
one  hundred  thousand  English  Catholics  are  a  hundred  times 
more  politically  influential  than  all  the  bishops  of  Irish  par- 
entage that  have  to  pay  their  periodical  visits  to  the  supreme 
pastor  of  the  Catholic  faith.  In  fact,  the  English  resident 
prelates  and  monsignori  in  Rome  modestly  take  credit  to  their 
nation  and  race  for  the  phenomenal  expansion  of  the  Church 
on  three  (more  or  less)  English-speaking  continents,  where 
(barring  the  French  Canadians)  there  would  not  be  a  hundred 
pounds  a  year  subscribed  for  Peter's  pence  had  no  Irish  ever 
found  their  way  to  America,  Australia,  or  South  Africa. 

Archbishop  Croke  was  the  solitary  Irish  prelate  who  had 
the  courage  in  the  present  generation  to  assert  himself  in 
Rome  as  an  Irishman,  but  he  never  visited  Rome  again 
after  his  "trial"  there,  on  an  English  accusation,  in  1883. 
The  Irish  prelates  of  our  time  are  a  truly  submissive  and  lais- 
sez-faire order  of  churchmen.  A  very  few  of  them  are  moder- 
ate nationalists.  The  majority  are,  if  the  truth  were  known, 
more  against  than  for  Home  Rule.  When  in  Rome  they  are 
treated  as  ciphers.  They  count  as  nothing  against  the  three 
or  four  able  English  ecclesiastics  who  hold  the  fort  there  for 
England's  interests.  Not  a  single  one  of  Ireland's  episcopate 
ever  dreams  of  the  racial  rights  or  claims  or  dignity  of  the 
great  missionary  people  he  represents — the  greatest  mission- 
ary force  of  the  whole  Catholic  Church  —  as  against  the 
attitude  and  pretensions  of  the  few  truly  patriotic  English 
churchmen,  who  never  lose  a  single  opportunity  of  furthering 
their  country's  interests  and  of  misrepresenting  the  political 
aims  and  movements  of  the  race  who  are  striving  to  achieve 
the  social  welfare  and  political  redem.ption  of  Ireland.  And 
Rome  treats  these  truly  complacent  Irish  prelates  with  the 
indifference  which  their  want  of  racial  patriotism  and  of 
personal  force  and  of  capacity  merits  at  her  hands. 

It  now"  transpires  that  what  was  diplomatically  asserted  by 
the  Liberal  ministry  from  1881  to  1885 — namely,  that  the 
Errington  mission  to  Rome  in  these  years  was  a  mere  in- 
dividual enterprise  and  not  even  indirectly  official,  was  in 
reality  untrue.     An  underhand  negotiation,  known   to    and 

403 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISxM    IN    IRELAND 

sanctioned  by  the  English  government  against  the  Irish 
movement  and  leaders,  was  in  full  activity  during  these 
years. 

Mr.  Morley,  in  his  Life  of  Gladstone,^  quotes  the  Liberal 
prime-minister's  letter  to  Cardinal  Newman,  with  the  prefatory 
remarks:  "Executive  violence  (the  Forster  coercion  act) 
did  not  seem  to  work,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  looked  in  a  natural 
direction  for  help  in  the  milder  way  of  persuasion.  He  wrote 
(December  17,  1881)  to  the  cardinal: 

"  '  I  will  begin  with  defining  strictly  the  limits  of  this  appeal. 
I  ask  you  to  read  the  enclosed  papers,  and  to  consider  whether 
you  will  write  anything  to  Rome  upon  them.  I  do  not  ask 
you  to  write,  nor  to  tell  me  whether  you  do  write,  nor  to 
make  any  reply  to  this  letter,  beyond  returning  the  en- 
closures in  an  envelope  to  me  in  Downing  Street.  I  will  state 
briefly  the  grounds  of  my  request,  thus  limited.  In  1844, 
when  I  v/as  young  as  a  cabinet  minister,  and  the  government 
of  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  troubled  with  the  O'Connell  mani- 
festations, they  made  what  I  think  was  an  appeal  to  Pope 
Gregory  XVI.  for  his  intervention  to  discourage  agitation 
in  Ireland.  I  should  be  very  loath  now  to  tender  such  a 
request  at  Rome.  But  now  a  different  case  arises.  Some 
inembers  of  the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood  in  Ireland  deliver 
certain  sermons  and  otherwise  express  themselves  in  the 
way  which  my  enclosures  exhibit.  I  doubt  whether  if  they 
were  laymen  we  should  not  have  settled  their  cases  by  putting 
them  in  jail.  I  need  not  describe  the  sentiments  uttered. 
Your  eminence  will  feel  them  and  judge  them  as  strongly 
as  I  do.  But  now  as  to  the  supreme  pontiff:  you  will  hardly 
be  surprised  when  I  say  that  I  regard  him,  if  apprised  of  the 
facts,  as  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  these  priests.  For  I 
know  perfectly  well  that  he  has  the  means  of  silencing  them, 
and  that  if  any  one  were  in  public  to  dispute  the  decrees 
of  the  council  of  1870,  as  plainly  as  he  has  denounced  law  and 
order,  he  would  be  silenced. 

"  'Mr.  Errington,  who  is  at  Rome,  will,  I  believe,  have  seen 
these  papers,  and  will,  I  hope,  have  brought  them  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  his  Holiness.  But  I  do  not  know  how  far  he  is  able, 
nor  how  he  may  use  his  discretion.  He  is  not  our  official 
servant,  but  an  independent  Roman  Catholic  gentleman, 
and  a  volunteer.'  " 

Mr.  Morley  adds:  "The  cardinal  replied  that  he  would 
gladly  find  himself  able  to  be  of  service,  however  slight  it 
might  be,  in  a  political  crisis  which  must  be  felt  as  of  a  grave 

*  Vol,  ill.,  pp.  62,  63. 
404 


ROME    AND    IRELAND 

anxiety  by  all  who  understand  the  blessing  of  national  unity 
and  peace." 

This  intrigue  with  the  Pope,  behind  the  backs  of  the  Irish 
hierarchy  and  people,  was  altogether  in  keeping  with  Eng- 
land's traditional  conduct  towards  Ireland.  The  Catholicity 
of  the  country  was  to  be  used  as  a  handmaid  to  coercion. 
Rome  was  to  act  as  an  emergency  magistrate  for  the  punish- 
ment of  Land -League  clerics,  whose  sermons  were  reported 
in  stealth  by  spies  of  Dublin  Castle  taking  part  in  the  re- 
ligious services  of  congregations.  And  these  reports,  thus 
secured,  were  to  be  exhibited  in  Rome  to  procure  from  there 
a  verdict  without  trial,  on  ex-parte  statements,  corresponding 
to  the  verdicts  given  under  the  law  of  Edward  III.  in  Ireland, 
which  dispensed  with  the  risky  formality  of  a  jury. 

Mr.  Morley's  revelation  also  discloses  the  fact  that  the 
greatest  Catholic  layman  of  his  century,  the  emancipator 
of  his  Irish  and  English  coreligionists,  was  likewise  sought 
to  be  silenced  by  an  English  government  through  the  medium 
of  the  very  faith  which  he  had  freed  from  the  shackles  of 
England's  penal  laws!  In  fact,  England  has  never  been 
ashamed  to  invoke  the  assistance  of  a  spiritual  power,  whom 
she  compels  her  monarchs  to  swear  represents  a  superstitious 
and  idolatrous  faith,  to  assist  England's  "work  in  Ireland; 
while  that  same  spiritual  power  never  seems  to  have  resented 
being  thus  made  use  of  by  the  most  malignant  of  all  its 
opponents  against  the  most  loyal  and  devoted  of  its  fol- 
lowers and  friends  among  the  Christian  nations  of  the 
world. 

Undeterred  by  the  spirited  rebuff  given  by  the  Catholics  of 
Ireland  to  the  Anglo-Roman  attack  upon  the  Parnell  tes- 
timonial, a  still  greater  blunder  was  committed  a  few  years 
later  in  the  rescript  issued  against  "the  plan  of  campaign." 
In  this  instance  a  Tory  government  was  in  power,  but  the 
politics  of  England's  agents  in  Rome  never  change.  They 
always  remain  steadfastly  anti-Irish.  Lord  Salisbury  had 
declared  the  most  loyal  of  Catholic  peoples  to  be  on  a  par 
with  African  Hottentots  in  their  unfitness  for  self-govern- 
ment. The  race  that  had  carried  the  creed  of  Rome  round 
the  world  and  had  planted  its  seeds  in  every  land  was  to  be 
subjected  to  twenty  years  of  resolute  coercion  at  home  by 
the  Tory  premier.  But  neither  the  spiritless  chiefs  of  the 
Catholic  faith  in  Ireland  nor  the  head  of  the  Church  in  Rome 
took  it  as  an  insult  that  this  descendant  of  the  Cecils  of 
Queen  Elizabeth's  reign  should  request  a  papal  rescript  as  a 
kind  of  postscript  to  Mr.  Balfour's  coercion. 

Cardinal  Monaco,  acting  entirely  on  a  pro-English  or  pro- 

405 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

landlord  brief,  issued  his  responsive  manifesto  against  an 
Irish  method  of  political  warfare  on  these  four  grounds: 

The  plan  of  campaign  *  was  wrong  because: 

First.  It  interfered  with  "freedom  of  contract"  between 
Irish  tenant  and  Irish  landlord. 

Secondly.  The  Irish  tenants  were  free  to  enter  the  land 
courts,  where  rents  could  be  adjudicated  upon  "fairly  and 
justly." 

Thirdly.  Tenants  joining  the  plan  of  campaign  "were 
forced"  to  pay  their  quota  of  the  rent  to  others  than  the 
rightful  parties;  and 

Fourthly.  Boycotting  was  a  weapon  of  the  plan  of  cam- 
paign which  was  contrary  to  Christian  charity,  and  which 
prevented  tenants  from  taking  farms  that  were  lying  vacant. 

It  was  quite  a  secondary  matter,  though  a  very  serious 
consideration  indeed,  that  not  in  the  instance  of  a  single 
one  of  these  grounds  did  the  actual  facts  justify  the  con- 
clusions on  which  the  condemnation  was  based.  The  first 
and  essential  matter,  however,  was  what  right  had  Cardinal 
Monaco  or  the  sacred  congregation  in  Rome  to  sit  as  a 
supreme  judge  upon  Irish  political  modes  of  action  in  a 
struggle  against  English  institutions  and  laws  in  Ireland? 
From  whom  did  the  authority  emanate?  No  Pope  has  any 
such  authority  from  the  Irish  people  in  virtue  of  his  head- 
ship of  the  Catholic  faitli.  The  old  contention  around  the 
word  "morals,"  and  the  claim  thereby  set  up  that  the 
Cliurch  has  a  right  to  determine  what  is  right  or  wrong 
in  politics,  has  never  been  admitted  and  never  obeyed  by 
any  Catholic  nation,  since  enfranchised  peoples  in  constitu- 
tionally governed  countries  settle  for  themselves  who  shall  and 
shall  not  make  the  laws  of  the  land.  Such  a  claim,  if  ever 
admitted  by  the  Irish  people,  would  necessarily  have  a 
twofold  appHcation:  It  would  judge  and  condemn  what 
was  "contrary  to  morals"  in  English  government  and  in 
Irish  landlordism  equally  with  what  was  contrary  to  Catholic 
teaching  in  the  principles  of  Land  Leagues  and  in  the  opera- 
tions of  plans  of  campaign.  But  no  rescripts  or  condemna- 
tions are  ever  issued  by  Pope  or  by  sacred  congregations 
against  a  blasphemous  oath  by  an  English  king  against  the 
faith  of  an  Irish  Catholic  people;  or  against  the  packing  of 
Irish  juries  by  the  insulting  exclusion  of  Catholics,  as  such, 
therefrom  in  political  or  agrarian  cases;  or  against  the 
systematic  robbery  of  a  tenant's  property  in  rack-renting; 
or  against  the  destruction  of  Irish  homes  in  wholesale  evic- 

'  See  Chapter  XLII. 
406 


ROME    AND    IRELAND 

tion;  or  against  the  shooting  down  of  peasants  at  Ballaghade- 
reen,  women  at  Behniillet,  and  of  inoffensive  men  at  a 
Mitchelstown  meeting — all  within  the  Land  League  period — 
by  a  lawless  police  force.  No.  Crimes  of  this  kind,  against 
the  people,  would  never  raise  in  Roman  censure  a  little 
finger  of  the  watchful  Propaganda.  England  would  be 
offended.  It  is  only  when  the  Irish  nation  become  a  trouble 
to  England  and  a  menace  to  her  unjust  authority  in  Ireland, 
in  movements  which  are  invariably  justified  by  their  results, 
that  Rome  can  be  induced  to  utilize  the  prestige  of  the  Church 
and  the  weight  of  her  moral  authority  as  factors  in  the 
Anglo-Irish  struggle.  And  it  always  happens  that  this  in- 
fluence is  thrown  into  the  scale  against  the  movements  in 
which  the  Irish  people  seek  the  redress  of  their  social  or 
political  wrongs. 

The  secret  opposition  of  Rome  to  Home  Rule  is  not  at 
all  appreciated  in  its  right  motives  in  popular  British  politics. 
The  silly  fiction  about  Home  Rule  meaning  "Rome  Rule" 
for  Ireland  has  served  a  twofold  anti-Irish  end  very  effective- 
ly so  far.  It  has  inflamed  extreme  Protestant  minds  against 
the  rational  demands  of  the  Irish  people,  while  at  the  same 
time  furthering  the  best  interests  of  Vatican  policy  in  securing 
the  continued  presence  of  some  eighty  Catholic  members 
in  the  otherwise  most  exclusively  Protestant  Parliament 
in  the  world.  It  is  known  right  well  by  EnglivSh  Catholics 
of  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  order,  and  in  Rome,  too,  that  the 
transference  of  the  Irish  representation  from  Westminster 
to  Ireland  would  mean  the  exclusion  of  almost  all  Catholic 
power  and  influence  from  the  House  of  Commons.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  National  Assembly  in  Dublin  would  give 
prominence  to  the  existence  of  a  strong  Protestant  minority 
in  what  is  believed  in  Europe  to  be  an  exclusively  Catholic 
country.  Against  this  danger  to  Catholic  interests  in  Eng- 
land even  Cardinal  Manning,  stanch  and  true  friend  of 
Ireland  as  he  was,  intrigued  with  the  worst  of  our  English 
Catholic  opponents  in  1886.  Those,  in  fact,  who  know  the 
trend  and  purpose  of  Vatican  policy  in  relation  to  the  British 
Empire  are  aware  that  no  Ulster  Orangeman  looks  in  his 
bigoted  ignorance  with  more  dislike  on  Home  Rule  for  Ire- 
land than  do  the  learned  and  ever-watchful  members  of  the 
Sacred  College  of  Propaganda  at  Rome,  with  their  quenchless 
hope  of  seeing  England  won  back  again  to  the  yearning  folds 
of  her  ancient  faith. 

Destiny  may  surely  be  said  to  have  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  its  malign  interventions  in  Ireland's  endless 
struggles  and  trials  for  the  recovery  of  her  racial  nationhood, 

407 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

when  the  creed  to  which  she  has  been  attached  in  unique 
and  matchless  loyalty,  and  for  which  she  has  spurned  a 
proffered  freedom  at  the  price  of  faith,  should  be  made  use 
of  by  England  in  her  insidious  and  stealthy  relations  with 
Rome  as  a  last  attempt  to  undermine  the  equally  undying 
fidelity  of  the  Celtic  race  to  the  political  religion  of  national 
liberty. 

The  results  of  the  Persico  mission  and  of  the  rescript 
against  the  plan  of  campaign  were  nil  so  far  as  Irish  popular 
opinion  went.  England's  hand  was  seen  behind  it  all,  and 
remarks  more  resentful  than  reverent  were  made  in  thousands 
of  quarters  where  there  could  be  no  question  of  Catholic 
sincerity  or  of  disrespect  towards  religion.  It  was  felt  that 
while  the  learned  and  pious  monsignori  of  the  Sacred  College 
were  unassailable  in  their  own  domain  of  dogma,  they  were 
very  unsafe  guides  in  the  matter  of  what  was  a  fair  rent  in 
Ireland,  and  very  unreliable  in  their  estimate  of  the  amount 
of  justice  which  resided  in  a  Castle  court  of  law  for  an  Irish 
Catholic  litigant.  Boycotting  might  be  an  extreme  pro- 
ceeding in  a  politico-social  conflict,  but  the  weapon  was  not 
first  heard  of,  except  in  its  new  name,  in  Ireland.  No  power 
on  earth  had  so  remorselessly  inflicted  the  penalty  of  social 
ostracism  for  resistance  to  the  Church's  decrees  as  the  Church 
herself;  and  as  the  Irish  landlord  had  the  powers  and  prestige 
of  England  behind  him,  the  tenant  and  his  advisers  felt 
justified,  under  all  the  circumstances,  in  resorting  to  a  means 
of  defence  or  retaliation  which  was  in  every  way  more  pref- 
erable than  the  blunderbuss  of  the  older  agrarian  organiza- 
tions. Whatever  might  be  thought  in  London  or  in  Rome, 
the  nationalists  of  Ireland  who  followed  Mr.  Parnell  believed 
boycotting  to  be  infinitely  less  cruel,  less  unjust,  and  less 
sinful  than  the  methods  of  Irish  landlordism  or  the  morals 
of  Dublin  Castle.  And  the  result  was  that  the  Propaganda 
edict  against  the  plan  of  campaign  was  as  dead  a  week  after 
its  first  and  suggestive  appearance  in  the  London  Times  as 
the  famous  fulmination  against  Galileo. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 
SOME     LEAGUE     ANECDOTES 

Among  the  numerous  letters  of  an   original  kind   which 
reached  the  Land  League  offices  in  1881  was  this: 

Ballinrobe,  Mayo,  January  8,  iSSi. 
"To  THE  Honorable  Land  Lague, — Gintlemin,  in  a 
momint  of  wakeness  i  pade  me  rint.  i  did  not  no  ther  was  a 
law  aginst  it  or  i  wud  not  do  it.  the  peeple  pass  by  me  dure 
as  if  the  smal  pox  was  in  the  hous,  i  heer  ye  do  be  givin 
pardons  to  min  that  do  rong,  and  if  ye  will  sind  me  a  pardon 
to  put  in  the  windy  for  every  one  to  rede  it,  as  God  is  me 
judge  i  will  never  komit  the  crime  agin.  Misther  Scrab 
Nally  will  give  me  a  Karacthur  if  ye  write  to  him,  at  Bal. 

"Yours  thruly. 


Another  epistle  arrived  from  a  correspondent  who  failed 
to  reconcile  his  parish  priest  and  the  bishop  of  the  diocese 
to  his  views  of  the  moral  guilt  involved  in  some  personal 
transaction.  He  was  a  conscientious  man,  and  v/as  spiritual- 
ly concerned  in  the  persistent  refusal  of  his  religious  guides 
to  give  him  absolution.  He  was  advised  to  persevere,  but 
returned  to  the  subject  in  a  final  letter  in  which  he  freely 
offered  to  leave  the  alleged  moral  delinquency  in  question  to 
the  disinterested  judgment  of  the  Land  League  executive. 

Occasionally  an  authority  was  asked  for  which  was  equally 
embarrassing  of  exercise  in  a  civic  sense.  The  league  in  the 
latter  part  of  1880  and  early  in  1881  v/as  declared  by  the 
landlord  organs  to  be  the  de  facto  government  of  Ireland. 
Its  decrees  were  said  to  be  sure  of  obtaining  obedience  in 
the  country,  while  those  of  Dublin  Castle  were  alleged  to  be 
the  object  of  popular  contempt.  There  was  some  truth  in  a 
taunt  that  was  meant  to  goad  the  government  into  a  resort  to 
coercion.  Rents  were  being  withheld  where  the  oeople  were 
strongly  organized,  and  evictions  had  been  successftdly  re- 
sisted in  several  instances,  league  organizers  being  the  direct 

409 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

agents  of  this  resistance  to  the  legal  rights  and  powers  of 
the  landlords.  This  evidence  of  a  growing  prestige,  coupled 
with  large  and  increasing  remittances  from  Messrs.  Parnell 
and  Dillon,  who  were  at  that  time  (early  in  1881)  in  the 
United  States  upon  a  mission  from  the  national  organization, 
increased  the  reputation  of  the  league,  and  caused  all  kinds 
and  conditions  of  persons  to  write  their  grievances  or  make 
known  their  suggestions,  plans,  and  requests  to  the  secretaries. 

I  recollect  receiving,  a  few  days  before  my  arrest  in  February, 
1 88 1,  a  telegraphic  message  to  this  effect  from  the  master  of 
a  workhouse  in  the  capital  of  a  Southern  county:  "Colonel 
Blank  has  applied  to  me  for  a  two  nights'  accommodation 
for  one  hundred  and  fifty  soldiers  in  the  union  buildings. 
Wire  if  I  am  to  comply  with  his  request."  Anxious  not  to 
come  into  conflict  with  the  authority  of  the  Crown  at  the 
time,  if  it  could  be  avoided,  the  Land  League's  permission 
was  telegraphed  back,  and  her  Britannic  Majesty's  troops 
obtained  their  lodgings. 

Our  best  and  most  popular  platform  speaker  in  the  early 
league  years  was  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan.  He  had  a  very 
eloquent  style,  and  suggested  Thomas  Francis  Meagher  in 
delivery  and  in  figurative  speech.  He  was  replete  with 
references  to  Stuart  Mill  and  to  the  legislation  of  Stein  and 
Hardenberg,  and  was  eagerly  listened  to  by  the  local  aspirants 
to  platform  fame,  who  at  subsequent  and  smaller  gatherings 
would  try  and  enlighten  their  audiences  with  the  borrowed 
but  unacknowledged  economic  and  political  erudition  of  Mr. 
Brennan. 

One  of  these  talked  on  one  occasion  very  learnedly  about 
"the  laws  which  Shteel  and  Harly  Burke  had  passed  for  the 
tinnents  of  Prussheea."  On  another  occasion  the  same 
speaker  denounced  the  landlords  as  "the  tyrant  class  who 
spint  the  rints  of  daycint  people  in  Rotten  Row  and  other 
disreputable  places  in  London." 

"Our  people  have  been  exterminated  by  the  robbers," 
exclaimed  another,  "and  where  have  they  gone?  Echo  an- 
swers, 'Some  to  America  and  some  to  the  bottom  of  the 
say.' " 

"They  say  I  am  a  commune,"  complained  a  Mayo  orator 
who  had  been  called  a  communist  in  a  controversy  with  a 
local  and  very  learned  clergyman.  "I  don't  know  fot  a 
commune  is,  but  I'll  take  me  oath  I'm  no  commune." 

The  controversy  was  continued,  and  the  Latin  tag  about 
the  propriety  of  the  shoemaker  sticking  to  his  last  was  made 
use  of  by  his  reverence  in  a  withering  allusion  to  the  platform 
reputation  of  the  local  Demosthenes.     The  next  meeting  in 

410 


SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES 

the  locality  offered  the  assailed  reformer  a  chance  to  reply. 
It  was  a  triumphant  rejoinder,  judged  by  the  applause  which 
its  eloquence  provoked : 

"I'm  attacked  by  a  larned  scribbler,"  exclaimed  the 
speaker,  "bekase  I  plade  the  cause  of  the  people.  The 
rint  office  and  the  backers  of  the  landlords,  the  gintlemen 
who  are  invited  to  stretch  their  legs  under  the  mahogany 
of  the  evicthors  and  exterminathors,  are  aginst  me,  and 
Latin  has  been  used  to  squelch  me.  But  here  I  am  to  pro- 
claim to  the  world  the  great  truth,  'fox  poply,  fox  day!'  ^  and 
from  this  platform  I  fling  the  Frinch  in  his  face." 

There  was  a  love  of  practical  joking  characteristic  of 
Celtic  nature  in  many  of  the  expedients  resorted  to  in  the  new 
policy  of  opposition  to  evictions.  An  eviction  is  not  com- 
plete according  to  the  law  until  every  inmate  of  a  house  is 
put  outside  and  all  living  stock  are  removed  from  the  farm. 
These  conditions  had  to  be  fulfilled  before  full  legal  possession 
of  the  holding  could  be  said  to  be  obtained  by  the  evictor. 
These  legal  requirements  necessarily  lent  themselves  to  in- 
genious forms  of  obstruction.  A  farmer  in  one  of  the  Western 
counties,  with  a  few  tall  trees  on  his  land,  resorted  to  the 
following  plan  for  defeating  or  delaying  the  work  of  ejecting 
him  from  his  farm:  The  day  before  the  sheriff  and  his  party 
arrived  the  tenant,  with  some  friendly  help,  succeeded  in 
locating  two  young  goats  in  an  open  wooden  box  on  the  top 
of  one  of  his  highest  trees.  Food  for  the  animals  was  provided 
inside  the  box,  and  as  the  architect  of  this  scheme  descended 
from  the  elevated  perch  he  cut  off  all  the  branches  beneath 
those  supporting  the  goats  and  liberally  smeared  the  trunk 
with  tar  and  grease.  The  evicting  party  arrived  on  the 
scene,  and  on  reconnoitring  the  situation  the  agent  of  the 
landlord  saw  the  meaning  of  the  strategy  and  beat  a  retreat. 
No  ladder  would  be  lent  by  any  person  in  the  district  for 
so  odious  a  purpose,  even  if  there  was  one  long  enough  to 
enable  the  goats  to  be  got  at,  while  in  any  case  a  few  days' 
more  time  would  be  required  for  the  satisfaction  of  the  law 
in  the  matter  of  evicting  the  animals,  and  all  this  would 
mean  heavy  expense. 

A  more  extraordinary  and  equally  successful  plan  was 
resorted  to  by  a  tenant  on  a  property  in  the  county  of  Sligo. 
He  managed  to  place  a  huge  rock  weighing  several  tons  inside 
his  cabin.  A  stout  chain  was  next  obtained,  and  on  the 
morning  of  the  expected  eviction  the  chain  was  riveted  round 
the  leg  of  the  tenant,  as  if  he  was  a  prisoner,  while  the  other 

'  Vox  populi,  vox  Dei. 
411 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

end  of  it  was  embedded  in  a  hole  drilled  into  the  bowlder  and 
filled  with  lead.  Not  a  file  could  be  found  in  the  whole 
country-side.  No  blacksmith  would  lend  himself  to  the  task 
of  helping  the  agent  out  of  the  difficulty,  while  the  police 
could  not  interfere  in  that  part  of  the  evil  work.  The  eviction 
had  to  be  abandoned  for  two  or  three  days,  and  upon  the 
landlord  hearing  of  the  trick  resorted  to  by  the  tenant,  a 
compromise  was  proposed  and  the  resourceful  strategist  was 
left  in  possession  of  his  cabin. 

A  well-to-do  farmer  in  County  Down  slightly  improved 
upon  this  expedient  without  submitting  himself  to  the 
chaining  process.  He  was  the  owner  of  a  complicated  mow- 
ing-machine, and  taking  the  implement  to  pieces  he  refitted 
it  inside  his — drawing-room!  The  law,  in  spirit,  at  any  rate, 
does  not  lend  itself  to  the  destruction  of  a  tenant's  implements 
or  property  in  carrying  out  the  landlord's  claims  upon  its 
service,  and  it  is  evident  from  the  obvious  meaning  of  some 
of  the  provisions  of  the  Gladstonian  Land  Act  of  1870  that 
the  author's  purpose  was  to  make  the  vandal  work  of  eviction 
a  costly  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  landlord  as  some  de- 
terrent to  the  labor  of  peasant  extermination.  Mr.  Murray's 
mowing-machine  was,  therefore,  a  counter-legal  impediment 
in  the  way  of  the  eviction  of  its  owner.  As  in  the  instances 
referred  to,  the  plan  prolonged  the  expensive  and  hateful 
process  of  clearing  the  land,  and  a  compromise  was  in  con- 
sequence ultimately  effected. 

Clare  Island,  with  its  precipitous  and  picturesque  head- 
land, and  its  striking  position,  like  that  of  a  giant  sentinel 
guarding  the  hundred  green  islands  of  Clew  Bay  from  the 
fury  of  the  Atlantic,  has  been  the  home  of  a  hardy,  struggling 
little  community  from  the  times  of  the  island's  famous  pirate 
queen,  Grace  O'Malley.  They  have  always  been  a  primitive 
and  Celtic-speaking  people,  and  have  combined  the  fishing 
industry  on  a  small  scale  with  potato  and  oats  cultivation 
under  discouraging  conditions.  The  island  is  bare  alike  of 
trees  and  turf,  the  soil  cold  and  unyielding,  and  the  general 
character  of  its  resources  such  as  would  induce  a  visitor  to 
conclude  that  the  inhabitants  ought  to  be  paid  to  live  and 
labor  there,  rather  than  to  be  highly  rented  for  patches  of 
wretched  land  and  mountain  grazing.  The  owner  of  the 
island  in  1880  was  one  McDonnell.  He  was,  I  think,  sheriff 
or  sub-sheriff  of  the  county  at  the  time.  His  island  tenants 
owed  rents,  and  showed  no  great  alacrity  to  pay  them  after 
three  bad  seasons.  He  therefore  undertook  to  head  his 
own  rent-collecting  expedition,  and  in  command  of  a  boat- 
load  of   police   and   bailiffs   he   made   for   the   island.     His 

412 


SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES 

reception  was  warm,  but  in  an  unfriendly  sense.  The  party 
were  opposed  on  trying  to  land,  but  the  armed  policemen 
forced  their  way  ashore  and  enabled  the  owner  to  set  a 
footing  upon  his  own  property.  He  took  up  his  quarters 
in  an  old,  roofless  castle  above  the  beach  and  opened  a  rent 
office.  There  were  no  callers.  His  tenants  were  otherwise 
engaged.  They  hid  the  oars  of  all  the  boats  on  Clare  Island, 
their  own  and  those  of  the  invading  forces,  while  the  word 
went  round  from  good  Father  Murphy  to  the  smallest  boy 
on  Clare  that  no  food  or  drink  should  be  served  or  sold  under 
any  conditions  to  the  hostile  intruders.  The  would-be 
evictors  were  thus  imprisoned  in  an  old  ruin  in  the  cold 
of  a  December  month  with  neither  complete  shelter  nor 
sustenance.  So  deeply  did  the  situation  impress  the  owner- 
sheriff  that  he  capitulated  after  a  three  nights'  experience  of 
the  right  kind  of  Celtic  hospitality  for  the  wrong  kind  of 
visitors  to  Grace  O'Malley's  island  home. 

Thanks  to  the  congested-districts  board,  Clare  Island  has 
been  free  from  the  blight  of  landlordism  for  a  number  of  years 
now,  and  will  be  owned  by  its  hardy  inhabitants  when  the 
purchase  loan  is  liquidated. 

The  proverbial  wit  and  brightness  of  the  impromptu 
"voice,"  in  comment  and  in  repartee,  of  an  Irish  audience 
are  well-known  features  of  meetings  in  Ireland.  They  are 
never  absent  from  a  gathering  large  or  small  at  which  speakers 
and  hearers  are  in  sympathy  on  some  mutually  interesting 
question. 

Canon  Ulick  Burke,  of  Claremorris,  who  was  a  little  prone 
to  the  use  of  learned  phrases,  was  addressing  a  Land-League 
meeting  in  language  which  was  a  little  above  the  easy  un- 
derstanding of  some  of  his  hearers,  when  a  "voice"  ex- 
claimed: 

"Musha,  more  power  to  you,  canon!  Begorra,  if  the 
Church  had  more  '  artillery '  like  yer  riverence  in  Mayo  we'd 
soon  blow  the  landlords  to  blazes!" 

A  comment  from  the  crowd  upon  a  figure  of  speech  used 
by  Mr.  Parnell  at  a  Mayo  meeting  was  more  literal  than 
intellectual.  The  speaker  was  nearing  the  end  of  his  task, 
and  in  dealing  with  the  proposed  future  settlement  of  the 
land  question,  said:  "And  then  the  landlords,  who  have 
attacked  us  so  fiercely,  will  find  that  much  as  we  have 
opposed  them  we  can  be  true  to  justice,  and  even  go  so 
far  as  to  heap  coals  of  fire  on  their  heads — " 

"Right,  sir!"  shouted  the  voice,  "burn  hell  out  of  them!" 

In  the  same  county  an  eloquent  curate,  in  a  strong  de- 
nunciation of  the  detested  system,  was  figuratively  assailing 

413 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

its  evils,   and  declared:  "Landlordism   is   the   only    serpent 
which  St.  Patrick  did  not  drive  out  of  Ireland — " 

A  voice:  "Sure,  sir,  the  devil  hadn't  yet  brought  it  from 
England." 

Curate:  "I  was  speaking  in  the  abstract — " 

The  same  voice:  "Faith,  it's  the  landlords  have  all  the 
'absthraction,'  for  they  don't  lave  us  a  pinny." 

A  local  orator  in  a  Leinster  county  was  lauding  Mr.  Parnell, 
and  delivered  himself  of  this  biblical  eulogy : 

"  Mr.  Parnell  is  the  Moses  of  the  lost  children  of  Erin.  He 
will,  like  Joshua,  take  them  to  the  promised  land  of  Home 
Rule,  and  then,  with  the  Aaron's  rod  of  peasant  proprietary, 
he  will  strike  the  rock  of  landlordism,  when  plenty  and  peace 
will  flow  out  of  it  like  a  shower  of  manna  from  the  skies  of 
justice." 

The  parish  priest  of  the  town  of  L was  a  stout,  broad- 
shouldered  type  of  muscular  Christianity  and  had,  suitably 
enough,  a  curate  of  opposite  physical  proportions.  A  league 
meeting  was  held  at  L ,  and  Father  Blank  was  the  chair- 
man. The  curate  remained  very  close  to  his  superior  on 
the  platform,  and  to  the  amusement  of  the  privileged  few 
who  were  allowed  on  the  small  structure,  produced  a  manu- 
script from  his  pocket  which  he  at  once  placed  flat  against  the 
back  of  the  parish  priest  and  held  it  there.  Then  in  a  low 
voice  he  read  out,  sentence  by  sentence,  the  chairman's  open- 
ing speech.  The  parish  priest  caught  the  words  from  behind, 
and  repeated  them  in  a  loud  and  eloquent  delivery,  the 
audience  being  unable  to  see  the  thin  form  of  the  prompting 
curate  as  screened  by  the  ample  proportions  of  the  Demos- 
thenic chairman,  flanked  as  the  latter  was  by  those  standing 
each  side  of  him  on  the  platform.  It  was  a  novel  use  to 
make  of  a  lean  curate. 

A  popular  priest  in  Kerry  was  supporting  a  young  land- 
lord, in  the  later  years  of  the  land  movement,  for  a  rural 
district  council.  It  was  a  hard  candidature  to  advocate 
against  the  claims  of  a  local  leaguer,  but  his  reverence  boldly 
faced  a  meeting  of  the  rival  faction  and  pleaded  for  his  man. 
"He  is  a  landlord,  I  admit,"  said  Father  Blank,  "but  had 
he  been  able  to  choose  his  position  before  he  was  born  he 
might  have  selected  another  station  in  life.  He  can't  help 
being  what  he  is,  because  he  inherited  the  name.  Can 
any  one  here  deny  that  he  is  not  a  good  landlord — " 

A  voice:  "Ah,  yer  reverence,  that  may  be  thrue,  but 
thin  we  had  to  shoot  his  father!" 

And  the  curate  did  not  carry  his  candidate  in  this  Kerry 
contest. 

414 


SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES 

One  of  the  league's  chief  troubles  in  the  early  days  of  its 
power  was  the  country  correspondent  of  English  press 
agencies.  He  was  ubiquitous,  being  in  most  instances, 
though  stib  rosa,  either  tlie  secretary  of  "the  local  branch  " 
or  a  national  school-teacher.  Every  morning's  paper  con- 
tained some  sensational  report  of  "midnight  meetings," 
"attempted  outrages,"  "posting  of  threatening  notices," 
and  so  on,  from  his  pernicious  activity.  There  was  a  demand 
from  Great  Britain  for  this  kind  of  news,  and  the  supply 
was  not  denied.  The  impending  struggle  between  the  govern- 
ment and  the  league  and  the  calling  for  repressive  measures 
by  the  landlord  grand  juries  and  similar  bodies  throughout 
Ireland  were  closely  watched  by  the  English  press  in  a 
ferociously  anti-league  spirit.  It  was  the  anxious  desire  of 
the  league  executive  to  discourage  all  violence,  except  where 
an  eviction  for  arrears  of  excessive  rents  might  justify  such 
forms  of  resistance  as  would  compel  the  public  mind  to 
direct  its  attention  to  the  facts  of  the  case  and  to  the  social 
crime  of  blotting  out  a  peasant's  household  for  the  recovery 
of  a  civil  debt.  Beyond  this  the  purpose  of  the  league  was 
seriously  injured  and  not  served  by  serious  agrarian  crime. 
Deeds  of  violence,  no  matter  how  originating,  would  be 
credited  by  British  papers  to  the  teaching  and  influence  of 
the  movement,  and  these  would  offer  the  government  an 
excuse  for  a  resort  to  coercion,  and  thus  render  difficult  if 
not  impossible  the  work  of  thoroughly  organizing  the  coun- 
try for  an  eventual  strike  against  rent.  For  selfish  as  well 
as  for  better  reasons  both  perpetrators  of  real  crime  and 
chroniclers  of  manufactured  outrages  were  anathema  at  the 
headquarters  of  the  league. 

One  of  the  worst  of  these  offenders  was  the  secretary  of 
a  league  branch  in  a  town  in  Galway,  which  had  even  as 
early  as  January,  1881,  thanks  to  his  enterprise  in  con- 
cocting bogus  outrages,  earned  a  notorious  reputation.  He 
would  forward  a  notice  to  the  local  police  sergeant,  intimating 
that  a  house  in  a  remote  district  was  to  be  fired  into  at  mid- 
night, and  would  then  send  a  despatch  to  London  recording 
the  "facts,"  and  how  the  prompt  action  of  the  constabulary 
had  frustrated  the  plans  of  the  moonlighters.  One  of  his 
achievements  was  the  writing  of  a  proclamation  in  which  land- 
grabbing  w^as  declared  to  be  a  crime  punishable  by  death. 
He  first  sent  the  police  of  the  town  on  a  wild-goose  chase,  in 
search  of  imaginary  raiders,  and  in  their  absence  posted  his 
notice,  signed  "Captain"  something  or  other,  near  the  police 
office.  In  his  telegraphic  report  of  this  "outrage  "  he  gave 
a  description  of  himself  in  the  act  of  reading  this  wholesale 

415 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

intimidatory  placard  "amid  the  sympathetic  attention  of 
crowds  of  'no-renters.'" 

In  one  of  the  Unionist  newspaper  offices  of  Dublin  there 
is  an  old  telegram  still  preserved  which  reached  the  editor 
about  this  period  from  this  correspondent.  It  reads  as 
follows : 

"Sunday,  8  p.m.  No  outrages  up  to  this  hour,  but  keep 
space  open  as  some  are  expected  about  two  to-morrow 
morning." 

All  these  troublesome  purveyors  of  real  or  bogus  news 
were  not  of  the  inventive  country  type.  Dublin's  more  expe- 
rienced artists  occasionally  displayed  a  rival  industry.  On 
one  occasion  a  column  of  matter,  descriptive  of  the  explosion 
of  "an  infernal  machine"  near  the  centre  of  the  city,  was 
written  for  a  London  Sunday  morning  paper  before  the  author 
had  himself  deposited  a  small  can  containing  some  loose 
powder  and  a  lighted  fuse  against  a  dead  wall  on  the  Saturday 
evening,  where  nothing  worse  could  follow  from  the  act  than 
his  own  graphic  account  of  "the  mysterious  and  shocking 
attempt  at  outrage  which  had  startled  Dublin." 

Dublin  pressmen  are  among  the  best  of  good  fellows,  in  a 
social  sense,  and  are  always  loyal  to  the  duties  of  their  pro- 
fession. They  are  fair  and  fearless  in  the  discharge  of  their 
tasks,  and  seldom  or  ever  allow  their  own  views  to  color  or  in- 
fluence the  judgment  they  give  upon  men  or  meetings,  where 
everything  is  straight  and  above-board.  In  1879  and  1880 
Dublin  Castle  failed  to  induce  more  than  one  or  two  of  even 
anti-nationalist  journalists  to  give  evidence  from  their  notes 
on  state  trials  against  leaguers  prosecuted  for  seditious  or 
other  speeches.  One  of  the  two  cases  in  question  was  an 
instance  of  my  own  appearance  before  the  Sligo  bench  in 
1879,  the  reporter  who  took  down  my  speech  at  the  Gurteen 
meeting  having  agreed,  on  subpoena,  to  give  evidence  for  the 
prosecution.  His  testimony  helped  me  rather  than  otherwise, 
as  it  was  a  fair  report  of  what  I  had  said,  but  the  fact  that  he 
had  agreed  to  produce  his  notes  of  the  speech  for  the  Castle 
displeased  even  pressmen  who,  like  himself,  were  strongly 
Tory  in  Irish  politics.  He  complained  in  a  very  excited 
manner  to  me  the  day  following  his  appearance  in  the  witness- 
box  in  Sligo  that  he  had  received  a  threatening  letter,  written 
in  red  ink,  in  which  he  was  warned  to  prepare  for  a  sudden 
death.  On  looking  at  the  document  I  discovered  what  I 
believed  to  be  the  fine  Roman  hand  of  a  personal  friend  of 
his  own,  and  a  stronger  Tory,  if  possible,  who  had  played  a 
practical  joke  upon  the  victim  of  official  solicitation. 

The  "special  correspondent"  from  England  or  Scotland 

416 


SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES 

was,  however,  the  complete  artist  in  all  the  details  of  shocking 
and  other  crimes,  real  or  imaginary,  in  those  days.  He  was 
despatched,  as  a  rule,  in  consequence  of  the  state  of  things 
described  as  existing  by  the  local  or  country  correspondents 
already  alluded  to.  There  were,  of  course,  noted  exceptions 
in  Englishmen  who  tried  honorably  to  find  the  truth,  and  to 
tell  it  without  fear  or  favor.  No  unkindness  was  ever  ex- 
perienced by  journalists  of  this  class  at  the  hands  of  their 
Dublin  confreres.  They  were  courteously  treated  by  leaguers 
and  nationalists  generally.  Not  so,  however,  the  over-zeal- 
ous searcher  after  sensational  copy,  who  purposely  distorted 
facts  and  events,  and  displayed  an  offensive  partisanship  in 
everything,  with  a  racial  snobbishness  in  his  intercourse  with 
Dublin  men  of  his  own  profession.  Such  a  visitor  fared  badly. 
Two  instances  out  of  many  of  a  similar  character  are  thus  re- 
corded in  an  old  diary : 

A  young  and  rather  bumptious  cockney,  who  had  never 
been  in  Dublin  before,  was  sent  over  by  one  of  the  Lon- 
don dailies.  He  made  it  a  point  ostentatiously  to  conceal  his 
lodgings  and  to  refuse  to  associate  with  the  other  pressmen 
in  their  social  reunions.     This  conduct  was  resented,  and  Fred 

G ,  who  was  at  that  time  the  organizer  -  in  -  chief  of  all 

tricks  played  upon  innocent  Anglo-Saxons  abroad  in  Ireland, 
undertook  to  make  things  even  with  the  superior  person  from 
Pimlico.  He  easily  succeeded  in  having  the  cockney  tracked 
to  his  quarters  in  Upper  Gardiner  Street,  and  having  once 
located  the  victim  the  fate  of  his  peace  of  mind  was  sealed. 

The  following  morning  two  well-dressed  visitors  called 
and  asked  for  the  lady  of  the  house. 

"Did  a  young  gentleman  named  occupy  apartments 

there?" 

"Yes." 

"He  had  strange  habits,  and  imagined  himself  to  be  a 
pressman?" 

"Yes.     He  wrote  a  good  deal  on  slips  of  paper." 

"  We  have  found  him!     Look  here,  madam,  he  is  the  son  of 

General  D ,  of  Kingstown,  and  has  wandered  away  from 

a  private  lunatic  asylum.  We  have  been  searching  for  him 
for  days,  and  will  now  report  to  the  general  where  he  is. 

You  will  be  well  paid  by  General  D ,   when   he  calls   at 

eleven  to-morrow  with  a  carriage  to  remove  his  son.  But 
do  not,  on  any  account,  allow  the  poor  young  fellow  to  leave 
his  room  to-morrow  morning  before  eleven  o'clock.  Thank 
you  very  much,  and  good-day,"  and  the  "agents  of  General 
D "  departed. 

After  finishing  some  work  the  next  morning  the  gentle- 
27  417 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

man  from  Pimlico  was  desirous  of  going  to  the  telegraph- 
office,  but  could  not  open  his  door.  He  rang  his  bell,  and,  in 
reply  to  an  indignant  protest   against  being  locked  in  his 

room,  was  told  that  his  father, "  General  D ,of  Kingstown," 

had  given  strict  orders  that  he  was  not  to  be  permitted  to 
leave  the  house  before  eleven.  Blank,  of  Pimlico,  frightened 
out  of  his  wits,  put  his  head  out  of  the  window  and  shouted 
"Police!"  He  was  released,  of  course,  but  a  crowd  had 
gathered  outside  which  followed  him  down  the  street  be- 
lieving him  to  be  insane.  He  took  refuge  for  some  hours 
in  a  police  station,  and  departed  for  London  that  night. 

The  other  innocent  who  invited  the  particular  care  of  the 
boys  was  from  Glasgow.  He  represented  an  evening  paper 
of  large  circulation  which  was,  at  the  time,  notoriously  rabid 
in  its  anti-Irish  reports.  It  depicted  a  condition  of  things 
in  Dublin  during  the  "Invincible"  trials  in  1883  that  would 
lead  a  person  in  Scotland,  unacquainted  with  Ireland,  to 
think  that  men  exchanged  shots  at  each  other  across  Sack- 
ville  Street  in  broad  daylight,  and  that  attempted  murders 
were  almost  of  daily  occurrence  throughout  the  country. 
"  The  city  was  honeycombed  with  secret  societies.  Assassina- 
tion clubs  existed.  Crime  was  rampant.  More  coercion  was 
imperatively  demanded."  And  more  to  the  same  end.  The 
source  of  these  outrageous  libels  on  Dublin  was  found  to  be  a 
rather  callow  youth  from  the  big  city  by  the  Clyde,  who  had 
crossed  the  Irish  Sea  also  for  the  first  time.  He  was  marked 
down  for  "treatment,"  and  this  was  what  followed: 

The  S Hotel  was  at  that  period  a  rendezvous  for  all 

Dublin  and  visiting  pressmen,  the  proprietor  being  a  most 
genial  and  accomplished  raconteur,  who  cared  much  more 
for  the  personal  pleasure  of  a  good  joke  than  for  the  profits 
of  his  bar.  He  was  enlisted  in  the  plot  to  civilize  the  Scotch 
sensation-monger,  and  he  willingly  gave  the  use  of  his  prem- 
ises for  the  quarrying  of  the  game. 

Mr.  Blank  was  invited  to  a  drink  at  the  S bar,  and  was 

made  to  overhear  a  conversation  of  this  kind,  the  persons 
talking  having  their  backs  turned  to  the  listening  Sandy: 

"Oh  yes,  of  course.  Deputy  ' No.  i '  will  attend.  He  must 
give  an  account  of  that  little  affair  a  few  weeks  back,  when 
the  informer  was  'removed.'  The  'Conclave'  will  meet  in 
full  session,  when  we  must  discuss  how  the  prison  at  Kilmain- 
ham  has  to  be  stormed—" 

Mr.  Blank's  companion  hereupon  invited  him  to  move 
away,  and  attempted  to  engage  his  attention  in  other  topics. 
Blank  was,  however,  intensely  interested,  and  asked  if  his 
companion  knew  these  men? 

418 


SOME    LEAGUE    ANECDOTES 

"Oh  yes,"  was  the  off-hand  reply.  "They  are  friends  of 
mine.  In  fact,  the  active  pressmen  of  Dubhn  are  members 
of  what  is  called  the  'Conclave,'  a  branch  of  the  Invincible 
society.  We  were  compelled  to  join  the  body,  otherwise  it 
would  not  be  too  safe  for  us  to  carry  on  our  work.  Moreover, 
our  membership  insures  our  getting  on  the  track  of  good 
copy.  I  must  be  present  at  to-night's  session,  as  very  im- 
portant disclosures  are  to  be  made." 

"Could  a  stranger  get  in,  by  any  chance?" 

"Well,  yes,  if  he  was  a  Scotchman.  Bruce  and  Wallace 
were  Celtic  heroes,  and  Burns  is  a  great  favorite  in  Ireland. 
I  think  we  can,  on  those  grounds,  admit  you." 

That  night  at  twelve  o'clock  an  upper  room  in  the  S 

Hotel  was  fitted  up  with  dark  hangings.  A  large  table  covered 
with  black  cloth  ran  dov/n  the  centre,  with  thirteen  figures 
in  black  dress,  and  wearing  masks,  sitting  six  at  each  side; 

the  thirteenth,  Fred  G ,  occupying  the  chair.     In  front  of 

him  there  was  a  skull.  Thirteen  carving-knives,  borrowed 
from  the  kitchen,  lay  on  the  table,  along  with  two  revolvers. 
A  solitary  candle  lit  the  scene  with  a  flickering  light  when  Mr. 
Blank,  blindfolded,  v/as  led  into  the  room.  Instantly  the 
voice  of  the  chairman  rang  out:  "Knives,  brothers!  An 
enemy  is  among  us!" 

"No,  captain,"  was  the  reply  of  Blank's  introducer;  "he 
comes  from  the  land  of  Wallace,  and  is  willing  to  join  the 
brotherhood." 

"Let  him,  therefore,  be  sworn  and  duly  initiated,"  came 
from  the  "captain."  Blank  was  ordered  to  strip  off  his 
clothes  and  to  turn  them  inside  out,  as  a  token  of  the  re- 
versal of  his  loyalty  to  England  and  conversion  to  the  creed 
of  Invincibilism.  This  was  done,  whereupon  knives  were 
brandished  over  his  head  and  he  was  assured  of  the  protection 
of  the  "order"  for  life.  Speeches  of  a  most  lurid  character 
were  then  delivered,  and  the  new  brother  was  toasted  in 
separate  drinks,  to  each  of  which  the  "ritual"  required  him 
to  reply  in  bibulous  response.  By  the  hour  of  two  in  the 
morning  poor  Blank  had  to  be  carefully  conveyed  across  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales  (now  the  Metropole)  Hotel  and  placed 
in  the  keeping  of  a  sympathetic  "boots." 

The  following  morning  Fred  G strolled  into  the  Prince 

of  Wales  Hotel  casually  and  encountered  Blank. 

"Look  here,"  said  the  now  very  much  sobered  Scot.  "All 
that  business  last  night  must  have  no  meaning  for  me.  I 
am  a  loyal  British  subject,  and  I  will  not  be  bound  by  illegal 
oaths  nor  belong  to  such  a  treasonable  body." 

"But  you  can  only  be  permitted  to  withdraw  at  a  general 

419 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

meeting  of  the  brotherhood,  and  that  will  not  take  place  for  a 
month.  Take  my  advice,  say  nothing  about  the  matter; 
otherwise  you  will  get  into  serious  trouble.  In  the  mean  time 
try  and  carry  out  any  instructions  which  may  reach  you 
from  the  'captain.'" 

Two  hours  subsequently  a  rough,  square  box  was  deposited 
in  the  hall  of  the  hotel.  It  was  addressed  to  Blank,  and 
labelled  "Ammunition — with  care!"  The  boots  of  the  hotel 
notified  Blank  of  the  arrival  of  the  box.  On  viewing  it,  and 
reading  the  label,  he  hurriedly  called  for  his  bill,  paid  it,  and 
left  at  once  for  the  nearest  route  to  Scotland. 

The  joke  did  not,  however,  end  here.  The  manager  of  the 
hotel  reminded  Blank,  as  he  was  driving  oflf,  that  he  was 
leaving  a  large  box  behind.  Blank's  expression  of  face  sug- 
gested anything  but  gratitude  for  this  information.  He 
thought  only  of  trains  and  flight.  The  manager's  suspicions 
were  aroused  at  this  strange  conduct,  and  on  scanning  the 
box  the  word  "Ammunition"  caught  his  eye.  He,  in  turn, 
became  alarmed,  and  despatched  a  message  at  once  to  the 
Lower  Castle  Yard  for  the  police.  In  a  short  time  two 
men  of  the  G  division  arrived.  The  box  was  carefully 
reconnoitred,  but  not  touched.  More  messages  reached 
Superintendent  Mallon,  who  finally  ordered  the  box  to  be 
brought  to  the  detective  headquarters.  A  consultation  was 
held,  and  as  a  result  it  was  carted  away  under  escort  to  the 
Pigeon  House  Fort,  carefully  lowered  by  ropes  into  the 
waters  of  the  Liffey,  and  left  there  for  an  hour.  It  was  then 
hoisted  up,  cautiously  opened,  and  found  to  contain  a  dead 
cat,  a  dozen  bricks,  and  some  bedroom  articles  not  so  easily 
described. 

The  proprietor  of  the  S hotel  was  sent  for  by  the  police 

authorities  that  evening  and  told  that  if  any  more  "jokes" 
of  that  kind  occurred  on  his  premises  his  license  would  be 
withdrawn. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

THE  "TRIAL"  OF  HENRY  GEORGE  AT  ATH- 
ENRY,  OR  HOW  THE  AUTHOR  OF  PROGRESS 
AND  POVERTY  WENT  IN  SEARCH  OF  A  COL- 
LAR-BUTTON AND  WAS  ARRESTED  ON  SUS- 
PICION 

"We  drove  into  the  village  of  Atlienry,  where,  finding 
the  atmosphere  close  after  the  heat  of  the  day,  we  strolled 
up  and  down  in  front  of  the  hotel,  and  were  carefully  followed 
and  watched  by  our  old  friends  the  police,  who  at  once  began 
to  suspect  an  opportunity  for  distinguishing  themselves. 
We  knew,  however,  that  telegraphic  information  of  the 
circumstances  of  our  previous  arrest  had  already  been  sup- 
plied to  them,  and  accordingly  felt  secure  from  a  repetition 
of  the  annoyance,  though  it  was  impossible  to  discover  the 
exact  nature  of  the  information,  as  the  magistrate  who  had 
discharged  us  at  Loughrea  had  expressly  told  us,  when  we 
asked  on  what  grounds  we  had  been  arrested,  that  the  police 
would  not  give  any  answer  to  this  question,  and  that  he 
was  not  even  at  liberty  to  ask  it. 

"  Next  morning  we  breakfasted  with  a  magistrate,  who  told 
us  that  he  was  going  about  the  country  to  try  cases  under 
the  coercion  act.  He  had  been  a  barrister,  and  it  seems 
necessary  that  in  pronouncing  sentences  of  hard  labor  one 
of  the  magistrates  present  should  have  legal  knowledge.  He 
justified  the  wholesale  arrest  of  respectable  shopkeepers  at 
Loughrea  after  the  murder  of  Mr.  Blake,  although  they 
were  at  mass  at  the  time,  on  the  somewhat  unsatisfactory 
grounds  that  those  who  ordered  their  arrest  knew  more  about 
the  matter  than  we  did.  Our  own  experience  of  the  're- 
liable information '  of  inspectors  of  the  police  did  not  lead 
to  a  similar  conclusion ;  and  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  some 
constables,  eager  for  promotion,  and  unscrupulous  in  their 
methods  of  attaining  it,  have  dictated  to  their  private  friends 
the  reliable  information  with  which  they  wish  to  be  furnished 
by  them. 

"  After  breakfast  I  went  out  into  the  town  to  look  at  its 

421 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

interesting  old  walls  and  ruins,  and  had  a  talk  with  the  head 
constable  of  the  place,  and  it  is  to  this  conversation  that  I 
ascribed  my  immunity  from  arrest  at  Athenry.  On  returning 
to  the  hotel  I  found  Mr.  George  talking  to  the  curate,  who 
declared  that  I  had  already  been  taken  for  a  detective,  and 
that  my  talk  and  walk  with  the  constable  would  strengthen 
this  idea  and  effectually  prevent  my  obtaining  information 
from  the  people.  We  went  out  together  and  strolled  about 
the  town,  passing  on  our  way  some  houses  in  course  of  erection. 
I  had  seen  a  great  many  houses  in  ruins,  but  none  building  as 
yet,  so  I  stopped  and  asked  the  contractor  for  whom  they 
were  intended.  He  replied  shortly  and  we  passed  on;  but 
this  short  conversation  had  been  carefully  noted  by  the  police, 
who  were  following  us  as  usual  at  some  little  distance,  and 
gathering  grounds  of  suspicion  which  might  be  described  as 
reasonable  and  culminate  in  an  arrest.  For  this  contractor 
was  a  man  of  the  name  of  Brodrick,  who  had  been  imprisoned 
for  some  time  in  Gal  way  jail  as  a  suspect,  and  lately  re- 
leased because  an  influential  person  in  Athenry  wanted 
to  get  these  houses  built  and  there  was  no  one  else  in  the 
place  who  was  competent  to  undertake  the  job.  In  happy 
ignorance  that  we  had  been  speaking  to  a  suspicious  character, 
we  went  on  to  the  house  of  a  man  named  Madden,  who  had 
been  boycotted  by  the  local  branch  of  the  Land  League  for 
having  taken  some  land  from  which  the  previous  tenant  had 
been  evicted. 

"  Having  as  yet  seen  nothing  of  this  system  of  boycotting 
obnoxious  individuals,  I  was  glad  to  talk  with  the  man, 
thus  confirming  the  previous  suspicions  of  the  police;  though, 
as  no  one  else  in  the  place  would  speak  to  the  man  at  all, 
this  conversation  ought  to  have  counted  as  a  point  in  our 
favor;  but  the  police  are  not  bound  to  be  logical.  I  com- 
pared this  man's  account  with  that  of  Kinneen,  the  former 
tenant,  and  the  facts  seem  to  have  been  as  follows:  Kinneen 
had  held  a  farm  for  twenty-one  years  at  £^0  rent,  but  the 
landlord  now  asked  ;^ioo  for  it.  This  increase  of  rent 
Kinneen  refused  to  pay,  as  the  liigher  value  of  the  land  was 
owing  to  his  own  improvements,  and  he  was  accordingly 
evicted.  Upon  this  Madden  had  taken  a  portion  of  the 
farm,  and  this  is  just  the  proceeding  which  has  so  often  led 
to  the  commission  of  outrages  in  Ireland  before  the  existence 
of  the  Land  League,  when  its  powerful  organization  could 
not  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  offenders  against  its  un- 
written laws.  It  is  obvious  that  if  new  tenants  could  always 
be  found  when  the  old  are  evicted  there  would  be  no  security 
whatever  against  rack-renting  in  its  worst  forms;  and  it  seems 


THE    "TRIAL"    OF    HENRY    GEORGE 

manifest  that  the  lesser  penalty  of  boycotting  has  saved 
many  a  man  from  becoming  the  victim  of  an  outrage.  Ac- 
cordingly the  local  Land  League  determined  to  boycott  the 
man  Madden,  and,  as  he  was  a  blacksmith,  they  erected  a 
new  forge,  to  which  all  the  village  went  to  have  their  horses 
shod.  He  told  me  that  he  had  lost  ;^2oo  by  it,  and  'had  such 
a  bother  that  he  was  afeared  and  applied  for  police  protec- 
tion,' and  after  being  guarded  for  some  time  was  finally 
driven  to  give  up  the  land  again,  and  now  no  longer  needed 
protection.  Four  young  men  who  had  been  active  for  the 
league  had  been  arrested  as  suspects  when  this  new  forge  was 
put  up,  and  were  still  in  Galway  prison. 

"  At  mid-day  we  retired  to  our  inn,  and  were  regaled  by  the 
curate  on  a  repast  of  bread-and-butter  and  a  cooling  beverage 
compounded  of  innocent  ingredients — soda-water  and  rasp- 
berry wine.  We  purposed  to  take  the  train  at  one  o'clock  to 
Galway,  and  just  before  we  started  for  the  station  Mr.  George, 
in  want  of  a  collar-stud,  went  rapidly  into  three  shops  in  suc- 
cession to  buy  one,  succeeding  in  his  object  at  the  third  shop. 
Now  these  three  identical  shops  happened  to  belong  to  three 
people  whom  the  police  considered  suspicious  characters,  and 
this  unfortunate  hunt  after  a  button  added  the  last  link  to 
their  chain  of  evidence,  which  was  now  complete.  However, 
with  such  a  notable  prisoner  as  Mr.  George  things  must  not 
be  done  in  a  corner,  and  they  decided  that  the  greatest  glory 
would  redound  to  themselves  and  the  maximum  of  in- 
convenience be  inflicted  on  their  victim  if  they  arrested  him 
among  the  crowds  at  the  station  after  he  had  actually  taken 
his  ticket  for  Galway.  They  knew  how  to  bide  their  time, 
and  could  sympathize  with  the  feelings  of  a  cat  that  plays 
with  its  mouse.  So  in  all  ignorance  we  drove  to  the  station 
and  took  our  tickets,  though  we  noticed  that  the  presence 
of  the  police  seemed  even  more  pervading  than  before.  The 
train  arrived,  and  I  had  already  put  in  our  luggage  and 
taken  our  places,  when  I  observed  that  my  friend  was  not 
on  the  platform,  and,  in  fact,  I  could  see  nothing  but  police. 
Just  as  the  train  was  starting  he  reappeared,  and  told  me 
that  he  had  been  again  arrested,  and  that  his  captor,  a  youth 
of  about  twenty-one  years  of  age,  had  permitted  him  to  come 
and  inform  me  of  the  fact.  This  young  sub-inspector  also 
advanced,  and  told  me  very  politely  that  he  must  detain 
my  friend,  but  that  I  was  free  to  continue  my  journey,  or, 
in  case  I  preferred  to  remain,  he  could  offer  me  a  seat  on 
the  police  car  to  drive  back  to  the  barracks.  I  accepted 
this  kind  proposal,  and  hurriedly  saved  the  luggage  from 
going    on    alone    to   Galway,   and    for  the    second   time  we 

423 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

drove  through  gazing  crowds  guarded  on  all  sides  b}^  armed 
police. 

"  On  arriving  at  the  police  barracks  Mr.  George  was  shut 
up,  while  the  usual  search  for  treasonable  documents  began, 
although  the  inspector  was  well  aware  that  this  had  already- 
been  done  most  minutely  at  Loughrea  less  than  forty-eight 
hours  ago.  However,  he  read  all  his  papers  and  note-books, 
and  gathered  evidence  from  the  latter  which  he  could  present 
with  pride  before  any  magistrate.  Meanwhile,  there  was  no 
magistrate  to  be  had,  for  Mr.  Byrne  had  departed  to  Loughrea, 
and  telegraphed  that  he  could  not  be  back  before  seven 
o'clock.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done  but  to  wait,  my 
friend  in  the  guard  -  room  and  myself  at  the  inn.  I  was 
allowed  to  pay  him  occasional  visits,  and  I  occupied  the 
intervals  in  strolling  about  and  conversing  with  the  people, 
who  had  immense  sympathy  for  any  one  who  was  in  difficulties 
with  the  police.  Exactly  in  front  of  the  barracks  stands  the 
only  pump  in  the  whole  village,  and  to  this  pump  the  bare- 
footed women  and  girls  were  continually  coming  to  fill  their 
various  pails  and  pans.  The  pump  was  worked  by  a  huge 
wheel,  which  it  taxed  all  their  energies  to  turn,  and  I  was 
rather  indignant  with  the  group  of  stalwart  policemen,  who 
were  always  lounging  at  the  door  of  their  station  with  noth- 
ing on  earth  to  do,  while  the  women  and  children  struggled 
with  the  wheel.  So  thinking  that  example  was  better  than 
precept,  I  offered  to  turn  it  for  an  old  woman  who  was 
waiting  with  her  pail;  but  I  soon  found  that  I  was  in  for  a 
harder  task  than  I  had  expected,  for  as  fast  as  one  pail  was 
full  another  was  presented,  and  I  could  not  refuse  to  fill  it, 
and  the  succession  of  empty  pails  was  kept  up  by  the  women 
until  I  had  worked  for  nearly  half  an  hour,  earning  showers 
of  blessings  and  causing  huge  amusement,  especially  among 
the  police. 

"  About  five  o'clock  the  inspector  announced  that  he  would 
take  my  friend  before  Major  Lopdell,  J. P.,  who  might,  perhaps, 
be  persuaded  to  hear  the  case,  although  the  ordinary  magis- 
trates generally  refuse  to  do  anything  under  the  coercion  act, 
from  a  wholesome  fear  of  burning  their  fingers  with  it  and 
getting  into  hot  water  either  with  the  government  or  the 
people.  Accordingly  we  drove  off  to  his  residence  outside 
the  town,  entered  some  beautiful  grounds,  and  ascertained 
to  our  annoyance  that  the  major  was  out.  However,  just 
at  the  nick  of  time  he  was  seen  returning,  and  the  inspector 
informed  him  of  the  state  of  the  case.  To  our  astonishment 
he  declared  that  he  had  business  of  his  own  which  would 
occupy   him  until  seven  o'clock,  the  precise  time  when   he 

424 


THE    "TRIAL"    OF    HENRY    GEORGE 

knew  Mr.  Byrne  would  be  back  from  Lough rea,  a  most 
curious  coincidence.  I  ventured  to  tell  him  that  as  he  was 
a  magistrate  his  business  was  to  attend  to  us,  but  without 
stopping  to  argue  the  point  he  turned  and  went  off  rapidly 
across  his  fields.  There  was  no  help  for  it,  so  we  drove  back 
again,  though  the  inspector  admitted  that  it  was  his  duty 
to  hear  the  case,  and  on  arriving  again  at  the  barracks  he 
stretched  a  point  of  discipline  and  allowed  my  friend  to 
accompany  me  to  the  inn,  under  police  supervision,  and  there 
partake  of  any  refreshment  he  might  prefer.  After  this 
interlude  he  was  again  locked  up,  and  the  time  wore  slowly 
away  until  past  eight  o'clock,  when  Mr.  Byrne  returned 
with  his  escort  of  police,  and  soon  after  arrived  at  the  barracks. 
Preparations  were  made  for  hearing  and  recording  evidence, 
but  the  accommodation  was  miserabl}^  limited,  and  the  trial 
was  adjourned  by  consent  to  a  private  room  in  the  hotel, 
whither  we  all  proceeded. 

"The  trial  was  opened  by  Inspector  Bell,  who  brought 
forward  his  suspicions,  and  confirmed  them  by  the  sworn 
testimony  of  various  constables.  All  the  proceedings  were 
formally  taken  down  by  a  policeman,  and  this  caused  con- 
siderable delay,  for  he  was  not  a  quick  writer.  The  inspector 
produced  a  pamphlet  on  the  land  question,  written  by  Mr. 
George,  and  containing  some  scandalous  statements  which 
tended  to  show  that  rent  was  only  another  form  of  robbery, 
and  that  the  state  was  the  true  owner  of  the  soil,  which 
private  individuals  ought  not  to  be  allowed  to  monopolize. 
He  had  busily  marked  special  passages  in  this  treasonable 
pamphlet,  which  he  put  in  evidence  as  a  whole,  although 
parts  were  particularly  objectionable.  Evidence  was  given 
that  the  prisoner  had  spoken  to  Brodrick,  the  builder,  and 
Madden,  the  blacksmith,  though  neither  of  these  facts  was 
correct,  as  I  was  the  culprit  in  both  cases.  Evidence  was 
given  that  his  note-book  contained  suspicious  names  and 
addresses,  and  that  there  was  a  most  suspicious  F.  C.  appended 
to  some  names  not  otherwise  objectionable,  letters  which 
could  surely  mean  nothing  more  or  less  than  Fenian  centre. 
Evidence  was  also  given  that  he  had  visited  the  abbey 
graveyard,  and  stayed  a  long  time  there  without  ostensible 
reason  in  company  with  suspicious  characters — viz..  Father 
MacPhilpin,  the  curate,  and  myself;  and,  finally,  that  he  had 
entered  the  shops  of  three  more  suspicious  persons  and  had 
entries  in  his  note-book  referring  to  the  late  murders  at 
Loughrea.  This  closed  the  inspector's  case,  and  it  was  now 
Mr.  George's  turn  to  reply  to  it  as  best  he  could. 

"  He  began  by  asking  the  magistrate  to  dismiss  it  at  once  as 

425 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

a  frivolous  and  foolish  charge.  But  this  he  refused  to  do, 
saying  that  there  seemed  to  be  some  ground  for  the  in- 
spector's suspicions.  So  Mr.  George  made  a  detailed  state- 
ment, saying  that  he  was  the  correspondent  of  an  American 
paper,  and  that  the  note-book  was  simply  used  to  found  his 
letters  upon;  that  his  acquaintance  was  wide  and  included 
men  who  might  be  called  suspicious,  whose  names  the  in- 
spector had  picked  out  from  several  hundred  others ;  that  the 
suspicious  letters  were  not  F.  C.  but  T.  C,  and  were  intended 
for  town  councillor  instead  of  Fenian  centre;  that  he  had 
visited  the  ruined  abbey  for  the  purpose  of  inspecting  the 
ruins,  and  without  knowing  that  the  curate  was  a  suspicious 
character;  that  he  had  not  spoken  either  to  Brodrick  or 
Madden;  that  he  had  gone  into  suspicious  shops  with  the 
harmless  intention  of  buying  a  button,  which  button  he 
bought  at  the  last  of  the  three,  and  now  produced  for  the 
magistrate's  inspection ;  that  the  entry  in  his  note-book  about 
the  murders  was  for  the  same  purpose  as  the  very  next 
entry  about  the  bees  and  the  vegetarians  of  the  Carmelite 
convent  at  Loughrea;  and,  finally,  that  his  pamphlet  could 
not  be  judged  by  excerpted  passages  torn  from  their  context, 
but  that  he  would  be  happy  to  present  every  one  in  the  room 
with  a  copy  for  perusal  at  their  own  leisure,  which  copies  he 
accordingly  handed  round  at  once.  This  was  his  answer 
to  the  charge,  and  the  magistrate  was  about  to  give  his 
decision  when  Inspector  Bell,  who  had  been  looking  very 
much  annoyed  at  the  prospect  of  his  prisoner's  release,  sug- 
gested that  the  entry  in  the  note-book  about  bees,  etc.,  might 
have  been  added  after  our  first  arrest,  to  give  the  book  a  more 
peaceable  character,  and  that  the  prisoner  might  have  known 
that  one  of  the  shops  did  not  sell  buttons.  However,  to  his 
great  chagrin  the  magistrate  decided  that,  although  there 
were  grounds  for  his  suspicion,  the  prisoner  had  cleared  him- 
self, and  was  accordingly  discharged,  and  at  precisely  eleven 
o'clock  we  returned  to  our  hotel,  after  Mr.  George  had  been 
in  custody  for  ten  hours."* 

*  Adventures  of  a  Tourist  in  Ireland,  by  J.  L.  Joynes,  B.A.,  Assistant 
Master  at  Eton  College,  pp.  25-39.  London,  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  & 
Co.,  1882. 


CHAPTER   XXXV 

DYNAMITE    PLOTS.  — I.    "RED    JIM"    McDERMOTT 

Societies,  brotherhoods,  and  conspiracies  of  various 
characters,  but  chiefly  agrarian,  have  been  briefly  sketched 
already  to  denote  the  continuous  conflict  which  the  peasantry 
carried  on  in  the  defensive  warfare  against  confiscation  and 
landlordism.  Injustices  sanctioned  by  law  were  answered 
by  outrages  prompted  by  retaliation.  The  law  was  not  a 
friend  but  an  enemy,  and  to  oppose  and  thwart  it  was  to 
untutored  minds  only  a  form  of  rude  justice.  Where  ar- 
gument and  reason  fail,  in  such  a  bitter  war  of  class  interest, 
the  repressive  action  of  the  law's  authority  on  one  side 
teaches  the  lesson  of  an  illegal  terrorism  to  the  wronged  and 
disinherited  on  the  other.  The  landlords  resorted  to  the 
courts  for  ejectments  and  to  the  police  for  evictions.  They 
made  the  agency  of  the  law  the  instrument  of  oppression. 
The  agrarian  conspirator  and  moonlighter  fell  back  upon 
"the  wild  justice  of  revenge,"  legalized  wrong  being  as  ever 
the  nursery  of  agrarian  and  political  crime  in  Ireland  as 
elsewhere. 

The  dynamite  propaganda  of  the  early  eighties  was  in  no 
sense  agrarian  in  its  origin  or  purpose.  It  was  accidental  to 
the  Land  -  League  movement  but  incidental  to  the  Anglo- 
Irish  conflict.  It  was  a  very  extreme  form  of  the  smouldering 
insurrectionary  protest  always  existing  against  English  rule 
in  the  minds  of  advanced  Irishmen.  Nothing  at  the  time 
could  well  be  more  of  a  political  antithesis  to  the  means  by 
which  we  sought  to  make  landlordism  impossible  in  Ireland, 
and  no  Englishman  fearing  for  his  life  in  London  during 
the  dynamite  scare  in  1883-84  hated  these  attempted  out- 
rages more  than  Mr.  Parnell.  They  were,  however,  a  form 
of  Irish  "agitation";  they  threatened  English  life  and  prop- 
erty with  injury  or  destruction,  and  though  they  could 
not  possibly  do  more  harm  to  any  interest  than  to  that  of 
the  league  movement  and  Home  Rule,  our  enemies  in  the 
press  linked  them  in  political  kinship  with  our  efforts,  and 
held  us  up  to  public  odium  as  the  indirect  if  not  the  actual 

427 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

confederates  of  the  persons  in  New  York  and  elsewhere 
who  boasted  of  plotting  these  deeds  of  warfare  against  "the 
English  enemy." 

Many  of  these  outrages,  however,  were  deliberately  planned 
by  agents  of  the  English  secret  service.  Of  this  there  can 
be  not  a  shadow  of  doubt.  This  fact  does  not,  of  course, 
dispose  of  the  real  outrages  organized  and  executed  by 
actual  dynamiters,  nor  does  it  mitigate  in  any  way  the 
desperate  and  criminal  character  of  such  attempts.  It  is, 
however,  of  some  interest  to  make  clear  the  fact  that  the 
bogus  dynamite  plots  preceded  the  actual  ones  which  sought 
London  as  a  field  of  operations  in  the  years  1883  and 
1884. 

This  circumstance  arose  from  the  nature  of  the  counter 
plan  of  the  secret  police  by  which  the  evils  of  the  dynamite 
propaganda  were  sought  to  be  averted.  "Maturing  crime" 
is  a  process  of  police  operations  well  known  in  India.  Its 
purpose  is  to  bring  into  the  open,  and  thereby  to  locate, 
persons  suspected  of  plotting  crime.  These  operations  by 
agents  provocateurs  are  made  to  wear  the  appearance  of  a 
rivalry  in  a  similar  line  or  object  as  that  supposed  to  be 
contemplated  by  the  plotters.  Such  persons  are  thereby 
tempted  to  precipitate  their  purpose,  and  by  so  doing  to 
play  into  the  hands  of  the  agents  employed  to  mature  the 
suspected  designs. 

In  August,  1882,  Mr.  Jenkinson,  an  official  who  had  been 
employed  in  the  Indian  civil  service  for  a  number  of  years, 
was  appointed  to  the  post  of  assistant  under-secretary  to 
the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  and  the  information  obtained 
by  us,  both  before  and  during  the  Parnell  Commission,  con- 
vinced us  that  the  bogus  dynamite  plots  of  Cork,  Liverpool, 
and  London  in  1883  were  mainly  the  work  of  a  man  named 
James  McDermott,  who  was  in  the  pay  of  the  secret  service. 
Indirect  responsibility  for  these  attempted  crimes  was  sought 
to  be  fixed  upon  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  league  leaders  during 
the  special  commission  by  our  accuser.  The  Times,  and  it  was 
incumbent  upon  us  to  find  out  if  possible  who  was  at  the 
bottom  of  the  whole  dynamite  business.  We  searched  for 
and  secured  some  of  McDermott's  accomplices  in  Paris, 
New  York,  and  elsewhere.  Our  intelligence  department 
succeeded  in  obtaining  all  the  information  we  required,  in 
the  anticipation  that  McDermott,  like  Le  Caron,  would  be 
loaned  by  the  government  to  The  Times  for  use  against  us. 
Among  our  informants  was  an  ex-member  of  the  secret 
service  who  had  been  employed  with  McDermott  in  some  of 
the    less    criminal    enterprises    in    which    that    most    expert 

428 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

scoundrel  had  been  engaged.  Much  of  the  following  in- 
formation was  derived  from  that  source. 

McDermott  was  born  in  Dublin,  and  was  believed  to  be 
the  illegitimate  son  of  a  lawyer  named  O'Brien.     His    own 

contention  was  that  the  Earl  of  W had  the  honor  of  being 

his  father.  He  was  one  of  the  volunteers  who,  under  Major 
Myles  O'Reilly,  formed  the  Irish  Papal  Brigade  in  1859. 
He  claimed  to  have  fought  at  Castelfidardo  and  to  have  been 
honored  by  Pope  Pius  IX.  with  the  order  of  St.  Sylvester  for 
bravery.  As,  however,  he  was  the  chronicler  of  his  own  dis- 
tinction and  prowess,  his  claim  to  papal  knighthood  was  not 
credited  by  those  who  knew  him  best. 

The  work  of  organizing  the  Fenian  Brotherhood  was  pro- 
gressing in  Dublin  in  the  early  sixties,  and  McDermott  joined 
the  ranks  of  the  movement.  He  visited  New  York  during  the 
existence  of  the  Hoffman-House  headquarters,  and  by  some 
means  never  clearly  explained  wound  himself  into  the  con- 
fidence of  the  then  head  centre.  Colonel  John  O'Mahony. 
O'Mahony  was,  however,  a  combination  of  a  seer  and  Celtic 
chieftain,  a  dreamer  of  lofty  ideals,  and  as  qualified  to  be 
the  head  of  a  secret  conspiracy  as  Lamartine  was  to  be  the 
leader  of  a  French  revolution.  He  was  an  unsuspecting 
enthusiast,  as  transparently  honest  as  McDermott  was  the 
reverse,  and  it  followed,  therefore,  that  the  latter  returned 
to  Dublin  in  1865  with  the  credentials  of  private  secretary  to 
Colonel  O'Mahony. 

I  obtained  two  reports  of  McDermott 's  antecedents  as  a 
spy — one  from  an  ex-official  of  the  Canadian  government, 
who  served  under  Sir  John  Macdonald,  and  the  other  from 
an  agent  who  had  associated  with  McDermott  in  New  York 
and  London.  This  latter  person  dated  "Red  Jim's"  en- 
listment in  the  secret  service  from  January,  1883,  while 
the  former  asserted  he  had  been  engaged  in  that  capacity 
since  1865.  His  service  may  not  have  been  continuous,  but 
it  is  probable  that  this  account  is  true,  and  that  when  he 
returned  to  Dublin  from  New  York  in  that  year  he  was 
then  at  work  within  the  inner  circle  of  the  Fenian  organization 
as  a  spy. 

The  abortive  attempt  to  invade  Canada  in  1867,  following 
the  failure  of  the  rising  in  Ireland  on  March  5th  of  the  same 
year,  caused  the  movement  in  the  United  States  to  fall 
away,  and  McDermott  appears  to  have  drifted  soon  after 
into  blackmailing  journalism.  He  became  prominently 
identified  with  a  Brooklyn  paper  notorious  for  these  practices, 
and  in  a  saloon  fight  arising  out  of  quarrels  with  kindred 
associates  he  shot  one  of  them.     He  was  arrested,  tried,  and 

429 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

acquitted.  He  descended,  if  possible,  to  lower  occupations 
than  these,  and  developed  into  a  character  no  reputable 
person  would  associate  with.  He  was  generally  known  in 
New  York  and  Brooklyn  as  "Red  Jim." 

Near  the  end  of  February,  1883,  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  M.P., 
Mr.  Joseph  P.  Quin,  and  myself  were  inmates  of  Richmond 
Prison,  Dublin,  undergoing  a  sentence  of  six  months  as 
first -class  misdemeanants  for  violent  speeches,  under  a 
coercion  law.  We  were  permitted  to  receive  visits  from 
almost  anybody  who  cared  to  call,  and  among  some  cards 
brought  to  us  one  day  was  one  which  bore  the  name  and 
address  "James  McDermott,  Brooklyn,  N.Y.,  correspondent 

of  the ."     On  reading  the  name  I  expressed  an  opinion 

to  Mr.  Healy  that  "the  biggest  scoundrel  now  in  Ireland" 
had  called  at  the  prison  for  some  evil  purpose.  We,  however, 
resolved  to  see  what  he  was  like.  Chief  Warder  Murphy 
conducted  us  to  the  reception-room,  when  McDermott 
stepped  forward  and  introduced  himself  to  me.  informing 
me  that  he  had  been  present  at  my  lecture  in  the  Park 
Theatre,  Brooklyn,  in  October,  1878,  and  that  he  was  ac- 
quainted with  several  of  my  friends.  Asking  him  what  he 
wanted  to  see  me  for,  he  replied  that  he  was  sent  to  Ireland 
as  a  special  commissioner  for  American  papers.  Then,  turn- 
ing his  back  to  the  chief  warder,  he  winked  knowingly,  and 
said,  in  a  low  voice,  that  he  had  come  "on  a  mission  from 
the  boys."  He  commenced  a  laudation  of  the  Phoenix  Park 
murders,  whereupon  the  interview  was  terminated.  On 
leaving  the  room  I  requested  the  chief  warder  not  to  allow 
McDermott  to  come  again,  as  he  had  promised  to  do,  for 
further  interviews. 

He  was  at  that  time  a  man  of  some  forty-five  years  of  age, 
about  middle  height,  well  built,  and  of  respectable  appear- 
ance in  dress  and  bearing.  There  was  nothing  very  loud  or 
vulgar  about  him  in  manner  or  speech,  and  he  might  pass 
among  strangers  for  what  he  pretended  to  be. 

The  night  following  this  call,  Red  Jim  was  arrested  for 
being  drunk  and  striking  a  car-driver,  and  was  taken  to  the 
College  Street  Police  Station,  Dublin.  A  reporter  from  a 
nationalist  paper,  calling  at  the  office  for  police  news,  was 
privately  shown  some  papers  that  had  been  found  upon  the 
prisoner.  He  copied  the  documents  and  shortly  afterwards 
placed  the  copies  in  my  hands.  From  these  I  was  satisfied 
that  my  suspicions  were  well  grounded,  and  that  McDermott 
was  in  collusion  with  the  secret  police. 

On  sobering  up  after  his  arrest,  he  referred  the  police  to 
Mr.  Jenkinson,  the  assistant  under-secretary,  and  upon  this 

430 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

official  being  informed  of  Red  Jim's  detention   he  was  re- 
leased without  being  brought  before  any  magistrate. 

He  attempted  while  in  Dublin  to  induce  some  men  to 
join  a  pretended  plot  to  murder  Chief  Inspector  Mallon,  but 
failed  to  recruit  an  accomplice  for  the  plot.  He  then  left  for 
London.  On  March  i6th  two  explosions  occurred,  one  at 
the  Local  Government  Board  office  and  the  other  in  Printing 
House  Square,  close  to  The  Times  office.  No  persons  were 
ever  arrested  for  these  crimes. 

He  returned  to  Ireland  and  proceeded  to  Cork.  Here  he 
introduced  himself  to  two  men  named  Featherstone  and 
Deasy,  presenting  the  originals  of  the  documents  found  upon 
him  in  Dublin  as  introductions  from  one  or  two  notorious 
advocates  of  dynamite  in  New  York.  He  boasted  that  he 
had  perpetrated  the  London  outrages,  and  proposed  a  plan 
for  the  destruction  of  the  forts  which  guard  the  entrance 
to  Queenstown  harbor.  His  dupes  believed  in  his  "repre- 
sentative" character  and  fell  in  with  his  schemes.  He  sent 
one  of  them  to  Liverpool  with  explosives  and  a  letter  to  a 
man  named  Flanagan,  a  laborer  in  that  city.  Both  were 
arrested.  So,  also,  were  four  others  who  had  been  in  Red 
Jim's  company  in  Cork.  Each  had  some  instructions  for 
making  explosives  found  upon  them,  and  as  they  had  all 
been  members  of  a  secret  society  they  were  ultimately  tried 
for  treason  felony  and  sentenced  to  penal  servitude  for  life. 

Once  more  McDermott  is  found  in  London.  A  short  time 
afterwards  several  men  were  arrested  for  being  in  possession 
of  explosives.  Each  of  these  had  been  in  his  society.  They, 
too,  were  put  on  trial  and  given  life  sentences.  On  April 
3d  McDermott  wrote  a  letter  from  London,  which  was  sub- 
sequently published  in  a  New  York  paper,  and  in  this  com- 
munication he  gave  an  account  of  "the  disasters"  that  had 
happened  in  Cork  and  London,  lamenting  the  loss  to  the 
cause  of  such  sterling  men  as  the  dupes  whom  he  had  in- 
veigled into  his  plots. 

He  is  next  heard  of  in  Paris,  but  by  this  time  a  suspicion 
had  got  abroad  that  he  was  a  spy,  and  had,  in  that  capacity, 
entrapped  Featherstone,  Deasy,  and  the  others  into  bogus 
dynamite  conspiracies.  One  who  narrowly  escaped  being 
numbered  among  his  victims  crossed  to  France  to  settle 
accounts  with  Red  Jim,  but  the  latter  had  already  sailed 
to  New  York  from  Havre  and  thus  escaped  the  promised 
interview. 

A  month  subsequent  to  these  events  I  was  released  from 
prison,  and  resumed  a  correspondence  with  a  Montreal 
evening  paper  which  had  been  interrupted  by  the  attentions 

431 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  his  Majesty  Edward  III.  While  at  breakfast  one  morning 
in  May,  in  the  Imperial  Hotel,  Dublin,  I  received  a  letter 
from  the  proprietor  of  the  Evening  Post,  informing  me  that 
"one  James  McDermott,  of  Brooklyn,  has  been  here  in 
Montreal  trying  to  organize  dynamite  clubs.  He  has  made 
free  use  of  your  name,  asserting  that  he  visited  you  in  prison 
and  that  you  were  fully  cognizant  of  his  revolutionary  stand- 
ing. Write  me  what  you  think  of  him."  That  very  morning 
a  paragraph  had  appeared  in  the  Dublin  papers  announcing 
that  the  blowing  up  of  public  buildings  in  Montreal  had 
been  decided  upon  by  "the  dynamite  party,"  and  that 
sensational  revelations  would  shortly  be  made.  The  evi- 
dence of  McDermott's  handiwork  was  not  conclusive,  but 
the  moral  certainty  of  his  being  at  the  bottom  of  the  whole 
business  was  an  irresistible  invitation  to  expose  his  perfidious 
work  and  calling.  So  I  forthwith  cabled  the  following 
message  to  the  Montreal  Evening  Post:  "I  believe  the 
reported  d^-namite  plot  in  your  city  to  be  the  work  of  one 
Red  Jim  McDermott,  who  is  credited  by  many  over  here 
with  having  been  the  organizer  of  the  bogus  dynamite  out- 
rages in  Cork,  Liverpool,  and  London."  I  signed  my  name 
to  the  message  and  awaited  results. 

I  learned  subsequently  that  Red  Jim  was  in  Montreal  when 
the  above  cable  appeared  in  the  Post.  He  left  immediately 
for  New  York.  Three  or  four  days  subsequently  he  was 
seen  by  a  man  who  had  recently  arrived  from  Cork  to  enter 
a  saloon  in  company  with  a  prominent  dynamiter.  The 
visitor  from  Cork  was  one  whom  McDern>ott  had  tried  to 
enmesh  along  with  Featherstone.  He  followed  the  spy  into 
the  saloon,  and,  whipping  out  a  revolver,  fired  at  him  while 
in  the  act  of  drinking.  The  bullet  missed  its  mark,  and 
Jim  darted  through  a  door,  followed  by  his  whilom  Cork 
dupe.  He  succeeded  in  getting  away  unhurt,  however,  and 
when  next  heard  of  he  was  arrested  upon  landing  at  Liverpool 
and  charged  with  coming  to  England  on  some  criminal 
purpose.  He  was  brought  before  the  Liverpool  magistrates 
on  two  or  three  occasions  on  remand,  with  the  apparent 
object  of  giving  him  the  credentials  of  a  suspected  revolution- 
ist, when  the  farce  had  to  be  abandoned  by  the  local  Mr. 
Jenkinson,  and  Red  Jim  passed  from  public  ken  as  an  un- 
masked agent  provocateur. 

Looking  up  his  earlier  record,  during  the  proceedings  of  the 
Parnell  Commission,  I  found  that  he  was  a  prominent  actor  at 
a  convention  of  so-called  "revolutionists"  which  met  in 
Philadelphia  on  June  28,  1880.  The  leading  spirits  in  this 
gathering  had  been  expelled  from  the  Clan-na-Gael,  and  the 

432 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

"convention"  had  been  called  with  the  object  of  starting 
a  rival  revolutionary  body.  In  a  lengthy  report  of  the 
proceedings  given  in  the  New  York  Weekly  Union  of  July 
lo,  1880,  I  find  the  following  pronouncements : 

" JAMES    McDERMOTT    ON    DYNAMITE 

"James  McDermott,  of  Fenian  fame,  who  is  taking  an 
active  part  in  the  new  organization,  said:  'I  have  been 
actively  engaged  in  laboring  for  the  liberation  of  Ireland 
for  twenty  years,  and  during  that  time  I  crossed  the  sea 
eighteen  or  twenty  times  in  the  interest  of  Fenian  move- 
ments that  amounted  to  nothing.  I  am  compelled  to  say, 
however,  that  the  present  movement  is  a  most  earnest  one. 
Our  motto  is: 

"  '  Not  a  cent  for  blatherskite, 
But  every  dollar  for  dynamite.' 

"'Every  delegate  at  the  convention,  be  he  from  the  Pacific 
coast,  Maine,  or  Washington,  comes  here  paying  his  own  ex- 
penses; not  one  cent  is  furnished  by  an  organization.  This 
fact  in  itself  demonstrates  earnestness.  We  don't  mean  to 
meet  England  on  the  open  battle-field — that  would  be  folly; 
but  we  do  intend  to  carry  on  a  warfare  on  the  principle  of 
nihilism,  and  we  propose  to  establish  a  fund  at  this  con- 
vention for  that  purpose.  We  don't  believe  in  communism 
or  the  equalization  of  property — let  those  who  till  the  soil 
reap  the  benefits.  What  we  want  to  do  is  to  free  Ireland 
from  the  cruel  yoke  of  British  oppression.'" 

The  proceedings  were  brought  to  a  close  as  follows,  ac- 
cording to  the  same  report: 

"the  land  league  denounced 

"Several  speakers  followed,  and  in  the  course  of  their 
remarks  some  very  forcible  language  was  used  in  denunciation 
of  Mr.  Michael  Davitt  and  his  Land  League.  Resolutions 
were  adopted  condemning  as  totally  inadequate  to  the 
redress  of  Irish  grievances  the  Land-League  and  parliamen- 
tary agitation. 

"It  was  also  resolved  to  form  a  revolutionary  directory 
of  five  men,  who  shall  nominate  the  executive  officers  of  the 
revolutionary  work,  and  to  hold  such  executive  to  strict 
account  in  financial  matters.  At  the  same  time  the  executive 
will  be  empowered  to  draw  upon  the  general  fund  for  '  strik- 
ing' purposes,  and  that  they  are  to  be  the  judges  of  emer- 
*8  433 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

gencies  in  which  England  may  be  attacked  or  harassed  with 
advantage  without  being  obliged  to  make  known  the  ob- 
jective points  or  any  part  of  the  plans." 

McDermott,  who  was  to  have  been  produced  as  a  witness 
against  the  Land-League  executive  at  the  Pamell  Commission, 
was,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  originator  of  the  dynamite  policy, 
and  this,  too,  before  a  single  attempt  had  been  made  to  blow 
up  any  public  buildings  in  Great  Britain ;  while,  in  addition, 
it  would  have  been  proved,  had  he  followed  Le  Caron  onto 
the  witness  stand,  that  he  had  been  the  sole  author  of  the 
alleged  plots  for  the  exploding  of  dynamite  in  Cork,  Liverpool, 
and  London  in  March  and  April,  1883. 

The  outrages  which  followed  in  1884 — the  attempts  upon 
the  Tower  and  London  Bridge — were  the  work  of  real  dyna- 
miters, men  who  fell  victims  to  their  own  designs.  It  is  be- 
lieved they  were  killed  in  the  attempt  upon  London  Bridge, 
and  that  their  bodies  floated  down  the  Thames  with  the 
receding  tide  and  were  never  recovered. 


II.  — PARIS    "DYNAMITERS" 

During  the  greater  part  of  1884-85  English  press  agencies, 
and  especially  certain  London  evening  papers,  gave  sensa- 
tional prominence  to  reported  "arrival  of  Fenian  emissaries 
in  Paris,  "  "agents  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  in  the  French  capital, " 
"suspected  Invincibles  in  Brussels,"  "dynamite  conventions 
in  Paris,"  etc.,  etc.  Doubtless  tens  of  thousands  of  news- 
paper readers  in  Great  Britain  believed,  owing  to  previous 
dynamite  explosions,  that  these  accounts  were  true,  and 
that  bands  of  Irish-American  desperadoes  were  planning 
further  outrages  beyond  the  English  Channel.  The  actual 
facts  are  as  follows: 

There  resided  in  Paris  in  1884-85  two  "  refugees,"  one  named 
Kasey  and  the  other  Eugene  Davis.  Kasey  had  been 
suspected,  some  twenty  years  previously,  of  having  been 
connected  with  the  Fenian  movement  in  England,  and  on 
the  strength  of  this  "achievement"  became  a  resident  in 
Paris.  He  was  as  free  to  live  in  Great  Britain  or  Ireland 
as  I  was,  but  it  pleased  him  inore  to  live  in  France,  of  which 
country,  I  believe,  he  became  a  naturalized  citizen.  He 
was,  originally,  a  working  -  man,  very  intelligent,  a  casual 
journalist  and  a  most  accomplished  farceur.  When  sober 
he  talked  sense ;  when  in  the  other  condition  he  led  those  v/ho 
listened  to  him  to  believe  that  all  the  revolutionary  bodies 
in    Ireland,   America,  and   France   took   their  inspiration   or 

434 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

plans  from  this  soi-disant  desperado.     Like  the  character  in 
"  King  John,"  it  might  be  said  of  him,  in  his  cups: 

"What  cannoneer  begot  this  lusty  blood? 
He  speaks  plain  cannon,  fire  and  smoke  and  bounce!" 

Kasey's  talk,  however,  would  put  to  shame  the  comparative 
modest  utterances  of  the  Shakespearian  hero.  Bombs, 
dynamite,  daggers,  poison  were  his  revolutionary  media 
whenever  those  who  wanted  this  sort  of  talk  "stood"  the 
necessary  absinthe  or  cognac,  for  which  it  could  be  pro- 
duced ad  libitum. 

Davis  was  a  "refugee"  of  somewhat  more  coherent  but 
still  more  bibulous  tendencies.  He  was  a  well  -  educated 
but  hopelessly  useless  creature.  Gifted  as  a  versifier,  en- 
dowed with  some  literary  tastes  and  capacity,  he  was  a  kind 
of  Quartier  Latin  cafe  loafer,  living  from  hand  to  mouth, 
and  ready  to  fall  in  with  anything  or  anybody  promising  to 
help  him  to  make  his  lazy,  semi-bohemian  life  more  excitable 
and  endurable.  This  precious  pair  might  be  truly  called 
revolutionary  bummers  or  camp-followers.  They  managed 
to  see  whoever  passed  through  Paris  to  or  from  New  York 
on  missions  of  some  risk  connected  with  revolutionary  move- 
ments, and  they  had  succeeded  in  creating  tlie  impression 
in  London,  Dublin,  and  New  York  that  they  were  indis- 
pensable intermediaries  in  all  transactions  which  should 
be  kept  secret  from  the  knowledge  of  British  authority. 
Consequently  the  couple  were  well  known — alike  to  agents  of 
Scotland  Yard  and  to  emissaries  of  the  Fenian  Brotherhood 
— and  cognac  and  absinthe  increased  or  diminished  in  pro- 
portion to  the  amount  of  "revolutionary  "  or  detective  "busi- 
ness" which  happened  to  be  transacted  in  Paris. 

In  1883  the  notorious  Red  Jim  McDermott  foregathered 
with  Kasey  and  Davis  during  his  sojourn  in  the  gay  city. 
He  found  the  pair  ready  to  fall  in  v/ith  his  plans  and  schemes 
for  the  redemption  of  Ireland.  He  sent  Davis  on  "a  most 
important  mission"  to  Cork,  where  he  (Red  Jim)  had  already 
entrapped  four  or  five  equally  unsuspecting  fools  by  means 
of  introductory  letters  which  he  had  succeeded  in  obtaining 
from  equally  brilliant  conspirators  in  New  York.  Davis's 
"important  mission"  did  not  earn  for  him  the  fate  which 
the  spy's  plan  to  blow  up  Liverpool  buildings  obtained  for 
Featherstone,  Flanagan,  and  Deasy,  as,  doubtless,  the  au- 
thorities had  by  that  time  found  out  the  bogus  character 
of  McDermott's  "dynamite  plots."  But  it  is  safe  to  assert 
that  there  was  no  lack  of  appreciation  on  the  part  of  Red 
Jim  of  Davis's  courage  and  diplomacy  in   carrying  through 

435 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

the  "  risky  mission  "  upon  which  the  astute  spy  had  despatched 
him.  Both  Kasey  and  Davis  accompanied  McDermott  to 
Havre  in  1883,  when  he  embarked  there  on  his  return  to 
"headquarters"  at  New  York,  after  his  exploits  in  Cork, 
Liverpool,  and  London. 

The  next  person  to  exploit  the  unlimited  revolutionary 
resources  of  Kasey  and  Davis  in  the  interests  of  the  secret- 
service  department  of  the  Home  Office  in  London  was  an 
individual  whom  I  shall  call  Major  Yellow.  He  turned  up  in 
Paris  early  in  1884  armed  with  a  letter  of  introduction  from 
a  London  Fenian  to  Davis.  Yellow  was  (so  he  said)  an 
intimate  friend  of  the  celebrated  Captain  Ay  1  ward  who,  it 
was  alleged,  played  a  most  important  part  in  the  early 
Boer  war.  Yellow  had  been  a  British  officer,  was  a  native 
of  Ireland,  and  he  burned  with  a  revolutionary  desire  to 
avenge  the  wrongs  of  his  country,  etc.  He  wished  to  form 
a  new  and  more  determined  conspiracy  than  that  of  the 
Fenian  Brotherhood  or  Clan -na- Gael.  His  dear  friend 
Aylward  was  fully  cognizant  of  his  plans,  and  would  soon 
visit  Paris  himself  in  order  to  discuss  them  with  two  such 
stanch  and  experienced  patriots  as  Kasey  and  Davis,  etc.,  etc. 
So  Yellow  soon  became  the  inseparable  fellow-"  conspirator  " 
of  the  pair.  They  "plotted"  at  a  small  hotel  in  the  Rue 
Volney.  Yellow  paid  for  all  the  drink.  The  other  two 
"conspired"  according  to  order.  Dynamite  plots  were 
planned  at  regular  intervals.  "Conventions"  of  Irish- 
American  dynamiters  were  held  periodically  (that  is.  in  the 
hotel  in  the  Rue  Volney),  at  which  "  representative  Sullivan,  " 
of  New  York,  made  certain  declarations  which  did  not  al- 
together coincide  with  the  more  fiery  views  of  "delegate 
Flanagan,"  of  Cork;  but  finally  an  agreement  would  be  come 
to  whereby  the  "thirty  or  forty  delegates  representing  the 
various  circles  of  men  of  action"  would  pledge  themselves 
to  carry  on  the  war  by  scientific  methods  until  the  enemy 
was  beaten  to  his  knees,  etc. 

All  these  plots,  plans,  and  conventions  were  duly  commit- 
ted to  paper  by  Yellow  and  forwarded  to  the  intelligence  de- 
partment of  the  Home  Office,  and  in  due  course  filtered  into 
the  London  evening  Tory  papers,  there  to  supply  texts  for 
anti-Irish  editorials  in  which  all  concessions  to  -the  parlia- 
mentary accomplices  of  "plotting  dynamiters  in  Paris  and 
New  York  "  would  be  unsparingly  condemned. 

These  casual  paragraphs  in  such  papers  tended  to  increase 
the  revolutionary  business  of  Kasey  and  Davis.  Parisian 
correspondents  of  London  morning  papers  soon  found  out 
the  way  to  the  hotel  in  the  Rue  Volney,  and  obtained  a  ready 

436 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

access  to  the  secret-keepers  of  the  universal  dynamite  con- 
spiracy. Kasey  and  Davis  did  a  roaring  trade  in  "con- 
ventions," "mysterious  arrivals"  from  New  York,  and 
projected  attacks  upon  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  Windsor 
Castle,  and  the  rest. 

There  also  appeared  on  the  scene  two  or  three  other  secret- 
service  agents  in  British  pay  who,  however,  were  unknown 
as  such  to  each  other,  and  neither  of  whom  knew  or  was 
known  by  Yellow.  One  of  these  was  a  (sometime)  famous 
Scotland  Yard  detective  whom  I  shall  call  Brown;  another 
was  a  spy  operating  chiefly  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia 
whose  real  name  was  Hayes;  while  another,  who  was  be- 
lieved to  be  one  of  Mr.  Jenkinson's  corps  of  female  detectives 
or  spies,  gave  herself  out  to  be  the  illegitimate  daughter  of  a 
prince  (then  and  for  a  long  time  dead)  who  had  been  the 
consort  of  a  European  queen.  Things  now  became  very 
"mixed"  in  the  spy  business.  All  the  agents  exploited  in 
turn  Kasey  and  Davis.  All  talked  dynamite  and  vengeance 
against  perfidious  Albion.  Hayes  spoke  of  his  suspicions 
about  the  bona  fides  of  Yellow,  while  Brown  had  the  rooms  of 
both  these  latter  searched  in  order  to  discover  who  they 
really  were.  Finally  Hayes  opened  a  letter  which  "the 
princess"  sent  to  Davis  asking  for  his  aid,  and,  replying  in 
Davis's  name,  arranged  an  interview,  the  result  of  which 
was  (according  to  Hayes's  boast)  the  seduction  of  the  female 
member  of  the  quartet  of  agents,  whose  duty  it  was  to 
guard  the  British  empire  from  the  machinations  of  the  pre- 
cious pair  of  dipsomaniacal  "dynamiters." 

Brown  was  recalled  to  Scotland  Yard,  when,  it  is  believed, 
he  gave  a  true  account  of  the  "revolutionary"  drinking 
firm  in  Paris,  whereupon  Yellow,  in  order  not  to  be  thoroughly 
discredited,  proposed  an  expedition  to  Kasey  which  was  to 
be  carried  out  as  follows: 

A  plot  was  to  be  arranged  for  the  rescue  of  John  Daly 
after  his  conviction  at  the  Warwick  Assizes  in  1884.  Yellow 
was  the  inspiration  of  this  bogus  design.  He  and  Kasey 
were  to  proceed  to  London  and  interview  Mr.  Parnell 
or  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  on  the  subject,  with  the  view  of  ob- 
taining ;^ioo  towards  the  successful  achievement  of  the 
contemplated  rescue.  The  pair  of  plotters  left  for  Dover. 
Yellow  deposited  an  old  can,  wrapped  as  a  parcel,  against 
one  of  the  walls  of  the  railway  station,  with  a  fuse  attached. 
The  papers  announced  the  following  morning  that  "a  dia- 
bolical plot  to  blow  up  the  Dover  railway  station"  had  been 
frustrated  by  the  timely  discovery  of  an  infernal  machine. 
After  this  auspicious  exploit  Yellow  and  Kasey  arrived  in 

437 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

London.  Kasey  attempted  to  interview  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor 
and  one  or  two  other  Irish  members  in  the  lobby  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  but,  faihng  to  interest  anybody  in 
Yellow's  plans  for  the  rescue  of  John  Daly,  the  agent  of  the 
intelligence  department  of  the  Home  Office  took  Kasey  to 
Scotland  Yard,  there  to  exhibit  the  friendly  relations  which 
existed  between  himself  and  "the  terrible  conspirator"  from 
Paris.  A  "wild  drive"  to  an  address  at  Kensington  (pursued, 
of  course,  by  detectives)  and  "a  narrow  escape  from  arrest" 
(of  the  pair  who  had  visited  Scotland  Yard!)  in  a  flight  back 
to  Paris  ended  the  sham  plot  for  the  rescue  of  Daly,  and 
terminated,  shortly  after,  the  connection  (for  the  time  being) 
between  Yellow  and  his  employers  at  the  Home  Office. 
For  while  Yellow  &  Co.  were  revealing  to  the  authorities  in 
London  all  about  the  plots,  plans,  and  purposes  of  the 
Clan-na-Gael  and  dynamiters,  as  disclosed  by  Kasey  and 
Davis,  real  dynamiters  had  been  at  work  in  London,  and  had 
attempted  to  destroy  the  Tower  and  London  Bridge.  Mani- 
festly those  who  really  meant  to  resort  to  the  criminal 
methods  of  propaganda  by  deed  meant  to  avoid  the  company 
of  Kasey  and  Davis  as  much  as  that  of  real  agents  of  the 
police.  Major  Yellow  will  be  heard  of  aga-in  in  the  course 
of  our  story. 

III.— A     LADY     "DYNAMITER" 

In  the  summer  of  1884  there  appeared  in  nationalist 
circles  in  Dublin  a  young  and  attractive  widow  from  London 
named  Mrs.  T .  She  was  under  the  guidance  of  an  ex- 
political  prisoner,  and  was  eloquent  in  her  admiration  for 
extreme  revolutionary  movements.  She  was  a  patriot  as 
the  result  of  a  revered  racial  inheritance  from  an  Irish  mother, 
had  an  independent  income,  and  was  eager  to  help  the  cause 
of  an  Irish  republic.  Parliamentary  action  interested  her 
not.  It  was  a  waste  of  effort  and  money.  Nothing  ever 
convinced  the  English  mind  about  Irish  wrongs  except  force. 
"Strike  sharply  and  strike  home  "  was  her  remedy,  and  as 
far  as  her  means  would  permit  men  of  action  should  command 
her  sympathy  and  resources.  Such  were  the  views  expressed 
by  an  exceedingly  pretty  woman,  some  twenty -seven  years 
of  age,  as  she  received  in  her  sitting-room  in  the  Gresham 
Hotel  "conspirator"  after  "conspirator"  of  the  standing 
corps  of  Dublin's  practical  jokers,  who  had  learned  of  Mrs. 

T 's  arrival,  and  had  judged  from  her  English  accent  and 

wild  revolutionary  propaganda  that  some  mystery  lay  behind 
the  part  she  had  come  to  Ireland  to  play. 

438 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

A  plot  was  a^once  arranged  with  the  object  of  unmasking 
the  fair  but  deceptive  agent  of  Mr.  Jenkinson,  as  she  was 
beUeved  to  be.  "Information"  was  conveyed  to  her  that 
the  son  of  a  notorious  New  York  dynamiter  had  just  arrived 
in  DubHn.  He  was  on  his  way  to  London  on  most  important 
and  dangerous  business.  His  confederates  were  terribly 
anxious  to  secure  for  him  a  safe  asylum  in,  to  him,  a  strange 
city,  pending  "an  important  visit  to  the  House  of  Commons" 
(this  with  significant  emphasis)  which  he  intended  making, 
"just  to  regulate  the  proceedings  a  little  by  moving  the 
adjournment  of  the  House"— this  with  a  wink  and  a  laugh. 

Mrs.  T was  delighted.     She  would  put  young  R 

up  in  her  own  house.  He  could  accompany  her  to  London. 
No  one  would  suspect  him  while  in  her  company.  Could 
she  see  him? 

Certainly.  He  would  call  at  eleven  that  night  providing 
the  fifty  sentinels  that  would  watch  the  approaches  to  the 
hotel  should  report  that  no  detectives  were  around.  The 
required  interview  took  place.  A  heavily  cloaked  figure 
arrived  at  the  hour  named.  He  had  only  three  minutes  to 
stay,   but  would  see  her  again.     He  came  to   express  his 

appreciation    of    Mrs.  T 's    splendid    patriotism    and    to 

thank  her  for  her  promised  assistance,  and  the  cloaked  con- 
spirator slid  silently  away  again  from  the  room. 

Mrs.  T was   anxious  before  conducting  her  protege  to 

London  to  meet  all  the  Dublin  leaders  of  the  active  policy. 
Could  she  have  the  honor  of  their  company  at  a  private 
dinner  in  that  room  on  the  following  night?  This  was  a 
most  serious  proposal.     What  a  haul  it  would  be  for  the 

Castle  if    all   their   leaders,    but    especially    young    R , 

were  captured!     The  whole  movement  would  fall  to  pieces. 

"Oh,  there  is  no  risk  in  my  room.  It  will  be  all  right, 
I  assure  you.  It  would  be  such  a  great  honor  that  I  do  press 
you  to  gratify  me." 

A  reluctant  assent  was  given,  as  a  mark  of  unparalleled 
confidence,  and  one  of  the  gang  was  charged  to  bring  the 
eight  dynamite  leaders  of  Ireland,  then  in  Dublin,  to  the 
complimentary  feast  at  8.30  the  following  evening,  young 
R to  be  the  guest  of  distinction. 

Pressmen  were  the  majority  of  the  dinner-party,  the  editor 
of  a  sporting  paper  playing  the  part  of  the  "  extremist  leader  " 
then  in  Ireland.  "Colonels"  and  "captains"  addressed  each 
other  on  revolutionary  topics,  to  the  evident  pleasure  of  the 
fair  hostess.  Champagne  was  freely  ordered,  and  her  guests 
were  warmly  pressed  to  drink  to  the  success  of  "the  cause," 
but  no  suggestion  or  invitation  on  the  part  of  any  of  the 

439 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

company  would  induce  Mrs.  T to  indulge  in  any  beverage 

but  water.  She  was  anxious  to  serve  "our  common  cause" 
to  the  utrnost  of  her  means,  and  was  prepared  to  advance 
;^5oo  out  of  her  own  means  towards  the  delivery  of  a  stagger- 
ing blow  against  "the  enemy."  The  House  of  Commons  was 
the  centre  of  England's  power.  Why  not  strike  at  it  when 
in  session?  She  would  aid  and  shelter  as  far  as  possible  any 
one  who  v/ould  undertake  such  a  glorious  task  and  take  him 
or  them  to  Italy  for  safety  afterwards. 

Her  auditors  were  loud  in  their  praise  of  her  courage  and 
generosity,  and  acclaimed  her  again  and  again  in  more  o^ 
her  own  champagne.  At  this  point,  in  accordance  with  8 
prearranged  plan,  a  confederate  in  the  hotel  burst  open  tht 
door  and  cried:  "Mallon  and  the  G  men  are  around  the 
hotel!"  Affected  consternation  seized  the  colonels  and  cap- 
tains, while  young  R nished  to  the  fireplace  to  examine 

the  chimney  as  a  possible  place  of  concealment.     Mrs.  T 

was  thrown  off  her  guard,  and  loudly  assured  her  guests  that 
there  need  be  no  fear.  She  was  certain  there  was  no  danger. 
The  "chief"  of  the  dynamite  party  ordered  his  lieutenants  to 
be  prepared  to  sell  their  lives  rather  than  be  caught.     He 

suggested  that  Mrs.  T might  descend  to  the  hall  of  the 

hotel  and  ascertain  whether  the  enemy's  myrmidons  were  in 
force  or  were  only  watching  the  place.  This  she  readily 
consented  to  do  and  left  the  room.  Instantly  her  bedroom 
was  raided,  and  all  letters  and  bits  of  paper  that  could  be 
found  in  the  fireplace  or  elsewhere  were  seized.  She  returned 
in  a  few  moments,  smiling,  and  found  her  guests  drawn  up 
prepared  for  a  deadly  encounter. 

It  was  a  false  alarm,  she  assured  them;  there  were  no 
police  or  detectives  in  the  vicinity. 

So  the  dinner  proceeded,  the  "chief"  intimating  to  Mrs. 

T that  her  proposal  about  the  House  of  Commons  would 

be  duly  considered.  They  would  not,  however,  accept  of  so 
large  a  donation  as  ;^5oo  at  present.  If  she  would  con- 
tribute ;^20  towards  the  escape  of  a  dynamiter  then  in 
London,  who  had  been  involved  in  the  attempt  to  blow  up 
Scotland  Yard,  she  would  earn  their  gratitude.  This  sum 
was  at  once  given  to  the  "  chief,"  and  after  mutual  expressions 
of  pleasure  and  appreciation  the  "conspirators"  took  their 
leave. 

On  reaching  the  Imperial  Hotel  the  papers  secured  in  Mrs. 

T 's  room  were  examined  by  the  boys  who  had  dined 

with  her.     Pieces  of  a  torn  telegram  put  together  made  out 

the  words:     "From  the  Home  Office.     To  Mrs.  T ,  the 

Gresham  Hotel,  Dublin."     It  was  found  also  that  she  was 

440 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

the  daughter  of  a  noted  Scotland  Yard  chief  inspector. 
That  night  a  letter  was  written  to  the  chief  secretary  (Sir 
George  Trevelyan)  to  the  House  of  Commons,  enclosing  the 
money  contributed  by  Mrs.  T towards  enabling  a  dyna- 
miter to  escape  from  justice,  and  charging  the  Home  Office 
with  employing  agents  provocateurs  to  promote  crime.  A  ques- 
tion relating  to  the  money  and  letter  was  addressed  to  Sir 
George  a  few  days  subsequently  in  the  House  of  Commons 
by  an  Irish  member,  when  he  admitted  that  he  had  received 
the  letter  in  question  with  the  sum  of  money  mentioned 
enclosed. 

Meanwhile  the  editor  of  the  sporting  paper,  who  had  per- 
sonated the  "dynamite  chief,"  exposed  the  whole  affair  in  his 

paper,  naming  Mrs.  T ,  describing  the  champagne  dinner, 

reproducing  the  fair  dame's  cool  proposal  to  explode  dynamite 
bombs  inside  the  House  of  Commons,  and  publishing  the 
names  of  his  brother  "conspirators."  The  Gresham  Hotel 
knew  its  interesting  guest  no  more,  nor  did  any  of  Mr.  Jenkin- 
son's  female  secret  agents  visit  Dublin  again  during  his 
connection  with  the  secret  intelligence  department  of  the 
Home  Office. 


IV.— SOME     DUBLIN-CASTLE     METHODS 

"  R.  I.  C,  Dublin  Castle 
"  Secret. 

"  The  following  method  of  cipher  is  to  be  adopted: 


FIG.    I. 


I 

2 

3 

4 

5     [ 

i 

s 

9 

lO 

1 1 

6 

7 

12 

12 

7 

6 

I  I 

lO 

9 

8 

5 

4 

3 

2 

I 

"  A  square  is  drawn  with  twenty- 
five  divisions,  numbered  as  in  Fig. 
I.  To  this  there  is  a  key -word. 
All  that  has  to  be  remembered  is 
the  sequence  of  the  numbers  and 
the  key -word,  which  may  be  changed 
as  directed.  It  should  be  some 
word  of  seven  or  eight  letters,  no 
one  letter  being  repeated  in  it,  and 
it  will  be  communicated  from  time 
to  time  from  headquarters.  The 
key-word  is  written  in  the  squares 
as  below  in  Fig.  2,  the  remaining 
spaces  being  filled  in  with  the  letters 
of  the  alphabet  in  succession,  ojiitt- 
ting  any  ivhich  occur  in  the  key-word. 
The  centre  square  has  no  number, 
the  real  letter  being  used. 
441 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 


FIG. 


"The  key -word  in  Fig.  2  is 
'captive.'  The  principle  is  that 
for  the  real  letter  the  one  which 
appears  under  the  corresponding 
number  in  the  square  is  sub- 
stituted (for  instance,  in  Fig.  2 
X  is  substituted  for  P  and  W  for 
T),  except  when  the  real  letter 
is  found  in  the  centre  division  of 
the  square  (in  this  instance  K), 
in  which  case  that  letter  itself 
must  be  used.  It  is  to  be  ob- 
served that  I  and  J  are  always 
to  be  in  the  same  square. 

**  The  following  is  a  sample  message: 

"  VWYEWUGGROUYWRHA 

"  Start  immediately. 

"  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark  that  this  paper  is  to  be 

kept  strictly  secret,  and  under  lock  and  key.     It  is  never  to 

be  let  out  of  your  office.     You  will  acknowledge  receipt  of 

this  paper,  and  make  yourself  acquainted  with  the  cipher; 

as  soon  as  you  have  done  so  you  will  send  in  writing  to 

headquarters  under  double  cover  a  translation  of  the  following 

message,  taking  as  above,  'captive'  for  the  key -word,  which 

will  be  used  until  further  orders.  ..  t     T:^    u  t  /^ 

L.  L.  HiLLIER,  l.G. 

"  YEERVWUYGRVVWRXLRFV." 


I 
c 

2 
a 

3 
P 

4 
T 

I  o^r  J 

8 
V 

9 
E 

10 
B 

1 1 
D 

6 
F 

7 
G 

12 
H 

K 

12 
L 

7 
jVI 

6 

N 

II 
0 

10 
Q 

q 
R 

8 
S 

i 

4 

w 

3 
X 

2 
Y 

I 
Z 

,,^      ^  ,       .   ,  POLICE     DUTIES 

Conpaential. 

"  On  opposite  margin  are  the  names  of  constables  appointed 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  information  and  if  possible 
informers  with  regard  to  secret  societies.  The  constables 
are  to  understand  that  this  duty  is  in  addition  to  all  other 
duties.  They  will  not  get  any  extra  pay,  but  will  be  en- 
couraged and  possibly  rewarded  for  any  special  mark.  These 
constables  will  carry  pocket  diaries,  which  should  be  very 
carefully  kept  up,  entries  to  be  made  at  once  when  the  mat- 
ter to  be  noted  is  fresh  in  the  mind,  and  any  carelessness 
or  apathy  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty  will  be  promptly 
reported  to  the  county  inspector.  A  list  of  suspects  will  be 
supplied  in  due  course."      

"In  future,  when  recommending  the  emigration  of  Crown 
witnesses  or  other  such  persons,  please  state  the  colony,  etc., 

442 


DYNAMITE    PLOTS 

to  which  each  person  desires  to  go,  the  cost  of  passage,  the 
amount  of  money  which  you  consider  should  be  given  in  hand, 
and  any  other  particulars  which  you  may  deem  necessary." 

Cipher  message  from  Dublin  Castle  to  Captain  Plunkett, 
R.M.: 

"Do  not  interfere  with  Gaelic  meetings^  for  present. 
Get  athletic  men  in  the  police  [Royal  Irish  Constabulary]  to 
mix  as  much  as  possible  with  the  [Gaelic]  athletes  in  the 
country,  so  as  to  try  and  get  the  Gaelic  association  antagonis- 
tic to  the  National  League.  Croke  [Archbishop  of  Cashel] 
has  gone  against  crowd. 

"W.  R.  [Sir  West  Ridgeway]." 


"  S.W.  Division,  D.  Magistrate's  Office, 

"Cork,  August  15,  1886. 
"Secret  and  Confidential. 

"Wherever  resolutions  are  passed  at  any  meeting  of  the 
branches  of  the  Irish  National  League  in  your  district  (i) 
summoning  any  one  to  attend  their  meetings  to  explain  their 
conduct;  (2)  condemning  the  conduct  of  any  person;  (3) 
boycotting  any  one,  or  in  any  way  attempting  to  intimi- 
date any  person,  the  head  constable  or  sergeant  in  charge 
of  the  station,  after  making  personal  inquiry  if  possible 
from  the  person  affected  by  the  resolution,  and  otherwise 
satisfying  himself  that  what  he  has  heard  is  true,  should 
immediately  report  all  the  circumstances  in  connection  with 
such  case  to  me  through  the  usual  channel,  and  state  if  in 
proof  of  what  he  has  heard  there  is  any  evidence  procurable 
on  which  reliance  could  be  placed,  and  if  in  his  opinion  the 
parties  affected  by  the  resolutions,  or  any  one  present  at  the 
meetings  when  they  were  passed,  would,  if  summoned  and 
sworn,  be  likely  to  give  truthful  evidence. 

"A  day  patrol  from  the  neighboring  station  should  always 
be  in  the  vicinity  of  the  meeting  to  note  all  those  who  attend 
it,  for  future  reference.  Please  issue  verbally  the  necessary 
directions  to  the  head  constable  or  sergeant  in  charge  of  the 
stations  where  there  are  branches  of  the  Irish  National 
League,  in  order  that  these  instructions  will  be  complied 
with  in  future,  as  I  find  in  many  instances  such  reports  have 
not  been  hitherto  furnished  to  me,  and  take  such  steps  as 
are  necessary  that  these  instructions  will  be  teated  as  strictly 
confidential.  (Signed)  T.  O.  Plunkett,  R.M. 

"Acknowledge  by  returning  this  paper." 

'  The  Gaelic  Athletic  Association. 
443 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

A     PROGRAMME    SPOILED     BY     THE     "INVIN- 
CIBLES" 

Meetings  in  Ireland  being  at  this  time  (1883)  at  the 
mercy  of  DubHn  Castle,  to  be  suppressed  by  force  or  to  be 
permitted  with  a  government  reporter  present  as  a  note- 
taker  for  possible  prosecutions,  just  as  Earl  Spencer  should 
determine,  and  a  rigorous  closure  being  a  bar  to  the  old- 
time  obstruction  in  the  House  of  Commons,  Mr.  Pamell  and 
his  forces  were  more  or  less  restricted  to  defensive  operations. 
This  state  of  things,  however,  was  not  greatly  deplored  by 
the  Irish  leader.  Work  of  a  necessary  kind  was  proceeding 
in  Australia,  as  shown  in  a  preceding  chapter,  while  the  league 
in  the  United  States,  though  a  source  of  greater  anxiety  to 
him  owing  to  the  growing  influence  of  the  extreme  section 
in  the  rule  of  the  movement  there,  was  reminding  England 
through  the  press  that  elements  dangerous  to  peace  on  one 
side  of  the  Atlantic  were  to  be  reckoned  with  on  the  other  if 
the  movement  for  land  reform  and  Home  Rule  should  be 
again  summarily  suppressed.  It  was  a  time  for  counting 
chances  and  for  looking  ahead.  The  franchise  question  was 
rushing  to  the  front  of  English  party  politics  with  a  force 
that  could  not  be  held  back.  The  British  agricultural 
laborer  and  country  worker  were  outside  the  constitution. 
They  were  taxed  without  having  votes,  while  the  propertied 
classes,  under  every  form  and  pretext  that  could  secure  a 
franchise,  were  unduly  represented  in  the  electorate.  A 
reform  was  therefore  imminent,  and  it  became  a  question  of 
serious  concern  how  the  approaching  enfranchisement  of  the 
British  industrial  democracy  would  aflfect  the  fortunes  of  the 
Irish  cause. 

Talking  this  subject  over  with  Mr.  Parnell,  shortly  before 
my  imprisonment  under  the  law  of  his  late  Majesty  Edward 
III.  of  the  fourteenth  century,  I  strongly  urged  him  to  try 
this  plan  for  one  or  two  sessions  of  Parliament : 
.  Suspend  all  Irish  questions  and  business  except  the  bill 
for  the  better  housing  of  Irish  agricultural  laborers  which  he 

444 


SPOILED    BY    THE    "  I  N  V  I  N  C  I  B  L  E  S  " 

was  then  having  prepared.  Press  this  forward,  and  then 
put  into  operation  a  programme  of  this  kind:  Prepare  a 
dozen  bills  dealing  with  every  English,  Welsh,  and  Scotch 
popular  question  or  issue,  according  to  Irish  ideas,  that  was 
on  advanced,  progressive  lines.  For  instance,  a  bill  similar 
to  the  Gladstone  Land  Act  of  1881  for  British  tenant-farmers; 
one  for  taxing  land  monopoly  by  the  reimposition  of  the  old 
land  tax  of  four  shillings  in  the  pound,  on  landlord  property, 
on  present-day  valuation;  a  bill  to  insure  the  lives  of  coal- 
miners  against  accidents,  the  premiums  to  be  paid  out  of 
the  mineral  royalties  levied  by  landlordism  on  coal;  the  bill 
for  the  benefit  of  Irish  rural  laborers  to  be  extended  to  those 
of  Great  Britain;  a  measure  to  provide  a  less  degrading 
provision  for  infirm  old  age  than  the  existing  workhouse;  a 
measure  for  the  disestablishment  and  disendowment  of  the 
State  Church  of  England  and  Wales ;  also  one  for  the  abolition 
of  tithes  in  the  principality;  bills  for  the  creation  of  county 
councils  in  Great  Britain;  a  measure  to  confer  the  right  of 
manhood  suffrage  on  the  adults  of  England,  Ireland,  Scotland, 
and  Wales,  and  a  demand  for  the  abolition  of  the  hereditary 
privilege  of  legislation  vested  in  membership  of  the  House 
of  Lords,  etc.,  etc. 

The  carrying  out  of  this  parliamentary  policy  would  have  a 
threefold  purpose  in  view.  It  would  be,  in  military  terms, 
a  "turning  movement"  against  the  territorial  interests  and 
class  which  were  the  predominant  influence  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament  and  the  most  inveterate  of  Ireland's  enemies 
therein.  It  would  also  attempt  to  do  for  the  British  working- 
classes  what  no  party  or  section  of  their  own  representatives 
would  dare  to  do  (at  that  time)  in  the  way  of  radical  reform. 
It  would,  in  addition,  impress  the  people  of  England  as  a 
daring  Irish  policy  inside  the  House  of  Commons,  which, 
while  perfectly  compatible  with  the  absurd  principle  of 
imperial  legislation  that  compelled  Irishmen  to  come  to 
Westminster  and  to  participate  in  the  making  of  laws  for 
Great  Britain,  while  denying  them  the  right  to  meet  in 
Dublin  and  to  meddle  only  in  the  affairs  of  Ireland,  would 
also  remind  both  Parliament  and  the  public  of  the  "rev- 
olutionary" principles  and  measures  the  aristocracy  and 
vested  interests  classes  of  England  would  be  constantly  con- 
fronted with,  right  in  the  citadel  of  law-making  power,  unless 
Home  Rule  was  conceded  and  the  Irish  members  were  packed 
off  to  a  domestic  legislature  of  their  own  in  Ireland. 

This  was  not  put  forward  as  a  mere  Utopian  plan.  Nothing 
of  the  kind.  It  was  prompted  b}^  the  signs  of  the  time,  when 
symptoms  of  a  social-democratic  revival  in  the  popular  mind 

445 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN     IRELAND 

of  Ireland  and  England  were  struggling  for  expression  in 
the  House  of  Commons.  Moreover,  Ireland  had  almost 
always  been  the  nursery  of  missionary  ideas  and  ideals, 
when  she  was  not  being  dragooned  or  otherwise  persecuted 
by  England.  The  Celt  is  by  nature  a  restless,  discontented 
being  under  wrong  or  injustice,  and  a  yearning  aspirant  for 
better  things  when  he  obtains  the  right  or  the  opportunity 
of  advocating  them.  No  student  of  the  Brehon  laws  and 
of  the  manners  and  customs  of  ancient  Ireland  can  fail  to 
be  convinced  of  the  great  regard  for  the  educational,  social, 
and  industrial  interests  and  regulations  which  obtained  in 
those  times.  O'Connell  was  a  greater  reforming  influence 
in  England  in  the  thirties  than  any  then  living  English 
statesman,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  It  was 
his  Irish  contingent  which  alone  saved  the  great  reform  bill 
of  1832  from  defeat  at  the  hands  of  the  Tories.  In  1834 
Sir  Robert  Peel  ^  accused  him  of  being  a  Radical,  trades- 
unionist,  and  an  advocate  of  an  extension  of  the  franchise  to 
working-men.  Isaac  Butt,  and  later  still  Mr.  Parnell  himself, 
had  been  the  supporter  of  every  measure  brought  forward 
in  the  House  of  Commons  for  the  benefit  of  the  British 
working  -  class  or  for  a  widening  of  their  liberties.  The 
abominable  English  practice  of  flogging  in  the  army  and 
navy  had  been  attacked,  exposed,  and  abolished  by  the 
action  of  Parnell,  Biggar,  O'Donnell,  and  other  Irishmen  in 
1877-78.  There  would,  therefore,  be  nothing  inconsistent, 
though  there  might  be  something  startling,  in  Mr.   Parnell 

*  "On  the  occasion  to  which  he  had  referred,  the  right  honorable  and 
learned  gentleman  (Daniel  O'Connell)  had  stated  that  he  had  been 
waited  upon  by  a  deputation  of  trades -unions;  that  'their  object 
was  to  call  back  the  Dorsetshire  laborers,  and  he  advised  them  to 
send  such  a  petition  to  his  Majesty  to  effect  that  object  as  would 
take  a  cart  and  six  horses  to  convey  it  to  the  palace.  No  man  had  a 
right  to  condemn  trades-unions  who  was  not  prepared  at  the  same 
time  to  give  to  the  people  the  right  of  voting  for  their  members  of 
Parliament.  The  first  step  which  they  ought  to  take  was  to  obtain 
that  right.  He  (Mr.  O'Connell)  was  an  apostle  of  the  movement, 
and  a  greater  Radical  could  not  exist  than  the  man  before  them. 
He  advised  those  wh(jm  he  addressed  not  to  mistake  their  power  or 
to  misdirect  it.  Let  them  keep  their  tempers  and  wait  their  time. 
Let  them  act  peaceably,  legally,  and  constitutionally,  but  niultitudi- 
nously,  and  by  prudence,  caution,  energy,  and  unremitting  exertions 
they  would  effect  their  object.'  Was  it  not  probable  [added  Sir 
Robert  Peel]  that  the  same  honorable  gentleman  who  so  offered  his 
services  in  this  country  [England]  would,  in  his  own,  on  questions 
of  greater  excitement,  endeavor  to  control  the  deliberations  of  the 
Irish  legislature  by  a  similar  display  of  physical  force?"— Sir  Robert 
Peel  in  reply  to  O'Connell's  motion  for  Repeal.  House  of  Commons, 
April  25,  1834. 

446 


SPOILED    BY    THE    "INVINCIBLES" 

and  his  chief  lieutenants  rising  in  their  places  at  the  opening 
of  the  session  of  1883  or  1884  and  giving  notice,  one  after 
the  other,  of  bills  to  be  introduced  by  them  on  the  lines 
indicated  in  the  suggested  plan  of  parliatnentary  retaliation 
against  the  government  policy  of  closure  and  coercion. 

True,  the  bills  might  not  be  favored  in  the  ballot  for  places. 
Chance  would  determine  that.  Some  of  them  might  never 
be  subjected  to  discussion,  but  that  in  no  way  told  against 
the  chief  reasons  why  such  a  plan  of  operations  should  not  be 
resorted  to  in  view  of  the  circumstances  of  the  time  and  of 
the  promised  enfranchisement  of  British  workers. 

It  was  also  suggested  that  a  seat  might  be  found  in  Ireland 
for  Mr.  Dadabhai  Naoroje,  a  thoroughly  representative 
Indian  gentleman  residing  in  London,  and  well  known  to 
Mr.  Parnell  and  others  of  us.  Ireland  would  thus  have  the 
honor  of  giving  a  direct  voice  in  the  House  of  Commons  to 
countless  millions  of  British  subjects  who  were  ruled  des- 
potically and  taxed  without  votes.  Mr.  F.  H.  O'Donnell's 
plan  of  making  the  affairs  and  government  of  India  an  Irish 
concern — after  the  manner  of  the  attack  upon  the  flogging 
of  British  soldiers  and  sailors — could  be  made  a  business  of 
the  Irish  party  when  no  Irish  questions  demanded  their 
consideration,  and  in  this  way  the  enemies  of  Home  Rule 
would  gain  nothing  by  the  gag  in  Westminster  and  the 
despotism  of  Lord  Spencer  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  very  much  "taken"  at  first  by  this  pro- 
posal. He  saw  clearly  its  tactical  merits,  even  where  he  did 
not  approve  of  some  of  the  advanced  ideas  suggested  as  the 
basis  of  one  or  two  bills  ^  and  he  asked  for  a  fortnight  to  con- 
sidet  fully  the  whole  scheme.  Within  that  fortnight  the  ar- 
rest of  the  "  Invincibles  "  took  place  in  Dublin.  Inside  of  an- 
other two  weeks  he  was  assailed  by  Mr.  Forster,  and  was  put 
on  his  defence  before  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was  to 
have  been  the  theatre  of  other  operations  had  events,  as 
usual,  not  decided  otherwise.  On  my  release  from  Rich- 
mond Bridewell,  in  June,  1883,  Mr.  Parnell  told  me  he  liked 
the  plan  very  much,  but  he  feared  it  would  not  be  clearly 
understood  in  Ireland  and  might  lead  to  trouble  within  the 
party. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  by  no  means  as  insensible  to  English  popu- 
lar feeling  and  possible  support  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
Land-League  movement  as  has  been  represented.  His  viewti 
changed  between  1882  and  1885,  but  that  was  due  mainly  to 
the  outburst  of  public  prejudice  following  the  Phoenix  Park 
tragedy  and  to  the  brutal  attacks  that  had  been  made  Upon 
him  in  the  press.     His  opinions  came  round  again  in  the 

447 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

alliance  with  Mr.  Gladstone,  and  only  changed  back  into  an 
irreconcilable  personal  sentiment  after  the  unhappy  divorce 
proceedings,  and  the  split  which  they  occasioned. 

In  April,  1881,  addressing  a  meeting  in  the  Westminster 
Palace  Hotel,  he  spoke  on  this  subject  in  a  very  pronounced 
manner,  and  I  only  reproduce  the  extract  to  fortify  the 
opinion  I  have  held,  and  still  hold — namely,  that  had  the 
crime  of  May  6,  1882,  not  thwarted  all  the  Land -League 
plans  at  the  time,  the  programme  which  Mr.  Parnell  considered, 
as  related  above,  in  1883,  would,  in  this  or  in  some  other 
equally  progressive  form,  have  been  tried  by  him  in  Parliament 
and  on  the  platform  in  the  event  of  English  parties  continuing 
to  deny  some  form  of  Home  Rule  to  Ireland. 

The  occasion  of  the  speech  was  a  Land-League  meeting,  with 
Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  M.P.,  in  the  chair.     Mr.  Parnell  said: 

"The  English  land  question  is  not  at  present  ripe  for 
settlement,  and  it  would  be  better  to  push  on  with  the  Irish 
land  question  and  gain  as  many  successes  and  ameliorations 
as  we  can,  and  invite  the  co-operation  of  the  English  work- 
ing-classes— the  English  labor  classes — in  this  movement. 
We  feel  sure  that  anything  that  will  be  done  in  Ireland  will 
also  react  upon  the  English  question  when  it  comes  up  for  its 
settlement.  And  now  I  should  recommend  that  our  organi- 
zation should  be  simply  a  sister  organization  to  the  Irish 
Land  League,  acting  independently,  self -governed,  with  its 
own  code  of  rules  and  regulations.   .   .   . 

"You  can  educate  the  English  people  and  public  opinion; 
and  in  speaking  of  English  public  opinion  I  wish  to  recant 
some  expressions  which  I  used  in  reference  to  it.  Before 
the  commencement  of  this  land  movement  I  said  that  Irish 
politicians  ought  not  to  take  into  any  account  English  public 
opinion,  because  it  was  so  difficult  to  reach.  I  was  appre- 
hensive that  we  should  not  entertain  any  hope  of  cultivating 
English  public  opinion  and  instructing  English  public  opinion 
in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  us  to  counteract  the  efforts  of 
the  interested  classes  in  Ireland  and  England  who  used  such 
strenuous  exertions  to  spread  false  ideas.  But  what  I  meant 
then  by  English  public  opinion  was  the  sort  you  see  in  social 
circles  in  London,  the  club  public  opinion,  the  opinion  which 
is  reflected  by  metropolitan  newspapers  and  by  a  great  many 
of  the  provincial  newspapers,  and  I  confess  that  my  views 
have  changed  very  much  during  the  year  or  two  which  have 
gone  by.  .  .  . 

"  At  that  time  we  were  endeavoring  to  cut  our  coat  accord- 
ing to  our  cloth.  We  had  not  then  the  very  large  resources 
which  we  are  in  possession  of  now  for  the  purpose  of  originating 

448 


SPOILED    BY    THE    "INVINCIBLES" 

a  campaign  in  England.  We  could  not  go  then  into  the 
provinces  as  we  did  lately  during  the  passage  of  the  coercion 
bill,  and  hold  a  half-dozen  or  a  dozen  public  meetings  in 
manufacturing  centres  throughout  Great  Britain,  and  we  were 
not  able  to  do  this  then.  In  the  first  place,  our  party  was 
very  small  in  the  House  of  Commons — it  consisted  of  the 
mystic  number  of  seven.  We  have  now  something  like 
forty.  We  had  then  no  valuable  resources;  we  have  now 
our  friends  in  America,  who  are  pouring  in  money  at  the 
rate  of  ;iriooo  a  week.  All  these  figures  point  to  a  very 
great  difference  in  the  prospects  of  Irish  agitation  in  England 
and  the  successful  prosecution  of  our  cause.  The  great  mass 
of  the  English  people,  I  feel  convinced,  do  not  desire  to  do 
any  injustice  to  Ireland. 

"Then,  again,  I  was  very  much  influenced  by  the  advice 
and  very  strong  recommendations  which  were  given  to  me 
by    my    friend    Mr.    Michael    Davitt.      I    can    recollect   the 
day  before  he  was  arrested  and  sent  back  to  penal  servitude 
a  conversation  which  he  held  with  me.     He  said  to  me,  '  I 
think  we  have  made  a  great  mistake  in  not  cultivating  the 
public  opinion  of  the  English  working-classes,  and  I  hope  you 
will  take  steps  in  England ' — he  was  then  returning  to  Ireland 
— 'to  hold  meetings  in  the  large  English  towns,  and  to  in- 
struct the  working-classes  with  regard  to  the  merits  of  this 
land  question.'     He  was  arrested  the  next  day,  and  I  have 
recollected  that  he  told  me  that  then,  and  kept  it  in  my 
mind,  and  I  think  it  was  very  important  and  very  valuable 
advice.     Now,  the  English  land  question,  as  I  said,  is  not 
ripe  for  settlement  at  present,  but  if  we  can  instruct  English 
working-classes  with  regard  to  this  question,  we  can    show 
them  that  they  are  being  made  the  tools  of  the  territorial 
party  in  this  country  and  also  in  Ireland  for  the  purpose 
of  collecting  these  seventeen  millions  a  year  in  the  shape  of 
rents  from  Ireland.     If  we  can  show  them  that  these  opera- 
tions and  the  collecting  of  unjust  rents  necessitate  an  annual 
payment  from  them  of  four  millions  of  money  at  least  for 
the  purpose  of  maintaining  forty  thousand  soldiers  in  Ireland; 
if  we  can  show  them  that  this  is  keeping  the  two  countries 
permanently  estranged — that  it  makes  the  Irishmen  hate  the 
Englishmen,  and  that  it  makes  the  Englishmen  almost  hate 
the   Irishmen   no  matter   in   what   part   of  the  world  they 
meet;  and  if  we  can  show  them  that  the  maintenance  of 
such  a  system  is  a  permanent  disadvantage  to  the  interests 
of  the  whole  country,  I  believe  that  the  present  Irish  land 
system  will  be  swept   away  before   four  or  five  years   have 
gone  by.     Gentlemen,  I  have  invited  your  attendance  here 
29  449 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

to-night  in  order  that  we  might  strike  out  a  practical  scheme 
of  organization  which  will  be  forwarded  in  the  first  case  by 
the  help  of  our  own  people  in  this  country,  but  in  which 
after  a  time  we  hope  to  embrace  the  English  working-classes, 
and  I  feel  sure  that  when  we  are  able  to  put  our  case  in  its 
verity  before  them,  they  will  flock  to  our  assistance  in  very 
large  numbers."  * 

The  fierce  passions  enkindled  during  the  warfare  of  1881-82 
were  smouldering  in  sullen  discontent  on  both  sides  under 
the  Spencer  government  in  1883-84.  The  landlords  had  got 
the  worst  of  the  encounter,  but  neither  side  had  conquered. 
Landlordism,  backed  by  coercion,  fought  for  its  hand  in  a 
vengeful  spirit,  and  put  the  law  as  often  as  possible  to  the 
odious  task  of  eviction.  Distress  was  again  looming  over 
some  of  the  poorer  districts  of  the  West  and  South,  where  the 
accursed  potato  (in  an  economic  sense),  the  enemy  of  the 
poorer  Irish  peasantry — the  source  of  their  minimum  in- 
dustry and  the  cause  of  the  low  wages  of  Irish  agricultural 
laborers — was  the  chief  sustenance  of  the  people.  This 
state  of  things  necessarily  aroused  anxiety  and  anger,  and 
Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  and  myself  gave  simultaneous  expression 
to  the  prevalent  feeling  in  speeches  which  left  nothing  to  be 
desired  in  the  way  of  strong  language,  however  one  of  them 
might  be  lacking  in  cogency  of  argument  and  political  wisdom. 
We  were  forthwith  prosecuted.  The  law  had  been  broken 
in  the  view  of  Earl  Spencer  and  his  advisers,  but  it  was 
not  the  ordinary  nor  yet  the  extraordinary  law  of  the  land 
under  the  coercionist  state  of  siege — it  was  the  law  of  their 
combined  Majesties  Edward  III.,  James  I.,  and  Charles  I., 
of  ancient  and  not  of  blessed  memory  in  Ireland.  Never 
before  in  either  England  or  Ireland  had  this  law  been  put  in 
force  by  an  English  government  in  a  political  case,  and  it 
is  on  that  account  that  the  prosecution  in  question  calls  for 
some  brief  comment  here  as  one  of  the  innumerable  blunder- 
ing measures  of  Dublin-Castle  rule. 

The  substantive  law  of  King  Edward  III.,  passed  in  1361, 
was  enacted  to  deal  with  a  condition  of  society  in  England 
before  the  organization  of  any  police  force.  Its  purpose  was, 
in  the  legal  phraseology  of  the  time,  "to  repair  the  breaches 
made  in  the  preservation  of  the  peace  by  the  decay  of  frank- 
pledge." It  operated  through  special  justices  of  the  peace, 
who  were  appointed  to  prevent  as  well  as  to  punish  crime. 
"Articles  of  the  peace"  were  to  be  "exhibited"  against  an 
accused    or    suspected    individual,    whereupon    this    person 

'  The  Irish  World,  April  22,  1881.  Reprinted  from  the  Dublin 
Freeman's  Journal. 

45° 


SPOILED    BY    THE    "INVINCIBLES" 

would  be  called  upon  to  enter  into  recognizance  to  be  of  good 
behavior  for  some  stated  period,  or  otherwise  go  to  prison  as 
"a  rogue  or  vagabond"  for  what  term  the  court  should 
decide.  It  was  part  of  the  star-chamber  law  of  the  Middle 
Ages  in  England.  In  subsequent  times  its  application 
against  persons  suspected  of  vagrancy  and  crimes  of  that 
kind  led  to  such  acts  of  injustice  that  the  statutes  of  21 
James  and  10  Charles  were  passed  as  a  check  upon  these  un- 
warranted abuses  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject  in  the  name 
of  this  law  of  Edward  III. 

The  purpose  of  Dublin  Castle  in  resorting  in  the  year  1883 
to  this  statute  of  medieval  times  was  to  dispense  with: 

1.  The  production,  as  accuser,  of  any  person  threatened 
or  injured  by  the  accused; 

2.  To  have  a  "trial"  without  a  jury;  and, 

3.  To  institute  these  proceedings  before  the  court  of 
Queen's  Bench,  from  whose  decision  there  could  be  no  appeal. 

A  police  officer  "exhibited  articles"  against  a  member  of 
Parliament  and  two  other  citizens  for  political  speeches, 
and  we  were  either  to  acknowledge  ourselves  guilty  of  some 
alleged  crime  against  some  persons  unknown  or  go  to  jail! 
Mr.  Heaty,  Mr.  J.  P.  Quin,  and  myself  selected  to  retire  to 
Richmond  Bridewell,  Dublin,  for  six  months  as  an  alternative 
to  such  an  impossible  act  of  self -accusation.  And  it  was  by 
star-chamber  resources  of  this  character,  under  a  Gladstonian 
administration,  that  Mr.  Trevelyan  and  Earl  Spencer  began 
their  desperate  combat  with  the  National  League.^ 

'  "The  Act  34  Edward  III.,  passed  at  a  'Parliament  held  at  West- 
minster on  the  Sunday  next  before  the  Feast  of  the  Conversion  of 
St.  Pai:l,  A.D.  1360-61,'  obsolete  in  Great  Britain,  is  constantly 
applied  in  Ireland.  Under  this  act  magistrates  can  'take  and 
arrest  all  those  that  they  may  find  by  indictment,  or  by  suspicion, 
and  to  put  them  in  prison ;  and  to  take  all  of  them  that  be  not  of  good 
fame,  where  they  shall  be  found,  sufficient  surety  and  mainprise  for 
their  good  behavior  towards  the  King  and  his  people,  and  others 
duly  to  punish.'  Under  this  act  magistrates  can  and  do  practically 
arrest  and  punish  any  one  who,  in  their  estimation,  is  not  of  good 
character.  Curiously  enough,  in  the  original  Anglo-Norman  verbiage 
of  this  act  the  word  not  is  omitted.  It  reads  'ioitz  ceux  qi  sont  de 
bone  fame.'  To  make  the  act  applicable  when  it  used  to  be  applied  in 
England,  the  word  'not'  was  read  in.  In  Ireland  the  magistrates 
more  properly  adhere  to  the  original  and  apply  the  act  to  those 
'that  be  of  good  fame.' — (See  Revised  Statutes,  vol.  i.,  p.  201.)" — 
Humors  of  Law  and  Order  in  Ireland,  Alfred  Webb,  p.  6.     Dublin,  1902. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

I.  — THE     "INVINCIBLE"     CONSPIRACY 

The  arrest  in  Dublin  near  the  end  of  January  and  early  in 
February,  1883,  of  a  number  of  men  charged  with  having  been 
concerned  in  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  revived  again  the 
spectre  of  that  ghastly  tragedy.  It  transpired  that  the 
chief  actors  in  the  crime  had  remained  in  Dublin  since  the 
fatal  May  6th  previously.  In  fact,  rumor  had  circulated 
the  amazing  story  that  Carey  and  others  of  the  "  Invincibles," 
as  they  termed  themselves,  had  actually  boasted  in  their  cups 
and  conversations  of  the  part  they  had  played  in  the  killing 
of  the  two  secretaries.  Their  ultimate  discovery  and  arrest 
appeared  to  be  due  more  to  their  own  reckless  conduct  than  to 
any  effort  of  police  vigilance.  An  attack  in  broad  daylight, 
upon  a  citizen  named  Field,  who  had  been  on  a  jury  which 
had  tried  and  convicted  a  young  lad  named  Walsh  for  an 
alleged  murder,  seemed  to  offer  the  Dublin  detectives  a 
direct  clew  to  the  perpetrators  of  the  May  murders.  One 
Delaney,  who  had  already  been  tried  and  sentenced  for  an 
attempt  upon  Judge  Lawson,  belonged  to  the  Invincible 
body,  and  it  is  highly  probable  that  he  gave  information 
which  led  to  the  arrest  of  Carey  and  his  confederates,  as  he, 
Delaney,  subsequently  became  an  informer  in  other  cases 
also.  All  except  Carey  were  men  of  the  artisan  class,  and, 
considering  that  a  reward  of  £10,000  had  been  offered  by  the 
government  for  information,  and  had  remained  for  the 
previous  six  months  as  a  terribly  tempting  inducement  to 
poor  human  nature,  it  spoke  much  for  the  integrity  of  these 
working-men,  one  towards  the  other,  that  none  of  them  be- 
trayed his  comrades  until  the  possible  penalty  of  death  in- 
duced fear  to  do  what  no  sordid  desire  had  prompted  one  of 
them  to  perform. 

Two  of  those  arrested,  Robert  Farrell  and  Michael  Kav- 
anagh,  turned  informers  at  the  preliminary  examination 
of  the  prisoners  before  the  magistrate,  Kavanagh  having 
been  the  driver  of  one  of  the  cars  which  conveyed  those  to 
the    park    who    actually    committed    the    murders.     From 

452 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

Kavanagh's  evidence  it  would  appear  that  Carey  and  Delaney, 
two  of  the  subsequent  chief  informers,  were  the  men  under 
whose  direction  the  assassinations  were  carried  out. 

Carey's  testimony  at  the  trials  disclosed  these  facts: 
The  Invincible  Society  was  formed  in  December,  1881.  He 
was  one  of  the  founders,  and  the  object  was  "to  remove 
all  the  principal  tyrants  of  the  country."  Disobedience  to 
orders  was  to  be  punishable  with  death.  A  man  named 
Walsh  had  organized  the  society,  and  had  given  ;^5o  towards 
defraying  its  expenses.  There  was  another  man  "who 
superintended  the  organization  of  the  society;  he  was  known 
as  Father  Murphy."  "Number  One"  was  present  at  several 
meetings.  This  man  was  not  named  by  Carey.  One  Captain 
McCaffrey  was  also  a  prominent  member.  He  (Carey),  Joe 
Brady,  Daniel  Curley,  and  Edward  McCaffrey,  all  of  Dublin, 
were  leaders  for  that  city,  Walsh,  Captain  McCaffrey,  and 
"Number  One"  being  visitors  from  abroad.  This  last  person 
had  given  Carey  sums  of  ;£2o,  £^0,  and  ;;^4o  for  the  purposes 
of  the  society.  Some  arms  were  also  sent  "from  across  the 
water."  They  consisted  of  "Winchester  rifles,  four  revolvers, 
and  ten  daggers,  or  knives." 

A  meeting  was  held  on  May  5,  1882,  "about  Mr.  Burke" 
(under-secretary  of  Dublin  Castle).  "Number  One,"  Carey, 
Brady,  Curley,  Tim  Kelly,  Delaney,  Thomas  Caffrey,  and  a 
Joe  Smith  went  to  the  Phoenix  Park  on  that  Friday  to  look 
the  ground  over.  At  another  gathering  that  evening,  called 
by  "Number  One,"  they  assembled  to  make  arrangements 
"to  meet"  Mr.  Burke  the  following  day.  Carey  and  Curley 
watched  the  procession  (the  state  entry  of  Lord  Spencer, 
the  new  Lord  Lieutenant)  on  the  Saturday  and  entered  the 
Castle  Yard.  They  then  proceeded  to  a  public-house,  where 
they  met  their  confederates,  when  all  started  for  the  park 
on  two  cars,  one  driven  by  Kavanagh  (the  informer)  and  the 
other  by  a  man  named  Fitzharris,  otherwise  "Skin  the 
Goat,"  as  he  was  called  by  his  fellow-drivers  of  the  city. 
Carey  and  Smith  sat  on  a  park  seat,  near  the  Gough  statue, 
to  watch  for  the  approach  of  the  victim,  and  to  give  the 
signal  to  the  men  higher  up  the  road  on  the  way  to  the  chief 
secretary's  lodge,  who  were  to  commit  the  deed.  Smith  saw 
Mr.  Burke  coming,  whereupon  he  and  Carey  mounted  a 
car  and  drove  towards  the  spot  where  Brady,  Kelly,  and 
others  were  lying  on  the  grass  awaiting  the  signal.  Smith 
had  been  enlisted  in  the  plot  only  as  a  man  who  knew  Mr. 
Burke  personally,  through  having  been  employed  as  an 
artisan  occasionally  in  Dublin  Castle.  On  telling  Brady 
and  the  others  that  Mr.  Burke  was  the  man  in  gray  coming 

453 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

up  the  path,  he  (Smith)  was  told  he  might  go  home,  and  he 
went.  The  men  who  were  then  on  the  ground  were  Carey, 
Brady,  Kelly,  Fagan,  Joe  Hanlon,  Tom  Caffrey,  and  Delaney. 

Mr.  Burke  and  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish  came  up,  and  the 
Invincibles  opened  out  to  let  them  pass  through  their  ranks, 
when  the  two  men  were  killed  with  knives;  Lord  Cavendish, 
who  was  unknown  to  his  assailants,  being  struck  down  in  the 
act  of  defending  his  companion. 

This  was  the  informer's  story,  confirmed  in  most  of  its 
details  by  three  or  four  other  informers,  though  denied  in 
some  essential  points  in  behalf  of  three  or  four  of  the  prisoners. 
The  result  of  the  trials  was  that  five  of  the  accused — Brady, 
Kelly,  Fagan,  Caffrey,  andCurley — were  executed  in  Kilmain- 
ham,  one  or  two  more  got  life  sentences,  three  or  four 
pleaded  guilty  and  were  sentenced  to  various  terms  of 
imprisonment,  and  the  curtain  for  a  short  time  dropped  its 
folds  upon  the  hideous  tragedy  that  had  worked  such  injury 
to  the  Irish  cause. 

A  few  short  weeks  after  the  law  had  thus  amply  avenged 
the  murder  of  the  secretaries,  the  cable  flashed  the  news 
from  Cape  Town  that  James  Carey  had  been  assassinated  by 
a  fellow-passenger  named  O'Donnell,  on  board  the  Melrose 
Castle,  after  being  transferred  from  the  Kijifauits  Castle,  of 
the  Currie  steamships,  bound  from  Southampton  to  Port 
Elizabeth.  It  appears  the  informer,  with  his  wife  and  family, 
was  taken  from  Dublin  to  Southampton  in  July,  and  was 
booked  by  the  police  under  the  name  of  Power  for  a  passage 
to  Natal.  On  the  voyage  out  Carey's  son  seems  to  have 
revealed,  in  some  way,  the  identity  of  his  precious  father  to  a 
fellow-passenger,  an  Irish-American  named  O'Donnell.  On 
learning  this  fact  O'Donnell  resolved  to  pick  a  quarrel  with 
Carey  and  to  shoot  him.  This  he  did  as  the  Melrose  Castle 
was  nearing  Port  Elizabeth,  and  the  chief  manager  of  the 
Phoenix  Park  crime  was  himself  ruthlessly  shot  down  and 
taken  ashore  to  find  a  grave  in  South  Africa. 

O'Donnell  was  arrested  and  sent  to  London  for  trial.  The 
killing  of  Carey  had  evoked  no  feeling  of  pity  anywhere. 
The  popular  conscience  voiced  a  unanimous  verdict  of  "Serve 
him  right."  But  the  fact  that  he  was  thus  killed,  while 
virtually  under  the  protection  of  the  law  he  had  served  in 
order  to  save  his  own  neck,  created  a  profound  sensation, 
and  begot  the  impression  that  he  had  been  deliberately 
tracked  by  an  avenging  executioner  so  as  to  carry  out  the 
decree  of  some  branch  of  the  Invincible  body.  This  was  a 
wholly  wrong  conclusion,  but  based  upon  strong  circum- 
stantial evidence.     Color  was  lent  to  this  wrong  inference  by 

454 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

some  cruelly  insensate  speeches  delivered  in  America  by 
one  or  two  notoriety-hunting  individuals,  who  declared,  most 
conveniently  for  the  Crown  prosecution  at  Bow  Street,  Lon- 
don, that  O'Donnell  had  been  expressly  commissioned  to  do 
the  deed.  Feeling  in  London  was,  otherwise,  in  sympathy 
with  Carey's  slayer,  not  on  account  of  the  crime,  but  in 
detestation  of  the  loathsome  creature  who  had  himself  doomed 
English  officials  to  death.  When,  however,  it  was  stated  in 
the  United  States,  and  repeated  in  the  London  press,  that 
O'Donnell  was  the  avenging  agent  of  some  anti-English  secret 
conclave  his  fate  was  sealed.  He  was  in  due  course  tried, 
found  guilty,  and  executed  in  Newgate  on  December  i8,  1883. 
The  late  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan,  a  man  of  high  character  and  of 
strong  religious  feeling,  was  one  of  the  lawyers  retained  for  the 
defence  of  O'Donnell.  He  had  more  than  one  private  inter- 
view with  him  while  the  prisoner  was  awaiting  death. 
O'Donnell  was  a  Catholic,  and  Mr.  Sullivan  spoke  feelingly 
but  firmly  to  the  unfortunate  man,  and  urged  him  for  his  soul's 
sake  to  speak  the  truth.  Mr.  Sullivan  told  me  more  than  once 
afterwards  that  he  was  absolutely  convinced  by  O'Donnell's 
words,  expressions,  and  whole  demeanor  that  he  was  com- 
pletely ignorant  of  Carey's  presence  on  board  the  ship  when 
leaving  England;  that  he  (O'Donnell)  was  going  as  a  miner 
to  seek  employment  in  South  Africa;  that  he  was  never  com- 
missioned, directly  or  indirectly,  by  any  body  of  men  or 
by  any  human  being  to  pursue  the  informer.  His  story  was 
this:  "When  I  learned  who  he  was,  I  resolved  to  pick  a 
quarrel  with  him,  to  give  him  a  chance  of  defending  himself, 
and  to  shoot  him  if  I  could.     I  did  so,  and  I  don't  regret  it." 


II.  — FORSTER    AND     PARNELL 

In  the  brief  chapter  summarizing  the  story  of  the  Invin- 
cibles,  I  had  to  omit  details  of  the  arrests,  evidence,  trials, 
and  convictions  of  the  chief  actors  in  the  deadly  drama,  which 
would  fill  a  volume  if  given  in  full.  Carey's  evidence  revealed 
that  several  attempts  had  been  made  by  himself  and  con- 
federates to  murder,  or  "remove,"  Chief  Secretary  Forster. 
His  official  residence  in  the  park  was  actually  visited  by 
Carey  and  an  accomplice,  on  one  occasion,  in  pursuit  of  their 
fell  purpose.  On  another  they  had  watched  and  waited 
outside  the  Phoenix  Park  gates  for  his  coming,  ready  to  kill 
him.  While  on  a  third  occasion,  learning  from  the  press 
that  he  was  to  depart  that  evening  from  Westland  Row  for 
Kingstown,  en  route  for  London,  they  resolved  to  attack  him 

455 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

in  the  railway  carriage.  Fortunately  he  was  induced  by 
his  private  secretary^  to  start  by  an  earlier  train  for  Kings- 
town and  dine  there  at  a  club.  It  was  by  this  happy  chance 
alone  that  he  escaped.  Carey  and  others  waited  on  the  rail- 
way platform  for  his  arrival  there  and  his  departure  by  the 
mail  train,  and  actually  peered  into  the  carriage  where  the 
chief  secretary's  daughter  was  seated. 

These  facts  were  sworn  to  by  the  arch-informer,  while  he 
also  mentioned  the  names  of  men  who  had  been  members  of 
the  Land  League  in  a  way  that  w^ould  lead  the  public  to 
believe  there  had  been  some  direct,  or  at  least  indirect,  con- 
nection between  the  Invincibles  and  the  movement  led 
by  Mr.  Parnell.  This  secret  society  had  come  into  being 
in  December,  1881.  At  that  time  all  the  Land-League  leaders 
were  secure  under  lock  and  key  in  various  prisons  from 
Kilmainham  to  Portland.  Mr.  Forster  had  struck  at  all 
those  who  commanded  the  popular  organization,  this  body 
itself  being  suppressed  as  an  illegal  combination.  It  was  pure 
despotism,  and  rule  of  that  iron  character,  no  matter  where 
it  is  found  or  what  may  be  its  motive  or  justification,  will 
inevitably  incite  some  men  to  methods  of  retaliation  more 
wicked  in  purpose,  perhaps,  but  not  one  jot  more  lawless  than 
the  acts  of  those  who  make  law  an  instrument  of  vengeance 
against  their  political  opponents. 

The  Invincibles,  from  their  own  accounts,  had  all  been 
Fenians.  Most  of  them,  it  appears,  had  also  belonged  to 
Dublin  city  branches  of  the  Land  League.  The  Fenian 
organization,  as  such,  had  no  more  to  do  with  the  acts  of 
"Number  One"  and  company  than  the  Carlton  Club  would 
have  with  the  doings  of  a  member  who  might  be  concerned 
in  some  city  swindle  or  other  crime.  The  same  applies  to 
Carey  and  the  Land  League,  but  when  the  informers'  testi- 
mony was  published  it  opened  up  again  all  the  sores  associated 
with  the  act  of  May  6,  1882,  and  in  addition  it  recalled  the 
resignation  of  Mr.  Forster,  and  what  appeared  to  his  friends 
and  a  large  section  of  the  public  to  have  been  his  unmerited 
fall  from  power  through  the  means  of  the  Kilmainham 
treaty.  Once  again  the  fires  of  parliamentary  passion  were 
fanned  into  a  fierce  heat,  and  as  the  House  of  Commons  was 
in  session  on  February  23d  the  late  chief  secretary  saw  a 
long-deferred  chance  of  squaring  accounts,  both  with  Mr. 
Gladstone  and  Mr.  Parnell,  and  he  resolved  to  launch  an 
equally  long-cherished  assault  upon  the  chief  author  of  his 
fall,  the  Irish  leader. 

'  Wemyss  Reid,  Life  of  W.  E.  Forster. 
456 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

The  occasion  was  a  motion  to  amend  the  Queen's  speech 
deprecating  concessions  to  Irish  agitation.  Carey's  recent 
evidence,  with  its  insinuations  and  innuendoes,  had  created  a 
congenial  atmosphere  of  suspicion  for  the  contemplated 
attack.  Under  cover  of  this  feeling,  Mr.  Forster  struck 
home  with  all  the  force  of  a  baffled  foe  who  had  convinced 
himself  that  his  career  as  a  statesman  had  suffered  irreparable 
injury  at  unworthy  hands.  He  began  his  speech  by  an  ex- 
traordinary admission:  "We  wanted  fresh  powers,"  he  de- 
clared, in  referring  to  his  request  for  these  powers  to  the 
prime-minister  in  the  winter  of  1881,  as  already  related,  "for 
the  secret  societies'  act  gave  us  very  little  power  to  act 
against  these  societies.  I  believe  that  if  there  had  been 
no  more  immediate  outbreak,  somewhat  similar  to  those 
murders,  Ireland  would  have  speedily  become  almost  un- 
governable. The  people  of  Ireland  would  have  thought  that, 
in  fact,  the  honorable  member  for  Cork  was  governing  the 
country."  He  then  proceeded  to  accuse  his  adversary  of 
at  least  an  indirect  responsibility  for  outrage  in  these 
trenchant  words: 

"With  this  I  do  charge  the  honorable  member  and  his 
friends,  that  he  and  they  allowed  themselves  to  continue 
the  leaders — he  the  avowed  chief — of  an  organization  that 
not  merely  ostensibly  devised  and  organized  the  ruin  of 
those  who  opposed  them  by  such  systems  as  boycotting 
and  others,  which  tended  to  make  life  more  miserable  than 
death,  but  it  had  the  effect  of  setting  on  foot  an  organization 
which  promoted  crime  and  outrage  and  incited  to  murder. 
At  any  rate,  the  outcome  was  murder.  The  honorable 
member  ought  to  have  known  that  it  would  be  the  natural 
outcome,  and  it  is  very  hard  for  me  to  understand  how  he 
did  not  know  it,  and  why  he  did  not  separate  himself  from 
it  altogether,  and  disavow  and  denounce  it." 

Every  eye  in  a  crowded  House  was  turned  to  Mr.  Parnell 
while  this  deadly  bolt  was  shot  across  the  floor  of  the  chamber 
by  the  now  savagely  animated  Englishman,  who  was  en- 
couraged by  the  cheering  of  his  friends  to  press  the  attack. 
But  there  was  no  quailing  or  fierce  outburst  or  even  protest 
in  retort.  A  smile  of  contemptuous  defiance,  a  haughty  look 
at  his  enraged  assailant  was  the  only  evidence  given  of  the 
effect  produced  on  the  man  who  was  thus  assailed. 

Mr.  Forster  proceeded.  He  quoted  from  United  Ireland 
and  the  Irish  World  extracts  from  speeches  and  articles 
which  sounded,  without  the  context,  highly  accusatory, 
and  rendered  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  lieutenants  culpable  of 
many  crimes,  by  way  of  omission  in  preventing  their  per- 

457 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

petration;  their  power  to  do  this  being  assumed  by  the 
accuser  and  beHeved  by  his  audience.  He  gave  the  member 
for  Cork  "full  credit  for  inventing  a  system  of  agitation 
which  sought  to  reach  its  ends  by  methods  of  inflicting 
injury  upon  individuals,"  hinting,  too,  that  the  dreadful 
deed  of  May  6,  1882,  was  one  of  the  frightful  fruits  of  this 
movement.  And  at  the  end  of  what  had  all  the  appearance 
of  a  carefully  prepared  indictment,  he  shot  this  final  bolt: 

"There  are  many  causes  of  discouragement  in  the  state 
of  Ireland.  It  is  not  for  a  man  who  has  been  connected  with 
its  government  to  deny  them  or  to  be  too  sanguine.  Many 
an  illusion  has  been  dispelled,  but  there  is  one  ground  for  hope 
— nay,  there  are  two  grounds  for  hope  and  encouragement. 
One  of  these  is  that  the  Irish  government  has  now  the  power 
to  uphold  the  law  and  will  use  it.  And  the  other  ground 
is  that  the  honorable  member  for  Cork  and  his  fellow-chiefs  in 
this  so-called  agitation  have  been  found  out.  The  cruelty 
and  wickedness  of  this  agitation  have  been  unveiled,  have 
been  exposed.  I  have  only  one  more  remark  to  make.  I 
have  so  framed  my  question  that  the  honorable  member  can- 
not plead  his  residence  in  Kilmainham  as  a  reason  for  re- 
fusing to  give  an  answer."^ 

Again,  but  now  more  pointedly  than  before,  the  eyes  of 
the  chamber  sought  the  figure  of  the  Irish  leader,  fully  ex- 
pecting him  to  spring  to  his  feet  in  the  acceptance  of  the 
challenge  thus  hurled  at  him.  Not  a  movement  did  Mr. 
Parnell  make.  There  he  sat,  cold  and  proudly  indifferent, 
in  glance  and  demeanor,  at  the  whole  performance  of  his  foe 
and  the  impression  he  had  created.  Men  of  his  own  party 
gasped  with  painful  disappointment.  The  jury  had  been 
addressed  by  the  accuser.  He  had  made  a  direct  and  seem- 
ingly triumphant  appeal  for  a  reply  to  his  charges,  and  there 
the  challenged  and  indicted  leader  sat,  unmoved,  unmindful, 
silent.  No  Irish  leader  who  had  ever  sat  in  that  House 
would  have  acted  thus.  But  that  was  the  unique  feature 
of  Mr.  Parn ell's  character  and  force.  He  was  as  unlike 
O'Connell  and  Butt  in  these  respects  as  Forster  was  unlike 
him.  He  would  reply  in  his  own  time,  not  in  that  of  his  foe. 
The  House  of  Commons  was  not  a  tribunal  selected  by  him 
but  by  his  adversary,  and  this  greatest  of  the  world's  assem- 
blies in  age  and  in  record  must  bide  his  time,  and  hear  him 
when  he  thinks  it  right  to  himself  to  reply,  not  before. 

In  face  of  these  depressing  facts  there  were  very  few  mem- 
bers, Irish  or  English,  who  bent  their  steps  homeward  from 

'  Parliamentary  Debates,  February  22,  1SS3. 
458 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

St.  Stephen's  that  night  who  did  not  feel  that  the  Irish  cause 
and  its  silent  champion  had  fared  badly  at  the  hands  of 
Forster  and  of  fate. 

On  the  following  day  the  House  of  Commons  was  crowded 
in  every  part.  There  was  the  keenest  expectancy  for  a 
sensational  sitting.  Mr.  Parnell  was  found  in  his  place,  calm 
and  impassive,  as  the  order  of  the  day  was  reached.  He  had 
the  future  King  of  England  among  his  auditors,  along  with 
galleries  filled  to  the  last  available  seat.  His  own  chosen 
opportunity  had  come,  and  he  was  ready  to  meet  his  enemy 
and  his  allegations. 

The  following  quotations  from  this  historic  speech  will  give 
an  indication  of  its  power,  spirit,  and  purpose: 

"Mr.  Speaker,  if  I  intervene  in  this  debate  for  a  very  short 
while  and  to  a  very  limited  extent  I  can  assure  the  House — 
and  I  venture  to  make  that  assurance  with  the  greatest 
respect,  although  some  people  may  not  think  it  a  very  respect- 
ful assurance  to  give  to  this  House,  still,  I  make  it  with  the 
greatest  respect — I  can  assure  the  House  that  it  is  not  from 
the  belief  that  anything  I  can  say  or  shall  say  will  have 
the  slightest  effect  upon  the  public  opinion  of  this  House  or 
upon  the  public  opinion  of  this  country.  I  have  been  ac- 
customed during  my  political  life  to  rely  upon  the  public 
opinion  of  those  whom  I  have  desired  to  help,  and  with 
whose  aid  I  have  worked  for  the  prosperity  and  freedom  of 
Ireland.  At  the  utmost,  what  I  desire  to  do  in  the  very  few 
words  which  I  shall  address  to  this  House  is  to  make  my 
position  clear  to  the  Irish  people  at  home  and  abroad,  from 
the  most  unjust  aspersions  which  have  been  cast  upon  it  by 
men — by  the  man  who  ought  to  have  been  ashamed  to  have 
devoted  his  high  ability  to  the  task  of  traducing  me.  I  don't 
wish  to  reply  to  the  questions  of  the  right  honorable  gentle- 
man the  late  chief  secretary  to  the  Lord  Lieutenant.  I 
consider  that  he  has  no  right  to  question  me,  standing  as  he 
does  in  a  position  very  little  better  than  an  informer  with 
regard  to  the  secrets  of  the  men  with  whom  he  was  associated, 
and  he  has  not  even  the  pretext  of  that  remarkable  informer 
whose  proceedings  we  have  lately  heard  of.  He  has  not  even 
the  pretext,  the  miserable  pretext,  that  he  was  attempting  to 
save  his  own  life.  No,  sir;  some  other  motive  of  less  im- 
portance seems  to  have  weighed  upon  the  right  honorable 
gentleman  in  the  extraordinary  course  he  has  adopted  on 
the  present  occasion  of  going  out  of  his  way  to  collect  a  series 
of  extracts,  perhaps  nine  or  ten  in  number,  out  of  many  hun- 
dreds, perhaps  thousands,  of  speeches  delivered  during  the 
land  movement  by  other  people,  not  by  myself,  on  which  to 

459 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

found  an  accusation  against  me  for  what  has  been  said  and 
done  by  others.  If  the  right  honorable  gentleman  had  been 
accurate  in  his  quotations,  there  might  have  been  some  excuse 
for  him.  Unfortunately,  upon  this  occasion,  he  has  dis- 
played the  same  remarkable  ignorance  of  matters  of  fact  in 
connection  with  Irish  affairs  as  he  displayed  during  his 
tenure  of  office  as  chief  secretary  of  that  country.   .   .   . 

"He  boasted  last  night  that  he  deposed  me  from  some 
imaginar}'  position  he  is  pleased  to  assign  to  me.  But  I  have 
this  consolation,  that  we  both  fell  into  the  ditch.  I  do  not 
think  that  in  the  business  of  pulling  ourselves  out  I  have 
suffered  so  much  in  the  opinion  of  my  countrymen  as  the 
right  honorable  gentleman  has  suffered  in  the  opinion  of 
his.  Yes,  the  right  honorable  gentleman  has  deposed  me 
from  my  position  as  a  prominent  Irish  politician.  I  admit 
that  he  has  been  very  successful  in  that.  I  have  taken  very 
little  pains  in  Irish  politics  since  my  release.  I  expressed 
my  reason  for  that  after  the  crimes  act.  I  said  that  in  my 
judgment  the  crimes  act  would  result  in  such  a  state  of 
affairs  between  the  government  and  the  criminals  that  it 
would  be  impossible  to  find  a  place  for  constitutional  agi- 
tation. I  believe  so  still.  Here  is  the  last  item  of  news 
which  was  published  in  the  journals  of  yesterday.  It  is 
that  Mr.  P.  Ford,  of  the  Irish  World,  who  used  to  collect 
money  to  send  to  the  Land  League,  is  now  collecting  for  a 
very  different  purpose.  The  right  honorable  gentleman 
may  be  proud  of  his  work.  I  regret  it.  I  look  with  appre- 
hension to  the  future  relations  between  England  and  Ireland. 
I  see  that  it  is  impossible  to  stem  the  torrent  of  prejudice 
which  has  arisen  during  the  last  few  days.  I  regret  that  the 
officials  charged  with  the  administration  of  the  crimes  act 
are  unfit  for  their  posts.  .  .   . 

"It  would  have  been  better,  if  you  were  going  to  pass  an 
act  of  this  kind,  to  have  had  it  administered  by  the  seasoned 
politician  now  in  disgrace.  Call  him  back  to  his  post;  send 
him  to  help  Lord  Spencer  in  the  congenial  work  of  the  gallows 
in  Ireland,  send  him  to  look  after  the  secret  negotiations  of 
Dublin  Castle;  send  him  to  superintend  the  payment  of 
blood  money;  send  him  to  distribute  the  taxes  which  an 
unfortunate  and  starving  peasantry  have  to  pay  for  crimes 
not  committed  by  them.  All  this  would  be  congenial  work  to 
the  right  honorable  gentleman.  We  invite  you  to  man 
your  ranks,  to  send  your  ablest  and  best  men  to  push  forward 
the  task  of  misgoverning  and  oppressing  Ireland.  For  my 
own  part,  I  am  confident  as  to  the  future  of  Ireland.  Though 
the  horizon   may  now   seem   cloudy,  I   believe    her  people 

460 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

will  survive  the  present  oppression  as  they  have  survived 
many  worse  ones.  Although  our  progress  may  be  slow  it 
will  be  sure.  The  time  will  come  when  the  people  of  this 
country  will  admit  once  again  that  they  have  been  mistaken 
and  have  been  deceived ;  that  they  have  been  led  astray 
as  to  the  right  way  of  governing  a  noble,  a  brave,  and  an 
impulsive  people,  and  that  they  will  reject  their  present 
guides  and  leaders  with  just  as  much  determination  as  they 
rejected  the  services  of  the  right  honorable  gentleman  the 
member  for  Bradford."^ 

This  rather  brief  utterance  was,  everything  considered, 
the  best  and  noblest  speech  an  Irish  leader  ever  spoke  in  an 
English  Parliament.  It  was  not  brilliant  in  any  sense. 
There  was  not  a  studied  expression  or  sentiment  in  its  com- 
position. But  it  was  superbly  dignified  and  splendidly 
defiant  in  its  assertion  of  Irish  independence  in  political 
thought  and  action.  It  struck  a  note  which  reverberated 
through  every  Irish  nationalist  heart  everywhere;  a  note  of 
Irish  self-reliance;  a  key-note  of  nationhood,  in  a  scornful 
repudiation  of  his  accuser's  assumption  that  the  British 
House  of  Commons  was  an  international  tribunal  before 
which  the  accredited  leader  of  the  Irish  race  must  explain 
his  words  and  vindicate  his  actions,  and  justify  a  movement 
that  had  already  convicted  that  very  assembly  of  long  years 
of  criminal  neglect  in  the  work  of  ruling  his  country  for  the 
welfare  of  its  people. 

There  was  likewise  a  scornful  counter  attack  in  the  con- 
cluding words  of  the  man  who  was  deemed  to  be  a  defeated 
and  disgraced  leader  the  day  before.  The  elaborate  indict- 
ment of  Mr.  Forster  crumbled  to  fragments  under  the  crushing 
comments  of  Mr.  Parnell.  He  complimented  the  late  ruler 
of  Ireland  upon  having  imprisoned  agitators  and  created 
dynamiters;  in  putting  his  political  opponents  in  jail  without 
trial,  and  thereby  breeding  Invincibles  outside  who  had 
sought  his  own  life.  And  this  defeated  policy  of  despotism 
and  rage  was  directly  responsible  for  the  present  condition 
of  the  country  Mr.  Forster  had  attempted,  and  failed,  to  sub- 
due. Nor  was  the  final  sentence  of  this  memorable  reply 
unworthy  of  the  spirit  which  had  inspired  the  entire  speech. 
It  was  a  compound  of  power  and  of  prophecy ;  the  expression  of 
the  speaker's  own  consciousness  of  the  strength  behind  him 
in  a  world-wide  combination,  and  of  the  sanguine  hope  that 
the  inherent  justice  of  the  cause  he  upheld  would  some  day 
penetrate  even  to  the  minds  of  its  present  English  foes.     Mr. 

'  Parliamentary  Debates,  February  26,   1883. 
461 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Parnell  resumed  his  seat,  the  conqueror,  not  the  conquered, 
in  a  combat  forced  upon  him  in  a  prejudiced  arena.  One  of 
the  gladiators  survived,  pohtically.  Mr.  Forster's  career  as  a 
great  Liberal  force  and  leader  would  never  again  challenge 
an  encounter  with  the  Irishman  he  had  vauntingly  declared 
he  would  humble  and  destroy. 

So  bent  upon  political  warfare  with  the  revived  league 
movement  was  Dublin  Castle  that  even  the  genial  member 
for  Cavan,  Mr.  J.  G.  Biggar,  M.P.,  was  prosecuted,  early  in 
January,  for  a  seditious  speech.  This  proceeding  invited 
ridicule,  and  a  deadly  weapon  of  this  kind  is  fatal  to  any 
policy,  personal  or  governmental,  that  has  few  friends  and 
no  supporters  on  its  merits.  The  prosecution  was  ultimately 
dropped. 

A  vacancy  having  occurred  in  the  parliamentary  representa- 
tion of  Mallow,  which  was  then  a  separate  constituency, 
Mr.  William  O'Brien,  editor  of  United  Ireland,  was  induced 
to  contest  the  seat  against  a  Castle  law^^^er.  The  contest 
ended  in  a  smashing  defeat  of  the  government  place-hunter. 
The  election  revealed  in  Mr.  O'Brien  unsuspected  powers  of 
platform  oratory,  hitherto  dormant,  which  were  destined 
to  enable  him  to  play  a  conspicuous  and  historic  part  in  the 
future  movement  for  Home  Rule  and  land  reform. 

His  editorship  of  the  National-League  organ  had  been  a 
striking  success,  and  had  made  that  paper  the  most  formidable 
opponent  in  the  path  of  the  Spencer  coercionist  regime. 
Week  after  week  it  poured  broadsides  of  scathing  criticism 
into  the  Castle  camp,  reviewing  with  remorseless  pungency  the 
doings  of  the  coercionist  courts,  the  blundering  of  incompetent 
magistrates,  the  packing  of  juries,  and  the  occasional  brutality 
of  the  Castle  police.  Every  resource  of  an  aggressive  journal- 
ism and  of  a  widely  informed  political  knowledge  was  drawn 
upon  in  a  relentless  war  to  the  knife  against  the  successors 
to  the  Forster  policy,  of  baffled  English  power  in  conflict  with  a 
sleepless  Celtic  resistance  to  a  domineering  and  insulting 
administration.  In  this  task  Mr.  O'Brien  was  powerfully 
aided  by  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  who  contributed  probably  most  of 
the  scathing  onslaughts  on  Mr.  Trevelyan,  which  were  after- 
wards said  to  have  helped  to  whiten  the  hair  of  a  thoroughly 
honest  but  unfortunate  Englishman  who  in  an  evil  hour  for 
himself  had  consented  to  face  the  impossible  task  of  cleaning 
the  Augean  stables  of  Dublin -Castle  government. 

The  deadly  duel  between  United  Ireland  and  the  Spencer 
administration  may  be  said  to  have  culminated  in  a  pitiless 
exposure  of  some  horrible  crimes  that  had  been  brought 
home  to  certain  officials,  including  the  head  of  the  C?.st\z 

462 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

constabulary  detective  department,  by  the  paper's  agency. 
It  was  a  revolting  business,  and  required  the  strength  of  a 
born  fighter  to  face  the  ordeal  of  so  loathsome  a  task.  The 
result,  however,  gave  both  justification  and  generous  recom- 
pense in  the  clearing  out  from  Dublin  society  of  the  genteel 
beasts  who  had  infested  it,  and  in  delivering  a  merciless  blow 
at  the  prestige  and  authority  of  "The  Castle." 

While  prosecutions,  evictions,  suppression  of  meetings,  and 
other  acts  of  Castle  violence  were  rousing  the  country  into 
active  political  life  again,  Mr.  Parnell  remained  quiescent,  as 
described  by  himself  in  his  reply  to  Forster.  He  refused 
to  fight  coercion,  but  he  gave  his  opponents  rope  enough 
of  their  own  twisting.  They  had  conjured  into  being 
other  than  agitating  agencies  of  political  warfare  by  forcibly 
resisting  the  methods  of  the  league  in  Ireland,  and  these 
unknown  workers  brought  their  rival  methods  and  designs 
unpleasantly  near  to  London.  In  the  early  months  of  the 
year  a  dynamite  explosion  occurred  at  the  Local  Government 
Board  offices,  while  similar  outrages  were  repeated  elsewhere. 
Several  prominent  members  of  the  ministry  were  reported 
to  be  under  police  protection,  while  government  buildings 
had  to  be  guarded  day  and  night  against  possible  attack. 

The  day  before  being  lodged  in  Richmond  Bridewell,  as  al- 
ready recorded,  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  outlined  a  scheme  of  elective 
county  councils  for  Ireland,  at  a  meeting  of  the  National 
League  in  Dublin.  It  was  introduced  in  the  form  of  a  bill 
by  Mr.  John  Barry,  M.P.,  in  April,  while  the  author  was  in 
prison,  and  rejected  by  a  vote  of  two  hundred  and  thirty-one 
to  fifty-eight.  It  is  instructive,  as  illustrating  the  blindness 
of  English  statesmanship  to  the  value  of  opportunities  in 
Ireland,  to  point  out  that  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour,  as  Tory  Irish 
chief  secretary,  introduced  and  carried  a  measure  having 
a  similar  object  in  view  in  1898,  or  just  fifteen  years  after 
the  House  of  Commons  had  rejected  the  Healy  bill. 

On  March  15th  Mr.  Parnell  introduced  a  land  bill  to  amend 
the  known  defects  of  the  measure  of  188 1.  It  proposed  to 
admit  leaseholders  to  the  benefits  of  the  existing  land  law, 
and  to  remedy  such  other  defects  and  omissions  as  had  been 
made  clear  in  the  working  of  the  land  commission.  Mr. 
Gladstone  opposed  the  bill,  declaring  that  he  refused  "to 
reopen  the  question."  The  House  of  Commons  backed 
this  view  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  sixty-three  votes. 

Four  years  subsequently,  as  a  result  of  the  "plan  of  cam- 
paign" convulsion,  Lord  Salisbury's  ministry,  after  swearing 
they  would  never  consent,  consented  to  legislate  largely  on  the 
lines  of  the  rejected  Irish  demand  of  1883. 

463 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

There  was  one  Irish  bill  that  escaped  this  general  and 
systematic  boycott  of  Irish  proposals  for  Ireland  in  West- 
minster which  has  conferred  a  great  benefit  upon  thousands 
of  Irish  families.  This  was  the  agricultural  laborers  (Ireland) 
dwellings  act,  which  was  introduced,  in  behalf  of  the  Irish 
party,  by  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  and  read  a  second  time  on 
May  31st.  The  purpose  of  the  measure  was  to  enable  the 
local  sanitary  authorities  in  Ireland  to  build  decent  and 
sanitary  dwellings  for  agricultural  laborers  out  of  moneys 
borrowed  from  the  state  on  the  security  of  the  district  rates. 
The  homes  of  the  poorest  of  Ireland's  rural  workers  were 
notoriously  of  the  most  wretched  character — hovels,  in  fact, 
in  which  some  English  farmers  would  not  lodge  their  pigs. 
They  were,  in  most  instances,  without  any  domestic  ac- 
commodation except  of  the  most  primitive  kind,  without 
sufficient  light,  badly  built,  and  poorly  thatched.  Travellers 
from  England  and  elsewhere  had  declared  them  to  be  unfit 
for  the  abode  of  a  civilized  section  of  any  industrial  com- 
munity, and  an  overwhelming  case  was  made  out  for  such 
a  resort  to  the  principle  of  state  socialism  as  would  tend  to 
minimize  this  social  blot  upon  both  the  laboring  life  and  the 
landscape  of  Ireland  by  enabling  the  community,  in  its 
organized  capacity,  to  do  a  work  of  humanity  for  workers 
unable  to  secure  better  homes  for  themselves.  The  bill 
became  law,  but  was  modified  from  original  proposals  which 
sought  to  reinforce  the  scanty  resources  of  the  local  rates  by 
help  from  a  national  rate-in-aid .  The  act  (subsequently 
amended  so  as  to  abolish  the  limit  of  a  plot  of  land  to  half 
an  acre  and  extending  it  to  one  acre)  has  worked  in  this  way. 

Applications  for  cottages  have  to  be  made  by  bona-fide 
agricultural  laborers,  in  a  prescribed  manner,  and  supported 
by  ratepayers.  The  sanitary  authority  then  considers  the 
demand  on  its  merits.  A  sanitary  inspector  has  to  see  and 
report  upon  the  present  habitations  of  the  applicants,  and 
in  the  event  of  this  report  condemning  these  dwellings  as 
being  unfit  for  a  healthy  existence,  the  local  council  (in 
1883  the  local  board  of  guardians)  may  then  take  the 
necessary  steps  for  the  erection  of  suitable  houses,  with  a 
plot  of  land  attached  to  answer  the  purpose  of  a  garden. 
The  rent  for  dwelling  and  plot  must  not  in  any  sense  be  a 
profit-rent.  It  must  be  measured  by  the  annual  interest 
chargeable  against  the  rates  for  the  money  borrowed  to  build 
the  house  and  buy  the  land,  and  it  has  not,  I  believe,  averaged 
more  than  a  shilling  per  week  upon  the  slender  wages  of  the 
laborers  who  have  secured  these  new  homes  and  gardens. 

The  cottages  and  land  are  to  remain  the  property  of  the 

464 


THE    "INVINCIBLE"    CONSPIRACY 

community,  the  rent  being  paid  by  the  occupants  to  the 
local  rate  collectors. 

Since  the  act  came  into  operation  from  sixteen  to  eighteen 
thousand  of  these  cottages  have  been  erected  in  the  two 
Southern  provinces;  Ulster  being  conspicuous  for  its  neglect, 
or  refusal,  to  operate  this  humane  law  for  the  betterment 
of  its  rural  laborers,  while  Connaught,  being  largely  a  cottier 
province,  has  comparatively  few  of  the  laborers  for  whom 
this  act  was  passed. 

The  late  Dr.  Charles  Tanner,  member  of  Parliament  for 
Mid-Cork,  took  a  special  and  continuous  interest  in  the 
working  of  this  act.  It  was  to  his  loyal  and  persistent 
efforts  in  behalf  of  the  laborers  in  the  House  of  Commons 
that  the  original  allowance  of  half  an  acre  of  land  was  ex- 
tended to  an  acre,  and  one  or  two  other  amendments  were 
also  made  in  facilitating  the  working  of  this  excellent  measure. 
It  still  remains  a  complicated  law,  however,  and  has  proved 
to  be  ridiculously  expensive  in  all  the  initial  stages  of  its 
operation.  A  national  rate-in-aid,  as  an  encouragement  to 
local  initiative,  a  less  costly  method  of  procedure,  a  semi- 
compulsory  power  for  putting  the  act  in  operation  where 
selfish  or  class  interests  are  an  obstructive  element,  together 
with  an  extension  to  Ireland  of  the  allotments  provisions  of 
the  local  government  (England)  act  of  1894,  would  come 
near  a  reasonr.ble  solution  of  the  Irish  rural  laborer's  problem. 

In  February  Mr.  T.  Harrington,  the  energetic  secretary  of 
the  National  League,  was  prosecuted  for  "intimidating" 
certain  persons,  land-grabbers,  in  Westmeath,  in  a  speech. 
He  was  sent  to  prison  for  two  months.  Nine  days  after 
entering  Mullingar  jail  he  was  elected  member  of  Parliament, 
without  opposition,  for  the  county  in  which  the  "crime"  had 
been  committed. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII 
DANGERS     OF     "UNCROWNED     KINGS" 

The  question  of  local  leadership  occasioned  much  contro- 
versy and  friction  in  1883  and  1884,  and  gave  frequent 
exercise  to  Mr.  Harrington's  faculties  for  conciliation.  As 
secretary  of  the  National  League  he  was  in  touch  with  the 
whole  organization,  and  upheld  Mr.  Parnell's  supreme  au- 
thority with  undeviating  resolve.  Previous  to  the  Land 
League  the  Catholic  clergy  were  the  recognized  local  leaders 
in  all  movements  except  the  Fenian  organization.  Outside 
revolutionary  circles  the  "P.P.,"  or  his  curate,  bossed  the 
political  situation  in  his  district,  as  a  rule.  The  fine  record  of 
the  clergy  in  their  devotion  to  the  people  in  times  of  trial, 
their  superior  education  and  intelligence,  gave  them  this 
position  as  a  matter  of  obvious  fitness.  The  teaching  of  the 
Fenian  movement,  however,  and  the  spirit  of  independence 
which  was  inherent  in  the  revolt  of  the  Land  League  against 
the  power  of  the  landlord  and  the  law  of  Dublin  Castle  de- 
veloped a  new  spirit  among  the  sons  of  farmers  and  country 
traders  which  evolved  local  lay  leaders  who  became  in  many 
districts  rivals  to  the  parish  priest  or  curate  for  the  headship 
of  a  league  branch.  Some  of  the  clergy  were  justly  open 
to  the  suspicion  of  being  too  conservative  in  their  views  and 
of  holding  the  sin  of  grabbing  in  too  charitable  a  light, 
especially  where  a  relative  or  a  neighbor  happened  to  be 
the  sinner.  But  the  great  majority  of  the  priests  were  sound 
and  earnest  leaguers  in  1884.  They  naturally  held  in  almost 
all  emergencies  by  Mr.  Parnell's  authority,  and  were,  in  turn, 
upheld  in  its  name  when  any  rival  influence  sought  to  assert 
a  stronger  or  more  popular  opinion  upon  some  local  issue. 

The  question  of  selecting  and  of  nominating  candidates 
for  parliamentary  constituencies  cropped  up  very  prominently 
in  1884  and  in  1885,  in  view  of  the  extension  of  the  franchise 
and  the  approaching  general  election.  Hitherto  this  power 
was  virtually  claimed  for  Mr.  Parnell  by  his  stalwart  lieuten- 
ants as  a  matter  of  right.  With  them  and  their  organ. 
United  Ireland,  Mr.  Parnell  was  the  absolute  kader  of  the 

466 


DANGERS    OF    "UNCROWNED    KINGS" 

movement ;  and  as  he  was  the  chairman  of  the  Irish  parlia- 
mentary party  also,  it  was  his  sole  concern  as  to  who  should 
be  added  to  its  ranks  and  his  the  right  to  "suggest"  a  suit- 
able man  to  a  constituency.  In  reality,  this  claim  was  put 
forward  more  in  behalf  of  the  self-asserting  authority  of  the 
stalwart  lieutenants  themselves  than  in  that  of  Mr.  Parnell, 
who,  to  do  him  justice,  up  to  this  time  was  always  willing 
to  act  in  conjunction  with  local  feeling  and  desire  in  these 
matters.  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  gave  eloquent  expression,  in  a 
speech  in  Liverpool,  some  time  after  this  controversy,  to 
this  parliamentary  right  divine  in  these  words:  "What 
they  had  wanted  for  two  hundred  years  in  Ireland  was  an 
honest  dictator,  and  they  had  at  last  got  one  in  the  person  of 
Mr.  Parnell.  .  .  .  Men  with  only  tin-pot  intelligence  should  not 
be  allowed  to  chime  a  discordant  note  against  the  great 
national  tocsin  which  Mr.  Parnell  was  clanging  to  the  national 
ear."  And  in  an  article  by  the  same  authority,  which  ap- 
peared in  the  Pall  Mall  Gazette  about  this  period,  this  position 
was  maintained:  "What  does  it  matter  to  the  constituencies 
in  Ireland  who  represents  them  if  Mr.  Parnell  can  produce 
adequate  results  for  the  country?" 

All  this  read  very  nicely  at  the  time,  and  had  its  effect 
in  clothing  Mr.  Parnell's  leadership  with  the  ukase  of  ab- 
solutism. To  question  any  proposal  or  policy  put  forward 
in  his  name  by  his  lieutenants  was  to  create  dissension  and 
to  threaten  disaster.  He  was  the  Moses  of  the  Irish  race, 
and  had  brought  them  out  of  bondage.  Those  who  ventured 
to  express  views  not  quite  so  high-flown,  or  who  attempted 
to  put  the  popular  leader  on  a  less  infallible  but  a  far  more 
solid  and  secure  pedestal  of  delegated  power  and  authority, 
were  hounded  down  by  the  lieutenants  in  the  most  peremptory 
fashion.  They  were  factionists  or  cranks,  and  that  ended  the 
dispute. 

It  was  a  dangerous  doctrine  to  preach,  and  dire  results 
were  destined  to  follow  from  what  was  in  all  probability  a 
well-meant  and  zealous  regard  for  discipline  and  unity. 
Intense  loyalty  to  the  person  of  a  leader  is  an  amiable  quality 
in  any  public  man,  when  it  has  the  virtue  of  consistency  and 
persistency.  Honest  Tom  Steel  never  deviated  in  his  cult  of 
personal  worship  to  O'Connell,  and  the  ridiculous  lengths  to 
which  he  sometimes  carried  his  idolatry  did  not  invite  the 
suspicion  of  interested  motives.  In  later  times  Mr.  Jesse 
Collings's  invincible  henchmanship  of  Mr.  Chamberlain  is  an 
instance  of  sincere  and  doubtless  of  lasting  personal  loyalty. 
This  was  not  so  true  of  several  of  Mr.  Parnell's  lieutenants, 
who  were  more  Parnellite  than  himself  in  1884-85.     In  any 

467 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

case,  there  is  no  denial  now  of  the  bad  effects  which  these 
inconsiderate  claims  of  dictatorship  put  forward  in  his  name 
had  upon  Mr.  Parnell's  own  disposition  and  acts  afterwards, 
and  upon  the  cause  which  he  had  so  magnificently  led  up  to 
the  great  events  of  1886. 

No  man  who  is  strongly  human,  as  every  political  leader 
must  be,  can  remain  always  insensible  to  constant  praise 
and  laudation.  When  he  is  told  that  all  his  words  are  pearls 
of  wisdom,  that  all  his  acts  are  incontestable  in  their  true 
statesmanship  and  importance,  and  that  he  is  absolutely 
indispensable  to  the  people  and  cause  and  the  party  he  leads ; 
when  this  is  spoken  or  written  by  able  and  responsible  men, 
who  are  his  lieutenants,  and  the  country's  popular  representa- 
tives also,  he  must  feel  that  it  is  all  sincere  and  true,  and  that 
his  will  and  purpose  and  policy  with  them  have  the  force 
of  an  unquestioned  authority.  When,  as  a  consequence  of 
this  dangerous  adulation,  Mr.  Parnell  crossed  from  London 
to  Tipperary,  in  1884,  and  imposed  a  candidate  of  his  own 
and  of  the  local  clergy  upon  a  parliamentary  constituency, 
against  the  nominee  of  a  popular  convention,  his  action  was 
duly  and  loudly  applauded  as  that  of  a  strong  leader.  A  few 
humble  people  murmured  in  opposition.  They  had  not  long 
to  wait  for  another  exercise  of  this  power  of  dictatorship  in  a 
Galway  contest,  which  commenced  to  bring  home  to  even 
the  intolerant  lieutenants  what  their  advocacy  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell's pontifical  power  was  leading  to.  Nor  did  many  of 
them  recall  in  the  dire  results  of  the  split  of  1890  how  much 
of  the  wreckage  of  the  man  and  the  movement  in  that 
catastrophe  was  due  to  their  own  very  well-meant  but  very 
short-sighted  action  in  the  years  when  Mr.  Parnell  was  a 
statesman  in  the  process  of  evolution  from  a  semi-revolution- 
'ary  agitator. 

The  fear  of  the  consequences  of  disunion  is  a  morbid  fear 
in  Ireland.  Like  many  other  Celtic  weaknesses,  it  is  often 
the  parent  of  the  very  evil  it  tries  by  unreasonable  means  to 
prevent.  Intolerance  of  discussion  is  never  a  sign  of  true 
strength  nor  a  rational  way  of  winning  respect  for  right 
authority.  Men  who  believe  in  principles  as  guides  to  public 
action,  rather  than  in  the  views  or  declarations  of  other  men, 
and  who  base  their  political  creed  upon  their  own  conviction 
as  to  the  right  or  wrong  purpose  or  necessity  of  public  move- 
ments and  proposals,  are  not  made  more  amenable  to  others' 
wisdom  by  the  use  of  a  majority  blackthorn  which  far  more 
frequently  represents  the  engineered  decision  of  a  clique 
than  the  result  of  the  majority's  careful  and  mature  de- 
liberations.    These  and  other  equally  human  considerations 

468 


DANGERS    OF    "UNCROWNED    KINGS" 

are  not  always  present  to  the  minds  of  political  leaders,  and 
hence  arise  not  infrequently  the  very  dissensions  which  their 
true  causes  wrong-headedly  insisted  upon  tried  to  prevent. 

Mr.  Parnell  took  full  advantage  in  1884  of  the  plenary 
power  which  was  placed  in  his  hands  by  those  who  afterwards 
had  cause  to  wince  under  its  stern  application  to  themselves. 
He  created  all  clergymen  ex-officio  delegates  to  all  conventions 
which  should  meet  for  the  selection  of  parliamentary  can- 
didates. This  action  was  prompted  by  a  desire  to  have 
a  strong  conservative  nationalist  influence  on  his  side  against 
any  possible  radical  opposition.  Mr.  Parnell  had  no  political 
love  for  clerical  politicians.  He  paid  no  court  to  prelates, 
and  was  sometimes  wanting  in  ordinary  courtesy  to  one  or 
two  of  them  who  had  greatly  aided  him  in  his  work.  But 
he  knew  they  stood  as  a  whole  for  a  moderate  nationalism _ 
like  his  own,  and,  as  some  two  hundred  thousand  laborers 
and  artisans  were  about  to  be  added  by  the  franchise  bill  to 
the  electoral  forces  of  Ireland,  he  wisely  for  his  own  present 
purposes,  but  unwisely  for  his  future  political  fortunes,  dis- 
pensed with  the  form  of  election  in  the  case  of  all  clergymen, 
and  threw  open  the  doors  of  every  convention  to  the  ablest 
and  most  influential  body  of  men  in  the  country. 

This  was  undemocratic  and  opposed  to  those  principles 
which  ought  to  be  rigidly  adhered  to  in  the  constitution  of 
political  assemblies.  It  was  creating  a  class  or  privileged  / 
franchise,  and  was  on  that  ground  wrong,  and  very  repre-^- 
hensible  in  a  movement  which  had  for  its  main  purpose 
the  freedom  of  the  country  from  the  rule  of  a  privileged 
minority.  There  was  no  real  necessity  for  this  ex-o-fficio 
privilege  in  any  case.  No  man  would  be  more  freely  del- 
egated by  a  parish  branch  of  a  national  organization  to  a 
convention  than  a  nationalist  priest  or  curate.  He  would 
have  five  chances  to  one  in  half  the  parishes  of  Ireland  against 
a  lay  opponent,  and  in  face  of  the  claims  which  a  well-merited 
popularity  thus  gave  to  the  clergy  it  was  a  needless  violence 
to  the  law  of  principle  to  make  this  invidious  distinction 
between  men  who  can  only  claim  an  equality  of  right  in  all 
questions  of  franchise  and  of  popular  representation  where 
votes  are  concerned.  But  Mr.  Parnell  had  his  own  way,  and 
said,  laughingly,  to  me,  on  one  occasion,  "You  know  the 
clergy  are  very  useful  against  extremists  like  yourself  when 
we  are  away  in  London!" 

Events  in  this  year  were  responding  as  an  approval  of  Mr. 
Parnell 's  cautious  policy.  He  had  lent  no  personal  help  to 
the  work  of  rebuilding  the  league  organization  throughout 
the  country,  but  he  wisely  refrained  from  interfering,  except 

469 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

in  one  prominent  instance  where  he  was  persuaded  by  his 
stalwarts  to  make  a  rather  pointed  attack  upon  myself  in 
Drogheda  for  extreme  utterances  on  the  land  question.  The 
speech  in  question  was  largely  composed  and  written  for 
him  by  one  of  his  ablest  lieutenants,  and  was  unnecessarily 
emphatic  on  the  obvious  proposition  that  the  land  of  Ireland 
must  be  fought  for  or  paid  for.  A  proposition  that  two 
and  two  made  four  could  not  be  more  self-evident.  But  as 
a  policy  of  "fighting  for  the  land"  had  been  the  life  and  the 
success  of  the  Land  League,  and  had  made  its  purchase  by 
tenants  possible,  it  appeared  to  some  people  as  fair  and  as 
reasonable  to  "fight"  for  greater  facilities  still,  and  even 
for  better  terms  than  those  prevailing,  as  it  was  for  the 
previous  advocates  of  prairie  value  to  adopt  a  policy  of» 
"bulling"  the  landlords'  share  of  the  dual  ownership  of  the 
soil  as  a  means  of  procuring  a  satisfactory  settlement  of  the 
whole  question. 

The  landlords  had  met  in  Dublin  in  May  to  call  the  attention 
of  the  government  to  the  deadlock  in  the  land  market  and 
to  ask  for  an  amendment  of  the  purchase  provisions  in  the 
Land  Act  of  1881.  The  meeting  was  a  signal  of  distress  from 
the  ex-rack-renters.  They  had  found  that  the  proclamations 
of  league  meetings,  trials  by  packed  juries,  evictions,  and  the 
other  media  of  landlord  rule  had  not  increased  their  revenues 
nor  enhanced  the  borrowing  power  of  their  estates.  Mr. 
Trevelyan  was,  therefore,  induced  to  frame  a  bill  to  carry 
out  the  desire  on  both  sides  to  widen  the  avenues  of  purchase, 
but  his  tenure  of  the  chief-secretaryship  had  been  made  a 
living  purgatory  by  attacks  from  front  and  rear,  and  he 
resigned  in  October  without  pushing  his  measure  to  fruition. 
He  was  succeeded  in  the  chief-secretaryship  by  Mr.  (since 
Sir  Henry)  Campbell-Bannerman. 

Mr.  Pamell  proclaimed  at  Drogheda  that  the  land  question 
must  be  settled  before  the  problem  of  Home  Rtile  could  be 
dealt  with.  He  abandoned  this  attitude  later  in  the  year, 
and  declared  that  the  one  question  which  must  be  put  to  the 
forefront  and  kept  there  was  Home  Rule.  This  change  in 
policy  was  not  an  act  of  vacillation,  but  a  matter  of  tactics. 
He  had  reason  to  believe  about  this  time  that  Mr.  Chamberlain 
was  in  favor  of  a  scheme  of  modified  local  government  for 
Ireland  which  would  give  to  a  "central  board"  in  Dublin 
power  to  legislate  on  the  land  and  education  questions,  and 
with  nothing  better  within  sight  Mr.  Parnell  was  angling  for 
concessions  in  this  direction. 

Nearly  the  whole  of  the  session  of  1884  was  taken  up  with 
the  discussion   of  the  franchise  bill   which  was   to   extend 

470 


DANGERS    OF    "UNCROWNED    KINGS" 

household  suffrage  to  the  counties.  The  Tories  strongly 
opposed  the  application  of  this  measure  to  Ireland.  "Rebels 
in  hovels"  would  swamp  the  better  class  of  farmers  and  the 
loyalist  classes  at  the  polls,  and  give  the  country  over  to  the 
political  mercies  of  the  league.  But  Mr.  Gladstone  remained 
firm  in  his  resolve  to  draw  no  invidious  line  between  Ireland 
and  Great  Britain  in  the  matter  of  voting  equality,  and  when 
once  the  true  meaning  of  this  coming  increase  of  electors  in 
Ireland  was  grasped  in  its  certain  influence  upon  the  future 
representation  of  the  country,  the  Tory  advocates  of  coercion 
became  less  strident  in  their  cries  for  repression.  The  party 
managers  in  Westminster  commenced  instead  to  calculate 
the  number  of  men  Mr.  Parnell  would  return  with  in  1886, 
and  how  his  certain  increased  following  would  affect  the 
respective  ministerial  fortunes  of  Liberals  and  Tories.  This 
change  of  feeling  was  a  justification  of  Mr.  Parnell 's  cautious 
policy,  and  once  again  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  movement 
associated  with  his  name  began  to  assume  the  garb  of  hopeful 
prospects. 

What  was  known  as  the  Mayo  conspiracy  case  attracted 
much  public  attention  in  1884.  It  was  an  alleged  plot  to 
kill  some  landlord  or  land  agent  in  that  county.  A  series  of 
trials,  culminating  in  one  before  a  packed  jury  in  Cork, 
resulted  in  the  conviction  and  imprisonment  of  Mr.  P.  W. 
Nally,  one  of  the  chief  organizers  of  the  Irishtown  meeting. 
No  one  who  knew  him  believed  for  a  moment  that  he  could 
be  a  party  to  the  crime  attributed  to  him  by  a  wretched  in- 
former named  Coleman,  a  creature  whose  character  and 
antecedents  were  as  sullied  as  those  of  his  young  victim  were 
the  reverse.  Nally  fell  a  prey  to  one  of  the  many  sordid 
plots  which  were  organized  by  men  of  the  Coleman  stamp  for 
their  own  infamous  ends.  Being  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Fenian  organization,  the  Castle  prosecutors  pursued  him  for 
his  revolutionary  principles  through  the  medium  of  this 
Coleman  trap.  He  was  an  upright,  manly  young  fellow,  the 
champion  athlete  of  Mayo,  and  a  general  favorite  with  the 
people  of  his  native  county,  who  knew  him  to  be  incapable 
of  any  dishonorable  action.  He  died  in  prison  when  nearing 
the  end  of  his  sentence. 

The  second  convention  of  the  National  League  of  America 
was  held  in  Boston  in  August  of  this  year,  Mr.  Thomas 
Sexton,  M.P.,  and  Mr.  W.  K.  Redmond,  M.P.,  attending  as 
envoys  from  the  home  movement.  Mr.  Alexander  Sullivan 
resigned  his  position  of  president  of  the  league,  when  Mr. 
Patrick  Egan,  former  treasurer  of  the  Land  League  of  Ireland, 
was    unanimously    elected    to    succeed   him.     The    progress 

471 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

reported  at  the  convention  was  eminently  satisfactory,  though 
there  had  been  a  sHght  falhng-off  in  the  number  of  affiHated 
branches.  Mr.  Parnell's  declarations  in  Ireland  to  push  the 
Home  -  Rule  issue  to  the  front  gave  complete  satisfaction 
to  his  followers  in  America,  and  steps  were  taken  to  help  to 
sustain  him  financially  in  the  support  of  the  stronger  parlia- 
mentary party  which  was  expected  to  follow  the  increase  of 
electors  in  Ireland. 

Dynamite  had  played,  even  more  so  than  in  1S83,  a  prom- 
inent part  in  keeping  the  Irish  question  unpleasantly  before 
England's  lawmakers  in  1884.  Bombs  had  been  exploded 
actually  within  the  precincts  of  Scotland  Yard,  following  a 
previous  attempt  to  blow  up  the  Local  Government  Board 
offices.  Similar  outrages  were  perpetrated  at  three  of  the 
chief  railway  termini  in  London,  while  later  still  in  the  same 
year  infernal  machines  with  clock-work  fuses  were  deposited 
in  Westminster  Hall  and  the  Tower  of  London;  the  year's 
operations  in  this  line  winding  up  with  a  desperate  attempt 
to  destroy  London  Bridge.  Ic  was  deadly  bad  work  from 
Mr.  Parnell's  point  of  view.  Not  even  his  worst  enemies 
suggested  that  the  authors  of  these  acts  were  friendly  to  his 
parliamentary  policy,  but  no  Englishman  with  intelligence 
could  shut  his  eyes  to  the  fact  that  the  men  who  planned 
these  deeds  of  desperation  would  not  resort  to  such  acts  and 
run  the  risks  involved  in  their  criminal  designs  unless  the 
coercionist  rule  of  Ireland  gave  them  some  semblance  of 
justification  for  the  counter-terrorism  to  which  they  resorted. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 
PARNELL'S    TRIUMPH 

On  May  20,  1885,  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  hinted  in  a 
speech  at  a  Tory  club  that  a  new  policy  was  required  for  Ire- 
land. Arbitrary  powers  were  at  fault  and  had  failed,  and  a 
change  was  required  which  would  have  some  regard  for  the 
feelings  of  the  Irish  people.  This  deliverance  followed  a 
statement  previously  made  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  that  as  the 
crimes  act  would  expire  before  Parliament  would  adjourn  in 
August,  some  of  the  clauses  of  that  measure  would  have  to 
be  renewed.  In  the  light  of  what  followed — the  fruitless  re- 
sults of  the  Carnarvon-Parnell  interview  and  of  the  Newport 
pro-Home-Rule  speech  of  Lord  Salisbury — it  is  evident  that 
Churchill  was  only  bidding  in  this  and  in  similar  speeches 
for  Irish  support  as  a  means  of  ousting  the  Liberals  from 
office  and  in  making  a  claim  for  position  upon  his  own  party 
should  they  climb  into  power  through  this  successful  angling 
for  Mr.  Pamell  and  his  forces.  Lord  Randolph  was  probably 
sincere  in  a  desire  to  see  coercion  abandoned  in  return  for 
Irish  votes.  There  is,  however,  no  evidence  worth  taking 
into  serious  account  to  show  that  he  or  his  party  contemplated 
offering  the  Irish  party  any  form  of  Home  Rule.  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's subsequent  overtures  to  the  Salisbury  government  in 
this  connection  establishes  this  fact  conclusively. 

Mr.  Morley  records  ^  that  on  May  6th  (1885),  a  fortnight  be- 
fore the  Churchill  speech,  Mr.  Gladstone  had  made  a  memoran- 
dum of  a  talk  on  Ireland  with  Lord  Granville  in  which  he  ex- 
plained his  position  on  the  question  of  a  new  departure  in  the 
system  of  Irish  government.  He  set  out  by  saying  that  Mr. 
Chamberlain  was  aware  of  his  (Mr.  Gladstone's)  opinions 
being  "strongly  in  favor  of  a  plan  for  a  central  board  of  local 
government  in  Ireland,  on  something  of  an  elective  basis," 
thus  referring  probably  to  the  kind  of  plan  Mr.  Chamberlain 
had  in  view.  He  then  proceeds  to  speak  for  his  own  position 
as  follows:  "My  opinions,  I  said,  were  strong  and  inveterate. 

*  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  pp.   191,   192. 
473 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

I  did  not  calculate  upon  Parnell  and  his  friends  nor  upon 
Manning  and  his  bishops.  Nor  was  I  under  any  obligation 
to  follow  or  act  with  Chamberiain.  But  independently  of  all 
questions  of  party,  of  support,  and  of  success,  I  looked  upon 
the  extension  of  a  strong  measure  of  local  government  like 
this  to  Ireland,  now  that  the  question  is  effectively  revived 
by  the  crimes  act,  as  invaluable  itself,  and  as  the  only  hopeful 
means  of  securing  crown  and  state  from  an  ignominious 
surrender  in  the  next  Parliament  after  a  mischievous  and 
painful  struggle." 

The  reason  why  he  did  not  propose  a  scheme  of  this  character 
at  this  period  is  fully  explained  by  Mr.  Morley.  His  cabinet 
was  divided,  both  as  to  the  extent  of  the  modified  coercion 
that  was  to  be  proposed  to  Parliament  in  place  of  the  crimes 
act,  and  on  the  question  of  the  kind  of  local  government  that 
should  accompany  this  repressive  measure.  The  Whigs  in 
the  ministry  were  for  a  maximum  of  kicks  and  a  minimum 
of  halfpence,  while  the  Radicals  and  the  prime  -  minister 
would  reverse  the  treatment  and  the  extent  of  both,  to  the 
full  measure  of  the  "central  board,"  which  would  be  en- 
dowed with  large  municipal  powers  and  some  permissive 
local  legislation. 

Mr.  Chamberlain's  position  in  relation  to  this  plan  was 
as  follows:  Before  the  introduction  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home- 
Rule  bill  of  1886  the  political  term  of  "Home  Rule,"  despite 
Mr.  Isaac  Butt's  clear  definition  of  its  legislative  and  federal 
meaning  in  the  seventies,  stood  in  the  member  for  Birming- 
ham's opinion  only  for  "a  large  scheme  of  local  government 
which  would  not  involve  anything  in  the  nature  of  a  separate 
Parliament  in  Ireland."  Contradictory  as  this  seems,  in  the 
light  and  the  wording  of  his  much-quoted  speech  of  June  17th, 
in  which  Ireland's  rule  by  England  was  compared  to  that  of 
Poland  by  Russia,  it  is  claimed  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Chamberlain 
that  neither  Mr.  Parnell  nor  those  through  whom  he  negotiated 
with  Liberal  ministers  could  ever  have  been  in  doubt  as  to  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  real  intentions  or  meaning  with  reference  to  a 
substitute  for  Dublin-Castle  administration. 

In  1885  Mr.  Parnell,  through  Captain  O'Shea,  submitted  a 
scheme  for  "national  councils"  to  Mr.  Chamberlain,  cor- 
responding with  his  idea  of  "Home  Rule"  as  defined  above. 
Mr.  Parnell  never  explained  the  nature,  extent,  or  limitations 
of  this  scheme  to  friends  in  Ireland  or  to  his  colleagues  in 
London.  What  happened  was  this:  The  scheme  thus  sub- 
mitted to  Mr.  Chamberlain  was,  in  ttirn,  explained  or  suggested 
in  his  behalf  to  certain  members  of  Mr.  Parnell 's  party,  who 
were  induced  to  believe,  in  this  way,  that  it  originated  with 

474 


P  A  R  N  E  L  L '  S    TRIUMPH 

the  member  for  Birmingham,  and  was  on  his  part  a  tentative 
effort  to  get  at  Home  Rule  by  the  then  heir-presumptive  to  the 
Liberal  leadership. 

Mr.  Chamberlain  pressed  it  upon  the  acceptance  of  his 
colleagues  in  the  Liberal  cabinet.  It  was  approved  of  by 
Mr.  Gladstone,  but  as  the  Whigs,  led  by  Hartington,  were 
hostile,  it  was  rejected,  several  of  those  who  opposed  it  be- 
coming a  few  months  later  supporters  of  the  Liberal  premier's 
greater  scheme  of  legislative  Home  Rule. 

It  was  represented  to  the  Radical  ministers,  in  behalf  of  the 
national  -  councils  plan,  that  it  had  been  submitted  to  the 
Irish  Catholic  hierarchy  and  had  obtained  their  approval. 
There  is,  however,  no  record  to  show  that  either  the  Irish 
party  or  the  executive  committee  of  the  Irish  National 
League  were  ever  asked  for  an  opinion  upon  a  plan  that  was 
to  dispose  in  this  manner  of  the  demand  for  "national 
self-government,"  which  was  the  first  article  in  the  official 
programme  of  the  national  organization  in  Ireland. 

After  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Gladstone,  on  the  defeat  of  his 
government  on  a  budget  vote,  Mr.  Chamberlain,  with  Sir 
Charles  Dilke  and  others  of  the  Radical  section,  was  prepared 
to  put  the  national-councils  scheme  forward  in  England  as  a 
parliamentary  policy  for  Ireland.  In  other  words,  it  was  to  be 
one  of  the  issues  to  be  put  before  the  British  constituencies 
at  the  coming  general  election  on  the  extended  franchise; 
but  on  learning  from  Mr.  Parnell,  in  answer  to  inquiries, 
that  he  was  no  longer  prepared  to  deal  with  the  subject  on 
those  lines,  the  Radical  ministers  dropped  the  question. 

It  was  in  connection  with  this  Parnell  scheme  of  national 
councils  that  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  Sir  Charles  Dilke  had 
intimated  a  desire  to  visit  Ireland,  to  inquire  into  local  con- 
ditions and  aspirations,  the  better  to  be  able  to  advocate 
its  acceptance  by  English  opinion.  Mr.  Parnell  was  in  favor 
of  this  visit,  but,  what  was  considered  to  be  his  organ. 
United  Ireland,  met  the  suggestion,  when  published  in  the 
press,  with  a  violent  outburst  of  opposition.  The  intend- 
ing visitors  were  threatened  with  a  hostile  reception  and 
other  forms  of  adverse  hospitality  should  they  dare  to  come 
to  Ireland  for  the  purpose  of  any  such  inquiry.  Nothing 
could  well  be  more  foolish  or  inconsistent,  apart  from  the 
opposition  thus  given  to  what  Mr.  Parnell  had  himself  ap- 
proved. Hitherto  one  of  the  strongest  objections  made  in 
Ireland  to  the  halting  and  unsatisfactory  nature  of  West- 
minster legislation  for  our  people  was  the  ignorance  which 
it  displayed  of  the  conditions  of  life  and  feeling  prevailing  in  a 
country  which  British  ministers  seldom  or  ever  came  to  see. 

475 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Now,  when  two  men  of  prominent  ministerial  rank,  who  had 
been  in  a  measure  Mr.  Parnell's  alHes  in  the  contest  against 
Mr.  Forster's  coercion,  indicated  an  intention  of  visiting  the 
country  for  the  first  time,  and  in  connection  with  a  proposed 
reform  suggested  by  the  Irish  leader,  his  reputed  organ  had 
nothing  for  them  but  the  welcome  of  a  threatened  horse-pond 
or  the  argument  of  a  bog-hole.  All  this  read,  of  course, 
very  warlike  and  valiant  in  Dublin  at  the  time,  but  account 
was  not  taken  by  the  writer  of  the  influence  it  would  have 
when  quoted  into  the  English  press  upon  Radical  voters  in 
the  coming  general  election.  It  was,  in  time,  so  quoted, 
and  together  with  an  equally  short-sighted  and  offensively 
worded  manifesto,  issued  on  the  eve  of  the  elections  in  favor 
of  the  Tories  by  the  Irish  leader,  just  succeeded  in  reducing 
Mr.  Gladstone's  subsequent  majority  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons low  enough  to  defeat  his  Home-Rule  bill. 

The  differences  in  the  cabinet  over  the  policy  to  be  pro- 
posed for  Ireland  were  between  Chamberlain  and  Dilke,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Lord  Hartington  and  the  Whigs  on  the  other. 
Mr.  Gladstone's  task  was  to  keep  the  factions  together, 
his  own  views  being  more  with  the  Radical  section.  Lord 
Spencer  was  another  discordant  element  in  the  situation. 
He  wanted  a  bill  for  land  purchase  as  a  coated-pill  accom- 
paniment for  more  coercion.  To  this  Chamberlain  and 
Dilke  objected,  and,  as  their  views  and  position  were  opposed 
by  the  majority,  they  tendered  their  resignations. 

Writing  to  Lord  Hartington^  on  June  4th,  Mr.  Gladstone 
again  insisted  that  he  was  in  advance  of  the  Chamberlain 
attitude  on  the  Irish  question :  "I  am  fully  convinced  that  on 
local  government  for  Ireland  they  (Chamberlain  and  Dilke) 
hold  a  winning  position,  which  by  resignation  now  they  will 
greatly  compromise.  You  will  all,  I  am  convinced,  have  to 
give,  at  least,  what  they  recommend.  There  are  two  dif- 
ferences between  them  and  me  on  this  subject — first,  as  to 
the  matter — I  go  further  than  they  do,  for  I  would  undoubtedly 
make  a  beginning  with  the  Irish  police;  secondly,  as  to  the 
ground — here  I  differ  seriously.  I  do  not  reckon  with  any 
confidence  upon  Manning  or  Pamell;  I  have  never  looked 
much  in  Irish  matters  at  negotiation  or  the  conciliation  of 
leaders.  I  look  at  the  question  in  itself,  and  I  am  deeply 
convinced  that  the  measure  in  itself  will  be  good  for  the 
country  and  the  empire." 

A  few  days  afterwards  (June  8th)  the  Gladstone  govern- 
ment  was   defeated   on   a  budget   division  by  two  hundred 

*  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.    197. 
476 


PARNELL'S    TRIUMPH 

and  sixty-four  to  two  hundred  and  fifty-two  votes,  Mr.  Par- 
nell  and  his  following  voting  with  the  Tories  in  support  of 
Sir  Michael  Hicks  -  Beach's  amendment.  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill's  tactics  had  succeeded.  By  denouncing  the  con- 
tinuance of  coercion  and  in  other  ways,  he  had  persuaded 
Mr.  Parnell  that  Codlin  was  the  friend  of  Home  Rule,  not 
Short,  and  Mr.  Gladstone  had  to  make  way  for  Lord  Salis- 
bury. 

The  Tories  accepted  office  after  a  prolonged  interregnum, 
but  as  they  could  only  remain  in  power  by  the  support  of  Mr. 
Parnell  the  position  became  irksome,  especially  in  view  of  the 
Churchill  coquetting  with  Home  Rule  and  the  revelations 
anent  the  Parnell  interview  with  Lord  Carnarvon.  What 
the  Churchill  manoeuvres  plainly  intended  was,  not  to  put 
his  party  in  power  for  a  brief  space  only,  and  thus  to  expose 
it  to  the  proof  of  its  professions,  but  to  obtain  the  Irish 
support  at  the  impending  general  election.  This  plan  was, 
in  part,  frustrated  by  the  manner  in  which  the  Liberals  were 
defeated.  Mr.  Gladstone  resigned  and  did  not  dissolve  Par- 
liament, and  thereby  compelled  the  Queen  to  send  for  Lord 
Salisbury  and  to  request  him  to  form  a  ministry. 

Mr.  Parnell  now  found  himself  complete  master  of  the 
situation  within  certain  limits  and  subject  to  a  wise  exercise 
of  available  forces  and  tactics.  He  was  in  a  most  delicate 
but  still  a  hopeful  position  for  his  cause.  All  parties  and 
sections  were  committing  themselves  to  some  change  in  the 
form  of  Ireland's  future  government.  Both  English  parties 
were  sick  of  coercion.  It  had  not  succeeded  in  saving  the 
landlords  or  in  making  Dublin  Castle  feared  or  respected. 
Chamberlain  and  Churchill  favored  the  abolition  of  the 
Castle  —  one  to  have  it  replaced  by  national  councils,  the 
other  by  some  undefined  arrangement.  Mr.  Gladstone  was 
for  going  further  than  either,  and  held  to  the  views  he  had 
expressed  to  Mr.  Forster  in  the  letter  of  April  12,  1881. 

The  influence  which  decided  Mr.  Parnell  to  take  the  wrong 
course  in  this  crisis  was  that  of  Lord  Carnarvon,  and  the 
tactics  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill.  The  intervention  of 
Lord  Carnarvon  was  brought  about  by  the  efforts  of  Sir 
Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  who  saw  Mr.  Parnell  at  this  period  in 
London.  He  pressed  upon  him  the  wisdom  of  putting  the 
SaHsbury  government  to  the  test  of  what  they  were  prepared 
to  offer  to  the  Irish  party  for  the  support  which  Mr.  Parnell 
was  already  inclined  to  give  them  on  the  strength  of  the  hopes 
raised  by  some  of  the  Tory  leaders.  Sir  Gavan  Duffy  was 
intimately  acquainted  .with  Lord  Carnarvon  from  colonial 
experiences,   and  held  him  in  very  high  esteem,  both  for 

477 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

his  personal  qualities  and  his  progressive  views  on  some  ques- 
tions. The  veteran  Tenant-League  leader  had  already  moved, 
himself,  in  this  direction  by  writing  an  open  appeal  to  the 
Conservatives  to  grapple  with  the  problem  of  Home  Rule, 
the  article  being  sent  by  Lord  Carnarvon  to  the  editor  of  the 
National  Review}  Finally,  the  interview  was  brought  about, 
and  Mr.  Pamell  gave  this  summarized  account  of  what 
transpired,  after  the  negotiations  in  this  way  with  the  Tory 
party  had  resulted  in  nothing: 

"At  the  conclusion  of  the  conversation,  which  lasted  more 
than  an  hour,  and  to  which  Lord  Carnarvon  was  very  much  the 
larger  contributor,  I  left  him,  believing  that  I  was  in  complete 
accord  with  him  regarding  the  main  outlines  of  a  settlement 
conferring  a  legislature  upon  Ireland.  In  conversing  with  him 
I  dealt  with  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  who  was  respon- 
sible for  the  government  of  the  country.  I  could  not  sup- 
pose that  he  would  fail  to  impress  the  views  which  he  had 
disclosed  to  me  upon  the  cabinet;  and  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  he  did  so  impress  them,  and  that  they  were  strong- 
ly shared  by  more  than  one  important  member  of  the  body 
and  strongly  opposed  by  none."- 

Some  time  after  this  statement  was  made  to  the  public,  Mr. 
Parnell,  on  his  return  to  Ireland,  invited  me  to  Avondale  for  a 
talk  over  the  new  situation.  He  led  me  to  believe  that  other 
important  members  of  the  Tory  ministry  had  become  most 
friendly  to  the  idea  of  Irish  self-government  and  that  Lord 
Salisbury  would  bring  in  a  Home-Rule  bill.  Mr.  Parnell  had, 
a  few  days  previously,  at  Arklow,  made  a  speech  in  which 
he  demanded  not  alone  an  Irish  legislature,  equipped  with 
adequate  powers  to  make  all  necessary  laws  for  Ireland,  but 
"with  the  power  to  protect  Irish  industries  against  importa- 
tions." I.  asked  him  if  he  seriously  believed  that  any 
English  minister  would  ever  propose  to  give  power  to  an 
Irish  Parliament  to  put  a  tariff  on  England's  goods  coming 
into  this  country.  "Yes,"  was  the  confident  reply,  "I  am 
virtually  assured  that  the  Tories  will  do  so."  I  was  utterly 
incredulous,  not  having  had  a  moment's  misgiving  as  to 
the  real  purpose  of  the  Churchill  tactics,  and  I  urged  him  as 
soon  as  he  got  an  opportunity  to  modify  as  much  as  possible 
the  strong  protectionist  language  he  had  used  the  day  before, 
pointing  out  that  this  feature  of  the  Home-Rule  question,  if 
insisted  upon,  would  do  more  to  alarm  the  shop-keeping 
instincts  of  the  English  nation  than  a  demand  for  an  Irish 
republic  on  a  free-trade  basis  would  do.     Before  he  obtained 

^  Life  of  Parnell,  vol.  n.,  p.  6;^.  ^  The  Times,  June  12,  1885. 

478 


PARxMELL  vS    TRIUMPH 

an  opportunity  of  doing  this  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  spoken 
at  Warrington  on  September  8th.  He  fastened  upon  the 
protectionist  plank  in  the  Parnell  declaration,  and  proclaimed 
his  hostility  to  any  fonn  of  Home  Rule  which  should  give 
power  to  the  Irish  to  penalize  the  products  of  English  manu- 
facture, and  predicted  the  failure  of  such  demands. 

During  this  time — that  is,  while  the  Salisbury  government 
remained  in  power  by  leave  of  Mr.  Parnell — Mr.  Gladstone's 
mind  was  travelling  in  the  one  direction  he  had  indicated  in 
the  letter  of  April,  1881.  He  saw  no  way  out  of  the  mess 
which  the  league  movement  and  coercion  had  made  of 
English  rule  in  Ireland,  and  he  concluded  that  what  was 
inevitable  anyhow  ought  to  be  boldly  faced  and  proclaimed. 
It  has  been  generally  held  that  it  was  Mr.  Parnell 's  defeat 
of  the  Liberals  in  June  and  his  support  of  the  Tories  in  the 
general  election  of  November  which  forced  Mr.  Gladstone's 
hand  on  Home  Rule.  Mr.  Morley's  Life  of  Gladstone  com- 
pletely shatters  that  contention.  The  evidence  is  conclusive 
that  he  had  convinced  his  mind  that  "force  was  no  remedy," 
and  that  the  Irish  people  must  be  intrusted  with  a  form  of 
rule  that  would  beget  national  responsibility,  and  create  a 
respect  for  law  and  order  that  Castle  government  would 
never  obtain.  In  letters  to  Lord  Derby,  Lord  Granville,  and 
others,  and  in  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Chamberlain  at 
Hawarden,  as  recorded  in  the  third  volume  of  Mr.  Morley's 
authentic  work,  this  state  of  mind  and  intention  is  made 
clear  beyond  all  doubt  fully  a  month  before  the  Irish  leader 
had  made  known  which  English  party  he  intended  to  ask  the 
Irish  in  Great  Britain  to  support  at  the  coming  elections. 
On  the  very  eve  of  the  contest  the  Liberal  leader  wrote  to 
Mr.  Childers  approving  of  his  intention  to  put  forward,  in  a 
contemplated  speech,  proposals  which  went  far  beyond  Mr. 
Chamberlain's  "central  board."  Then  came  his  memorable 
Midlothian  utterances,  all  pointing,  in  their  references  to 
Ireland,  to  the  need  of  a  radical  change  in  its  rule,  and  to 
the  powerful  constitutional  position  the  Irish  party  would 
occupy  in  the  coming  new  Parliament,  if,  as  was  generally 
expected,  Mr.  Pamell's  following  should  be  considerably 
increased  by  the  extended  franchise. 

There  was  one  declaration  in  one  of  these  historic  speeches 
(November  9th)  which  was  held  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  lieu- 
tenants at  the  time  to  justify  their  subsequent  action  in 
opposing  the  great  Liberal  leader  by  the  Irish  vote  in  Great 
Britain.  It  was  where  Mr.  Gladstone  said:  "Apart  from 
the  term  Whig  or  Tory,  there  is  one  thing  I  will  say,  and 
will  endeavor  to  impress  upon  you,  and  it  is  this:   It  will 

479 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

be  a  vital  danger  to  the  country  and  to  the  empire  if,  at  a 
time  when  a  demand  from  Ireland  for  larger  powers  of  self- 
government  is  to  be  dealt  with,  there  is  not  in  Parliament  a 
party  totally  independent  of  the  Irish  vote."  This  was,  in 
one  sense,  an  utterance  that  might  legitimately  cause  some 
Irish  anger,  but  it  could  not  by  any  possible  twist  of  meaning 
be  interpreted  as  a  bid  for  Irish  support  in  the  approaching 
elections.  It  was  a  strong,  diplomatic,  and  consistent  at- 
titude; and  when  read  now  in  the  light  of  after  events,  and  in 
that  of  the  revelations  made  in  Mr.  Morley's  work,  it  is  clear 
that  it  was  a  politically  wise  and  far-seeing  declaration  on  the 
part  of  an  English  leader  who  was  himself  a  Home-Ruler,  and 
who  knew  the  extent  and  the  nature  of  British  party  forces 
that  would  be  roused  into  opposition  by  the  impending  Irish 
demand. 

He  saw  that  Mr.  Parnell's  boast  of  being  in  a  position  to 
act  the  part  of  an  arbiter  between  the  two  great  English 
parties,  and  of  holding  the  balance  of  votes  in  the  centre  of 
English  power  and  pride,  the  House  of  Commons,  would 
bring  much  more  than  British  party  feeling  into  play.  It 
was  a  threat  and  a  prospect  of  seeing  the  Imperial  Parliament 
"bossed"  by  nationalist  Ireland.  A  possible  contingency 
of  this  kind  would  arouse  anti-Irish  feeling,  and  would  create 
a  racial  antipathy  to  what  Mr.  Gladstone  had  made  up 
his  mind  to  propose,  and  for  the  carrying  out  of  which  he 
wanted  to  be,  in  British  eyes  and  opinion,  above  the  suspicion 
of  acting  only  in  obedience  to  Irish  votes,  and  for  the  honors 
and  emoluments  of  office  so  obtained  and  held. 

As  rival  tacticians  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Gladstone  were 
seen  at  this  stage  in  the  exercise  of  their  great  qualities.  The 
Liberal  leader  desired  to  induce  or  force  Lord  Salisbury  to 
make  good  in  some  way  the  innuendo  of  the  Newport  speech, 
the  more  pronounced  hints  of  Churchill,  and  the  acknowledged 
leanings  of  Lord  Carnarvon  towards  Home  Rule.  Had  this 
policy  succeeded  all  would  have  been  well  for  at  least  some 
measure  of  Irish  self-government.  The  Tories  held  and  hold 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  could,  under  combined  pressure, 
bring  it  to  agree  to  what  might  have  the  sanction  of  both 
parties.  It  was  a  sage  and  unselfish  policy,  and  it  merited 
a  success  which  the  uncertain  chances  of  political  warfare 
did  not  vouchsafe  it. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  in  a  sense  handicapped  by  the  new  power 
that  had  come  to  his  fortune  to  wield.  The  temptation  to 
punish  still  more  the  authors  of  the  coercionist  outrages  of 
five  years  and  of  his  own  imprisonment  was,  humanly 
speaking,  a  strong  impulse.     Revenge  is  always  a  seductive 

480 


PARNELL'S    TRIUMPH 

luxury  to  the  promptings  of  human  passion,  and  that  the 
Irish  leader  keenly  felt  the  Kilmainham  imprisonment  he 
never  attempted  to  disguise.  "You  know  he  put  us  in 
prison,"  he  observed  in  one  of  our  talks  after  the  general 
election,  "and  we  were  called  upon  to  strike  back  so  as  to 
deter  others  from  resorting  to  like  methods  again."  But 
Mr.  Parnell  was  too  big  a  man  and  too  true  a  statesman  to 
allow  this  alone  to  influence  his  decision.  He  still  believed, 
despite  the  Carnarvon  experience,  that  the  party  masters 
of  the  House  of  Lords  were  the  surest  mark  for  a  Home- 
Rule  measure,  and  he  made  up  his  mind  to  hurl  his  power 
against  the  Gladstone  following  in  that  belief  and  spirit. 

The  manifesto  issued  in  his  name  on  November  21st,  some 
six  weeks  after  Lord  Salisbury's  Newport  speech,  was  a 
serious^  error  in  tactics.  In  any  case,  it  was  a  needlessly 
violent  pronounceihent  in  what  was  now  a  purely  parlia- 
mentary line  of  action  for  Mr.  Parnell.  It  overlooked  the 
fact  that  Englishmen  have  strong  feelings  of  attachment  to 
political  leaders,  as  Irishmen  have,  and  it  gave  ground  for 
angry  remonstrance  on  the  part  of  Radicals  and  Liberals 
alike  against  language  of  outrageous  insult  towards  those 
who  had  passed  the  land  and  laborers'  acts  in  face  of  Tory 
opposition,  and  who  were  even  now  more  friendly  to 
Home  Rule  than  the  followers  of  Salisbury  and  Churchill. 
It  evoked  a  bitter  anti-Irish  feeling  in  every  constituency  in 
Great  Britain,  and  turned  thousands  of  Liberal  voters  away 
from  the  Irish  cause  who  have  never  since  then  supported  it 
by  a  single  ballot.  "Some  estimated  the  loss  to  the  Liberal 
party  in  this  island,"  says  Mr.  Morley,^  "at  twenty  seats, 
others  at  forty.  Whether  twenty  or  forty,  these  lost  seats 
made  a  fatal  difference  in  the  division  on  the  Irish  bill  a  few 
months  later,  and  when  that  day  had  come  and  gone,  Mr. 
Parnell  sometimes  ruefully  asked  himself  whether  the  tactics 
of  the  electoral  manifesto  were  not  on  the  whole  a  mistake." 

With  the  freedom  which  I  sometimes  took  of  differing  with 
great  men,  I  went  strongly  at  the  time,  both  in  private  and 
in  public,  against  the  line  taken  by  Mr.  Parnell  in  this  ill- 
advised  course,  and  was  duly  excommunicated,  as  usual, 
by  some  of  his  choleric  young  lieutenants  for  my  dissent. 
But  no  unkind  word  was  spoken  by  the  leader  himself. 
What  Mr.  Morley  has  only  surmised  in  the  above  remark 
was  actually  confessed  more  than  once  to  myself  by  Mr. 
Parnell  afterwards.  He  was  not  afraid  to  admit  he  had 
carried  the  combined  tactics  of  Irish  temper  and  of  party 

^  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.   244. 
31  481 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

calculation  a  little  too  far  by  means  of  the  manifesto  in  ques- 
tion and  the  policy  which  it  stood  for. 

The  general  election  of  November,  1885,  resulted  in  the 
greatest  parliamentary  triumph  of  Mr.  Parnell's  political 
career.  In  Ireland  the  new  electors  admitted  to  the  franchise 
by  the  reform  bill  of  that  year  returned  eighty-five  Home- 
Rulers  out  of  a  total  parliamentary  roll  of  one  hundred  and 
two  members,  while  the  results  in  Great  Britain  guaranteed 
the  promise  of  a  striking  change  in  the  trend  of  Irish  legislation 
in  Westminster.  The  polls  on  the  British  side  of  the  Irish 
Sea  gave  three  hundred  and  thirty-three  members  of  the 
House  of  Commons  to  the  Liberals  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty-one  to  Lord  Salisbury's  leadership,  or  a  majority  of 
eighty-two  for  Mr.  Gladstone.  These  figures  represented 
a  Liberal  minority  of  four  against  Tories  and  Parnellites 
combined,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  being  elected  for  a  division  of 
Liverpool  and  making  Mr.  Parnell's  party  eighty-six  strong. 
This  was  the  result  which  Mr.  Gladstone  had  spoken  appre- 
hensively about  in  Midlothian.  With  the  solicited  co-opera- 
tion of  the  Tories  in  a  joint  task  of  framing  a  Home-Rule 
measure  assured,  this  state  of  parties  would  be  ideal,  from 
Mr.  Gladstone's  stand-point.  But,  if  otherwise,  Mr.  Parnell's 
balance  of  power  and  position  in  the  House  of  Commons 
would  be  the  most  dangerous  menace  of  a  situation  hedged 
all  round  with  risks  and  peril. 

The  general  political  result  of  the  elections  in  Ireland 
has  been  referred  to.  It  represented  the  highest  possible 
nationalist  achievement  at  the  polls,  having  due  regard  to 
the  numerical  strength  of  the  Anglo-Irish  population.  Ulster 
returned  a  majority  of  one  in  favor  of  Home  Rule.  Antrim 
was  the  only  county  which  failed  to  elect  a  follower  of  Mr. 
Parnell.  The  landlords  were  turned  out  of  every  constituency 
in  the  three  Southern  provinces,  saving  such  as  were  Home- 
Rulers  and  who  accepted  Mr.  Parnell's  leadership  and 
programme.  The  former  lords  of  political  power  as  of  Irish 
land  were  swept  as  if  by  an  electoral  cyclone.  Where  they 
or  their  noininees  had  ventured  to  contest  a  seat  with  a 
National-League  candidate,  the  vote  against  the  popular 
choice  was  so  ludicrously  small  that  it  added  an  element  of 
contempt  to  the  verdict  of  a  crushing  defeat.  In  Kerry  a 
pro  -landlord  supporter  was  given  thirty  votes  in  one  division ; 
the  nationalist  received  three  thousand.  In  Cork  county 
the  figures  in  two  constituencies  were  ten  thousand  for  Mr. 
Parnell's  side  and  three  hundred  for  the  landlords,  re- 
spectively. Mayo  gave  two  hundred  ballots  for  the  ad- 
herents of  landlordism  as  against  ten  thousand  for  the  Land- 

4S2 


PARNELL'S    TRIUMPH 

Leaguers,  and  so  on,  in  like  proportion,  in  other  Western 
and  Southern  constituencies. 

Three  classes  of  representative,  at  one  time  dividing  almost 
the  whole  of  Ireland  between  them,  were  summarily  evicted 
out  of  Parliament  by  the  increased  electorate  of  the  country : 
the  landlords  in  three  provinces,  the  Liberals  in  Ulster,  and 
the  "nominal  Home-Rulers"  everywhere.  Ireland  was  thus 
fairly  divided,  in  a  parliamentary  sense,  between  eighty-five 
nationalists  and  nineteen  anti-nationalists,  two  of  the  latter 
being  elected  by  Trinity  College  and  seventeen  by  Ulster 
constituencies.  The  signal  triumph  of  1880  was  thus  more 
than  repeated  five  years  later.  It  was  confirmed  and  magni- 
fied in  the  most  effective  electioneering  revolution  that  had 
taken  place  in  Ireland  since  the  act  of  union.  The  over- 
whelming argument  which  was  thus  constitutionally  made 
and  emphasized  against  that  corrupt  and  infamous  enactment 
was  offered  to  Mr.  Gladstone  at  a  moment  when  the  greatest 
of  Britain's  statesmen  had  concluded,  after  a  prolonged  and 
desperate  struggle  with  Irish  national  combinations,  that 
Castle  rule  and  coercion  were  no  remedy  for  the  national 
and  social  discontent  of  the  Irish  people. 

That  Mr.  Gladstone  was  sincerely  willing  to  help  the  Tories 
to  solve  the  problem  of  Irish  government,  on  the  lines  which 
Mr.  Parnell  asserted  were  suggested  by  Lord  Carnarvon,  and 
in  consonance  with  the  spirit  which  informed  Lord  Salisbury's 
Newport  speech,  is  placed  beyond  all  reasonable  doubt  by 
Mr.  Morley's  great  book.  At  page  258,  vol.  iii.,  he  is  quoted, 
under  date  of  December  10,  1885,  after  the  elections  were 
decided,  as  writing  thus  to  Mr.  Herbert  Gladstone: 

"The  nationalists  have  run  in  political  alliance  with  the 
Tories  for  years — more  especially  for  six  months — most  of 
all  at  the  close  during  the  elections,  when  they  have  made 
us  three  hundred  and  thirty-five  (say)  against  two  hundred 
and  fifty  (Conservatives),  instead  of  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
five  against  two  hundred  and  thirty.  This  alliance  is  there- 
fore at  its  zenith.  The  question  of  Irish  government  ought  for 
the  highest  reasons  to  be  settled  at  once,  and  settled  by  the 
allied  forces — (i)  because  they  have  the  government,  (2)  be- 
cause their  measure  will  have  fair  play  from  all,  most,  or 
many  of  us,  which  a  measure  of  ours  would  not  have  from 
the  Tories.  As  the  allied  forces  are  half  the  House,  so  that 
there  is  not  a  majority  against  them,  no  constitutional 
principle  is  violated  by  allowing  the  present  cabinet  to  con- 
tinue undisturbed  for  the  purpose  in  view.  The  plan  for 
Ireland  ought  to  be  produced  by  the  government  of  the  day. 
Principles  mav  be  laid  down  by  others,  but  not  the  detailed 

483 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

interpretation  of  them  in  a  measure.  I  have  pubHcly  de- 
clared I  produce  no  plan  until  the  government  has  arrived  at 
some  issue  with  the  Irish,  as  I  hope  they  will.  If  the  moment 
ever  came  when  a  plan  had  to  be  considered  with  a  view 
to  production  on  behalf  of  the  Liberal  part}',  I  do  not  at 
present  see  how  such  a  question  could  be  disassociated  from 
another  vital  question — namely,  who  are  to  be  the  government. 
For  a  government  alone  can  carry  a  measure,  though  some 
outline  of  essentials  might  be  put  out  in  a  motion  or 
resolution." 


CHAPTER  XL 
HOME     RULE,     AND     HOW     DEFEATED 

The  new  Parliament,  which  was  to  mark  a  momentous 
epoch  in  the  long  struggle  of  Ireland  against  English  rule,  met 
on  January  26,  1886.  The  Tories  were  still  the  government, 
though  in  a  minority  as  compared  with  the  rival  English 
party.  The  speech  from  the  throne  revealed  the  cloven  foot 
of  the  Tory  purpose  in  the  references  to  Ireland.  There  was 
no  Carnarvon,  Churchill,  or  Salisbury  "Home  Rule"  of  any 
kind  mentioned,  but  there  was  a  promise  to  ask  Parliament 
for  "necessary  powers"  to  strengthen  Castle  government 
should  those  already  at  the  disposal  of  the  Irish  executive 
require  supplementing  in  the  way  of  more  coercion.  Here 
was  the  end  of  what  Mr.  Gladstone  subsequently  declared 
to  be  "a  deliberate  attempt  to  deceive  the  Irish  with  a  view 
to  gaining  their  support  at  the  elections."  Mr.  Parnell's 
eyes  were  now  opened  wide  to  the  extent  to  which  Churchill 
&  Co.  had  successfully  played  the  game  Codlin  vs.  Short. 
Gladstone  and  the  Liberals  were  now  his  main  hope,  and  the 
memory  of  the  manifesto  of  November  was  of  the  kind  which 
suggests  a  regret  in  moments  of  after-reflection  that  certain 
bitter  words  and  phrases  had  not  been  left  unsaid. 

One  good,  however,  was  to  result  to  Ireland  despite  Tory 
treachery  on  one  Irish  question.  Lord  Ashbourne's  act,  in- 
troduced into  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  previous  session, 
had  become  law.  It  carried  out  to  a  considerable  extent  the 
proposals  for  land  purchase  which  the  Land  League  had 
demanded  in  1880,  and  for  which  Mr.  Pamell  and  his  party 
had  pressed  hard  while  the  Gladstone  bill  of  1881  was  being 
debated  in  the  House  of  Commons.  These  demands  were 
then  refused.  The  Tories  in  1882,  as  already  mentioned, 
brought  forward  a  motion,  in  both  Houses,  favoring  an  ex- 
tensive measure  of  land  purchase  as  a  step  towards  the 
creation  of  a  peasant  proprietary  in  Ireland.  Lord  Ashbourne 
included  these  proposals  in  a  comprehensive  measure  in 
the  session  of  1885,  ^^^  under  his  bill,  which  became  law, 
the  tenants  who  could  come  to   an   agreement  with  their 

485 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

landlords  to  buy  their  holdings  could  borrow  the  whole  pur- 
chase price  through  the  land  commission,  paying  in  return 
for  a  period  of  forty-nine  years  a  yearly  sum  of  four  per 
cent,  upon  the  money  so  advanced  by  the  state;  £2  155. 
of  this  to  be  interest  on  the  same,  and  ^i  55.  to  go  to  a 
sinking-fund  for  the  liquidation  of  the  loan.  A  sum  of 
^5,000,000  was  to  be  provided  by  the  state  for  such  loans. 
Subsequent  amendments  greatly  increased  this  state  aid. 

An  unprecedented  event  in  relation  to  the  office  of  Irish 
chief  secretary  occurred  in  connection  with  a  declaration  of 
the  new  government  to  amend  the  Ashbourne  act  so  as  to 
enlarge  the  scope  of  its  operations.  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  head 
of  the  great  newspaper-distributing  firm  in  London,  had  been 
appointed  chief  secretary,  owing  mainly  to  his  having  been 
identified  in  1882  with  the  Tory  motion  in  favor  of  the 
creation  of  a  peasant  proprietary  in  Ireland.  He  started 
from  London  for  Dublin  after  the  leader  of  the  House  of 
Commons  had  declared  that  the  government  would  in  two 
days'  time  bring  in  two  classes  of  measures  for  Ireland — one 
of  repression  against  the  National  League,  and  one  of  con- 
struction in  the  direction  of  facilitating  land  purchase.  Mr. 
Smith  arrived  in  Dublin  on  the  24th.  He  left  for  London 
again  on  the  evening  of  the  26th.  His  government  had 
been  driven  from  power  by  Mr.  Pamell  that  very  night,  and 
upon  reaching  his  journey's  end  he  found  himself  out  of 
office.  Mr.  Smith's  tenure  of  the  post  of  chief  secretary  was, 
therefore,  the  briefest  in  the  history  of  that  department  of 
Irish  government. 

The  reply  of  the  Irish  phalanx  of  1886  to  the  insolent 
references  to  coercion  in  the  Queen's  speech  by  the  pseudo 
"Home-Rulers"  of  the  previous  autumn  was  to  expel  them 
from  the  treasury  benches  during  the  very  debate  upon  the 
address.  The  immediate  occasion  was  an  amendment  by 
Mr.  Jesse  CoUings  demanding  legislation  for  the  English 
agricultural  laborers.  It  was  the  reform  known  on  the 
public  platforms  at  the  time  as  "Three  acres  and  a  cow." 
Mr.  Parnell  joined  his  forces  to  those  of  the  Liberal  opposi- 
tion, with  the  result  that  the  comic  cartoonists  of  the  week 
pictorially  represented  Lord  Salisbury  and  his  cabinet  being 
kicked  from  power  by  the  heels  of  an  angry  cow  having  Mr. 
CoUings  as  a  driver. 

Mr.  Gladstone  consented  at  once  to  form  a  ministry.  He 
had  a  mandate  from  Ireland  and,  in  a  sense,  from  Great 
Britain  too — in  the  meaning  of  the  ]\Iidlothian  utterances  on 
the  problem  of  Irish  government  —  to  deal  with  the  great 
question  of  the  Anglo  -  Irish  conflict.      His  difficulties  were 

486 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

enormous.  The  division  which  drove  the  Tories  from  office 
revealed  the  opposing  forces  that  would  be  turned  against  a 
Home-Rule  bill  from  within  the  Liberal  ranks.  Eighteen  of 
Mr.  Gladstone's  followers  had  voted  with  the  ministerialists, 
while  over  fifty  more  had  absented  themselves  from  the 
division,  they  knowing  that  the  defeat  of  the  Tory  party 
would  stand  for  a  Liberal  alliance  with  Pamell  and  a  con- 
sequent measure  of  Home  Rule.  The  skies  were  bright 
again  over  Ireland,  but  gathering  clouds  were  also  coming 
up  from  the  horizon  presaging  storms  and  possible  disaster 
once  more. 

How  many  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  lieutenants  would  leave  him? 
What  stand  would  John  Bright  take?  Where  would  Cham- 
berlain be  found?  These  were  the  anxious  speculations  of 
Mr.  Pamell  and  his  friends  as  days  fateful  for  the  Irish  cause 
swept  by  during  the  reconstruction  of  a  Gladstone  cabinet. 
The  landlord  Whigs  were  also  expected  to  be  hostile,  par- 
ticularly Lord  Spencer.  No  one  believed  that  Harcourt 
would  be  on  the  side  of  the  angels.  There  was  no  hope  of 
Lord  Hartington,  but  nearly  all  of  us  confidently  expected 
that  Chamberlain  and  John  Bright  would  be  found  with  the 
veteran  premier  in  this  the  last  great  effort  of  his  political 
life  to  do  justice  to  Ireland.  The  recollection,  however, 
of  many  barbed  sentences  spoken  against  the  great  Radical 
tribune  in  the  angry  debates  on  coercion  came  back  to  some 
memories,  and  there  was  a  regretful  wish  in  a  few  young 
minds  that  they  had  not  on  these  occasions  thought  of  John 
Bright's  manly  stand  for  Ireland  in  the  sixties,  and  of  his 
brave  efforts  on  the  side  of  clemency  in  1867  when  three 
young  Irishmen  were  doomed  to  an  ignominious  death  for 
the  accidental  shooting  of  a  brave  policeman  in  Manchester. 
These  forecasts  were  greatly  in  error. 

Lord  Spencer  and  Sir  William  Harcourt  were  faithful  to 
their  chief.  The  territorial  Whigs  naturally  enough  went 
against  the  leaders  of  a  successful  Irish  agrarian  revolution, 
and  John  Bright  and  Chamberlain  accompanied  them  to  the 
wrong  side,  along  with  a  very  large  section  of  the  Liberal 
party.  That  manifesto  of  November  was  not  forgotten  or 
forgiven. 

Mr.  John  Morley  became  Irish  secretary  in  the  Home-Rule 
cabinet.  He  had  been  a  consistent  adversary  of  coercion  in 
the  press  and  a  convert  to  the  principle  of  nationalist  rule 
in  Ireland  from  the  overwhelming  constitutional  strength 
of  the  country's  answer  to  the  issue  upon  which  it  returned 
eighty  -  five  members  for  Home  Rule  and  nineteen  only 
against.     There  was  not  in  justice  or  in  right  reason  any  other 

487 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

answer  to  this  than  Home  Rule,  and  upon  this  conclusion 
the  new  minister  took  a  stand  from  which  he  has  never  since 
receded  a  single  inch. 

A  brief  synopsis  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  first  Home-Rule  bill 
will  indicate  its  scope  and  character.  It  was  "a  bill  to  make 
provision  for  the  future  government  of  Ireland."  The  pre- 
amble defined  it  in  these  terms:  "Be  it  enacted  by  the 
Queen's  most  excellent  Majesty,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Lords  spiritual  and  temporal  and  Com- 
mons in  the  present  Parliament  assembled,  and  by  the 
authority  of  the  same,  as  follows: 

"i.  On  and  after  the  appointed  day  there  shall  be  es- 
tabhshed  in  Ireland  a  legislature,  consisting  of  her  Majesty 
the  Queen  and  an  Irish  legislative  body." 

Here  followed  no  fewer  than  twenty-five  specified  re- 
strictions upon  the  legislating  powers  of  this  body,  covering 
what  are  known  as  imperial  interests,  and  embracing  also 
such  Irish  questions  as  the  establishment  or  endowment  of 
religion,  abrogating  the  right  to  establish  or  maintain  any 
place  of  denominational  education,  interfering  with  the 
rights  or  privileges  of  existing  corporations  founded  on 
royal  charters,  and  imposing  duties  of  customs  or  of  excise 
contrary  to  those  sanctioned  by  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

The  legislative  body  was  to  have  a  parliamentary  Hfe 
of  five  years,  renewable  by  election.  It  was  to  consist  of  one 
chamber  with  "a  first  and  second  order."  The  first  order 
was  to  consist  of  one  hundred  and  three  members,  of  whom 
seventy-five  were  to  be  elected  members,  and  twenty-eight 
"peerage"  members.  The  former  were  to  have  property 
qualifications  either  of  i^2oo  a  year  or  upward,  of  real 
estate,  or  personal  property  of  ;£4ooo  or  upwards  free 
of  all  charges. 

The  franchise  for  the  election  of  the  non-peerage  members 
was :  to  be  the  owner  or  occupier  of  some  land  or  tenement 
within  the  district  of  a  net  annual  value  of  ;^2  5  or  upward. 

The  term  of  office  for  elective  members  was  to  be  ten 
years. 

The  "twenty-eight  representative  peers  of  Ireland"  (those 
qualified  to  be  members  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament)  could  elect  themselves  to  be  members  of  the 
first  order  by  notifying  the  Lord  Lieutenant  of  such  desire. 
They  would  hold  the  membership  for  life  or  for  thirty  years. 
After  the  expiration  of  this  last  term  all  the  members  of  the 
first  order  would  have  to  be  elected  on  the  franchise  specified. 

The  second  order  was  to  consist  of  two  hundred  and  four 
members,  to  be  elected  by  the  present  parliamentary  con- 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

stituencies  on  the  existing  franchise;  two  members  (instead 
of  one  as  at  present)  to  be  returned  by  each  division  to 
the  legislative  body.  The  (then)  members  of  the  British 
House  of  Commons  from  Ireland  to  become,  ipso  facto, 
members  of  the  new  Irish  legislature  for  the  period  of  the 
first  term  of  five  years.  Ireland's  representation  in  the  House 
of  Commons  was  to  cease  when  the  Irish  legislative  body 
came  into  existence;  provision  being  made,  however,  for  a 
temporary  return  thereto  of  a  certain  quota  on  occasions 
when  Ireland's  interests  required  their  presence. 

The  legislative  body  would  thus  number  some  three  hun- 
dred and  seven  members,  deliberating  in  one  assembly,  but 
voting,  if  necessary,  on  specified  issues  or  occasions,  in  sepa- 
rate  orders. 

A  veto  upon  all  legislation  was  to  be  vested  in  the  Lord 
Lieutenant  as  representing  the  Crown. 

Judges  and  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary  force  were,  for 
a  time,  to  continue  under  imperial  service,  but  power  was  to 
be  given  to  the  new  Irish  authority  to  organize  a  civil  police 
for  the  country,  if  such  a  force  should  be  deemed  necessary. 

Subject  to  the  specified  reservations,  the  Irish  legislative 
body  and  the  executive  government  which  would  be  formed 
out  of  the  same  would  have  supreme  control  over  the  domestic 
affairs  of  Ireland. 

The  financial  portion  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  scheme  was  ex- 
ceedingly unfair  to  Ireland  when  the  taxable  capacity  and 
resources  of  the  country  were  considered.  It  amounted  to  a 
proposed  annual  contribution  from  Irish  taxes  to  the  imperial 
exchequer  of  an  equivalent  to  one-fifteenth  of  the  total 
imperial  expenditure.  Judged  in  the  light  of  a  subsequent 
finding  by  a  royal  commission  on  the  financial  relations 
between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Mr.  Gladstone's  finance 
proposals,  if  they  had  been  adopted,  would  stand  for  fifty 
per  cent,  above  what  Ireland  ought  in  equity  and  fair  play 
to  contribute  towards  imperial  services  out  of  her  taxable 
resources. 

The  night  before  the  introduction  of  the  bill  Mr.  Parnell 
held  a  meeting  of  the  leading  men  of  his  party  and  explained 
to  them  the  chief  features  and  provisions  of  the  Gladstone 
plan.  He  was  severely  critical  of  its  financial  proposals, 
and  spoke  strongly  against  them  as  "unjust  and  extortionate." 
We  learned  that  he  had  put  forth  all  his  endeavors  to  obtain 
better  terms  for  Ireland,  but  had  failed  to  bring  the  premier 
round  to  his  views.  The  bargain  insisted  upon  by  the 
guardian  of  the  British  treasury  was  a  hard  and  unyielding 
one,    and   Mr.    Parnell   expressed   himself   very   strongly   in 

489 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

condemnation  of  this  attitude.  He  led  us  to  think  that  he 
thought  the  bill  scarcely  worth  acceptance.  He  favored, 
however,  the  dropping  of  the  land  -  settlement  part  of  the 
ministerial  scheme,  believing  that  this  would  be  the  only  way 
in  which  the  Home-Rule  part  of  it  would  stand  any  chance 
of  passing  a  second-reading  stage. 

The  feeling  of  the  meeting  was  strongly  in  favor  of  accept- 
ing the  bill,  subject  to  its  improvement  in  committee,  if 
possible.  Sentiment  rather  than  the  merits  of  the  com- 
plicated and  incongruous  character  of  the  proposed  legislative 
body  weighed  with  us.  It  would  be  something  in  the  nature 
of  a  parliament,  anyhow.  Its  many  obvious  defects  would 
give  reasonable  grounds  for  demanding  amendments  in  the 
near  future.  There  was  in  it  a  recognition  of  Ireland's  right 
to  nationhood,  in  a  cribbed,  cabined,  and  confined  kind  of 
way,  no  doubt.  But  it  would  put  an  end  to  English  rule 
in  Ireland's  domestic  affairs.  The  detested  Dublin  -  Castle 
system,  with  its  "hacks,"  renegades,  and  informers,  would 
disappear,  and  the  substitute  would  offer  our  country  a 
modest  status  of  racial  self-government  among  the  nations. 
It  would  stand,  too,  for  a  victory  for  the  Celt,  after  his  long 
and  agonizing  struggle  for  national  recognition,  while  the 
consideration  also  weighed  that  a  native  government  of  some 
kind  would  do  more  than  any  other  change  in  the  condition 
of  the  country  to  stem  the  fatal  tide  of  emigration.  For 
these  and  other  reasons  it  was  agreed  to  accept  Mr.  Gladstone's 
offer,  and  to  stand  by  the  bargain,  bad  as  it  was,  should  the 
bill  become  law. 

A  message  was  cabled  to  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  president  of 
the  league  of  America,  informing  him  of  the  decision  thus 
arrived  at.  This  step  was  deemed  necessary  as  an  intimation 
to  the  members  and  friends  of  the  auxiliary  movement  in  the 
United  States  that  the  measure  offered  by  the  Liberals  was 
duly  weighed  and  considered  by  Mr.  Pamell  and  all  his 
lieutenants,  and  that  as  they  were  ready  to  accept  the  bill, 
subject  to  its  possible  improvement  in  committee,  the  Amer- 
ican supporters  of  our  cause  were  expected  to  do  likewise. 
The  message  was  duly  published  in  the  American  press,  and 
Mr.  Parnell  was  enabled  to  declare,  on  the  second  reading 
of  the  bill,  that  the  Irish  in  America,  like  those  at  home, 
would  accept  the  Gladstone  proposals  as  a  final  settlement 
of  the  Anglo-Irish  strife. 

Mr.  Gladstone  introduced  his  bill  on  Thursday,  April  8th. 
The  event  was  looked  forward  to  as  unique  in  the  history 
of  the  two  countries  since  the  act  of  union.  The  restricted 
accommodation  of  the  chamber  of  the  House  of  Commons 

490 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

was  a  serious  problem  for  the  officials,  as  there  was  not  seat- 
ing-room for  the  full  roll  of  members.  As  early  as  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning  an  Irish  member,  Mr.  Donal  Sullivan,  ap- 
peared on  the  premises  so  as  to  secure  a  place.  No  fewer 
than  one  hundred  and  fifty  other  members  followed  his  exam- 
ple before  breakfast.  No  such  assemblage  of  its  accredited 
delegates  had  been  known  in  the  history  of  the  Commons 
chamber.  Seats  had  to  be  provided  on  the  floor,  while 
every  available  place  was  occupied  long  before  the  speaker 
arrived.  The  public  galleries  were  more  congested  still, 
hundreds  being  unable  to  gain  admittance.  The  Prince  of 
Wales  (now  King  Edward  VII.)  was  an  attentive  listener 
during  the  premier's  long  speech  of  three  hours  and  twenty- 
five  minutes. 

It  was  probably  the  greatest  effort  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  par- 
liamentary career.  No  speech  ever  delivered  in  the  House 
of  Commons  covered  so  completely  the  question  at  issue 
—  the  past  and  the  proposed  new  government  of  Ireland. 
It  was  a  deliverance,  too,  which  called  into  play  all  his 
matchless  gifts  of  oratory — the  resonant  and  musical  voice 
(though  somewhat  hoarse  on  this  occasion),  the  expressive 
powers  of  the  marked  leonine  face,  the  graceful  use  of  the 
arms  as  aids  to  his  style  of  speaking,  and  the  elevated  tone 
and  almost  reverential  spirit  in  which  a  subject  so  vast  and 
complicated  was  treated.  To  listening  Irishmen,  members 
and  non-members,  it  marked  a  proud  triumph  and  registered 
a  sanguine  hope.  The  greatest  and  most  popular  statesmen 
who  ever  wielded  the  power  and  influence  of  a  British  premier 
openly  abandoned  coercion  forever  as  a  discredited  and 
defeated  means  of  ruling  Ireland.  And  the  same  prime- 
minister  stood  there,  in  the  hearing  of  all  the  civilized  world, 
confessing  that  the  act  of  union  had  been  born  in  corruption 
and  in  infamy,  and  ought  to  be  swept  away  to  make  place 
for  a  government  of  Ireland  by  the  chosen  representatives 
of  the  Irish  people.  It  was  a  glad  moment  of  victory  for 
Mr.  Parnell  and  of  compensation  for  those  who  had  fought 
Mr.  Gladstone  as  a  coercionist,  and  who  now  witnessed  his 
entry  into  the  lists  as  a  champion  of  Home  Rule  against  the 
foes  of  Ireland's  claims. 

British  public  opinion  was  sharply  divided  on  the  pro- 
posals laid  before  it  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  but  the  press  of 
America  and  of  the  continent  of  Europe  was  all  but  unan- 
imously ranged  on  the  aged  statesman's  side.  His  courage 
and  chivalry  in  thus  devoting  the  closing  years  of  his  life 
to  the  righting  of  an  ancient  and  still  operating  wrong  was 
generously  recognized  in  all  but  narrow  minds,  and  the  good 

491 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

wishes   of   the   friends   of   liberty   and   progress   everywhere 
encouraged  him  in  his  mighty  task. 

There  was  a  note  of  alarm  in  one  influential  quarter  which 
soon  made  itself  felt.  Rome,  according  to  well-informed 
sources,  was  greatly  concerned  at  the  proposed  withdrawal 
of  the  Irish  members  from  the  Imperial  Parliament.  This 
note  was  doubtless  prompted  by  the  English  Catholics, 
whose  leaders  were  all  hostile  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  policy. 
These  consistent  enemies  of  nationalist  Ireland  desired  the 
Irish  members,  as  (mostly)  Catholics,  to  remain  at  Westmin- 
ster. In  their  absence  few,  if  any.  Catholics  would  be  found 
there  to  watch  over  the  Church's  religious  and  educational 
interests  in  the  British  Empire  outside  of  Ireland.  With 
men  like  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  this  was  the  main  governing 
consideration,  apart  from  their  hereditary  hatred  of  the 
country  whose  struggles  for  religious  freedom  had  emanci- 
pated a  subdued  and  submissive  English  Catholic  community. 
Intrigue  began  to  spring  at  once  from  this  kind  of  opposition, 
and  though  the  active  hostility  of  Pope  Leo  XIII.  was  not 
manifested  or,  perhaps,  really  existent,  so  far  as  the  main 
object  of  the  Home-Rule  measure  was  concerned,  the  English 
faction  in  Rome,  which  has  always  been  able  to  influence 
the  Curia  on  questions  of  mixed  English  and  Irish  concern, 
succeeded  in  creating  the  impression  in  circles  hostile  to 
Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Irish  members  that  the  wishes  and  the 
interests  of  Rome  lay  in  the  defeat  rather  than  in  the  success 
of  the  proposed  plan  of  Irish  government. 

Other  far  less  scrupulous  agencies  were  also  at  work  with 
a  similar  purpose.  A  fortnight  after  the  introduction  of  the 
bill  The  Times  printed  a  sensational  document  headed  "The 
Irish-American  Extremists  and  the  Pamellite  Party,"  in 
which  an  attempt  was  made  to  connect  the  latter  with  plans 
and  plots  for  outrage  in  England  on  the  part  of  the  dynamiters. 
I  have  already,  in  Chapter  XXXV.,  exposed  the  manner  and 
the  means  by  which  many  if  not  most  of  these  outrages 
were  concocted.  The  source  of  the  "revelations"  in  The 
Times  was  this: 

After  the  suicide  of  Richard  Pigott  in  Madrid,  following 
his  sensational  flight  from  London,  as  described  in  Chapter 
XLVII.,  I  obtained  access  to  a  large  quantity  of  the  papers, 
diaries,  and  scrap-books  belonging  to  the  miserable  forger. 
In  one  of  these  scrap-books  the  article  from  The  Times  of 
April  24,  1886,  is  carefully  preserved,  along  with  all  the 
contemporary  references  to  it.  This  article  was  manifestly 
inspired  by  a  series  of  similar  "revelations"  which  had 
appeared  in  the  New  York  Times  of  April  4th,   nth,  and 

492 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

1 6th  of  the  same  month  and  year.  In  fact,  the  article 
m  the  great  London  organ  drew  all  its  information,  state- 
ments, and  allegations  against  the  American  Clan-na-Gael 
from  the  New  York  paper ;  the  alleged  connection  between 
this  body  and  Mr.  Parnell's  party  being  taken  by  77^6' 
Times  contributor  from  the  pamphlet  "  Parnellism,"  which 
Pigott  had  written  in  November,  1884.  The  New  York 
Times  "revelations"  were  likewise  carefully  pasted  into 
another  of  Pigott's  scrap-books,  and  it  is  strongly  probable, 
if  not  actually  a  fact,  that  the  document  which  started  the 
press  of  England  on  April  24th  was  written,  or,  if  not  written, 
inspired,  by  the  hand  which  a  short  time  afterwards  forged 
Mr.  Parnell's  name  to  the  now  historic  "  Parnell  letters." 

On  the  morning  of  the  division  upon  the  Home  -  Rule 
bill  (June  7th),  another  dynamite  "revelation"  also  found 
prominence  in  the  pages  of  The  Times.  This  second  document 
also  attempted  to  show  a  connection  or  co-operation  of  some 
kind  between  the  movement  led  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  one 
which  promoted  a  policy  of  terror  through  the  use  of  ex- 
plosives. This  document  I  also  found  in  Pigott's  scrap- 
book,  along  with  a  copy  of  an  alleged  "Fenian  manifesto," 
which  appeared  in  The  Times  of  June  20th.  Alongside  of 
these  cuttings  there  is  placed  a  copy  of  a  letter  which  I  ad- 
dressed to  the  Press  Association  on  June  21st,  and  in  which 
these  statements  were  made: 

"The  author  of  this  document  is  an  ex-editor  of  a  weekly 
Irish  paper,  now  extinct,  which  pretended  at  one  time  to 
represent  the  views  of  extreme  Irish  nationalists.  Failing, 
after  repeated  applications,  to  obtain  either  money  or  employ- 
ment from  Mr.  Parnell,  he  has  been  for  some  consider- 
able time  the  special  dynamite-revelationist  contributor  to  a 
London  conservative  paper,  and  is  now,  I  believe,  on  the 
pamphleteering  staff  of  the  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union.  This, 
sir,  is  the  source  whence  the  'Fenian'  manifesto  has  come, 
and  the  occasion  of  its  appearance  and  the  general  text 
of  the  document  prove  it  to  be  nothing  else  but  an  unscrupu- 
lous electioneering  dodge,  worthy  alike  of  those  from  whom 
it  emanates  and  of  the  party  which  by  a  resort  to  similar 
discreditable  means  are  striving  to  frustrate  Mr.  Gladstone's 
efforts  to  effect  a  lasting  peace  between  Ireland  and  England." 

Although  Pigott  was  thus  openly  and  plainly  referred 
to  as  the  author  of  this  manifesto,  and  of  other  "revelations" 
of  a  like  character  which  had  been  published  in  a  portion  of  the 
London  press,  there  was  neither  comment  nor  denial  by  him 
written  against  this  accusation,  which  was  found  carefully 
preserved  in  his  collection  of  press  extracts. 

493 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

The  second  reading  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  bill  terminated 
early  on  Tuesday  morning,  June  8th.  A  larger  attendance  of 
members  than  even  that  on  the  night  of  its  introduction  in 
April  marked  the  closing  scene  of  the  great  debate.  Only 
thirteen  out  of  the  total  roll  of  six  hundred  and  seventy 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons  were  absent,  every 
member  of  Mr.  Pamell's  following  of  eighty -six  being  in 
his  place.  Intense  excitement  prevailed,  and  the  uncertainty 
of  the  result  of  the  coming  division  added  to  the  tension  of 
feeling  on  both  sides  of  the  packed  and  heated  House.  Mr. 
Gladstone  had  been  loudly  cheered  by  a  great  crowd  outside 
of  Palace  Yard  as  he  drove  from  Downing  Street  to  the 
House  of  Commons  in  the  afternoon,  while  his  appearance 
in  the  chamber  shortly  after  five  o'clock  was  hailed  with  equal 
enthusiasm  by  the  Radical  and  Irish  members.  Feeling 
was  equally  strong  in  its  expression  on  the  other  side,  and  the 
opposing  hosts  gave  vent  to  the  passion  created  by  the  con- 
flict as  champions  for  or  against  the  Home-Rule  measure 
passed  to  take  their  seats  on  the  treasury  or  opposition 
benches. 

Mr.  Parnell  rose  after  the  speech  of  Mr.  Goschen.  No 
man  ever  had  a  more  highly  strung  and  expectant  audience 
inside  the  historic  chamber.  Friend  and  foe  alike  listened 
with  an  attention  absolute  in  its  complete  absorption  in  the 
speaker's  words  and  manner.  This  was  the  man  who  had 
been  the  chief  instrument  in  working  the  revolution  which 
that  House  was  to  sanction  or  to  repudiate  in  a  few  hours. 
It  was  he  whom  the  great  Englishman  sitting  opposite, 
listening  to  every  word  that  fell  from  his  lips,  had  put  in 
prison  five  short  years  previously,  and  who  now  addressed 
the  British  House  of  Commons,  crowded  as  it  never  had  been 
before,  in  support  of  the  same  prime-minister  now  a  convert 
to  the  cause  of  the  ex-prisoner  of  Kilmainham,  and  a  greater 
opponent  to  coercion. 

The  Irish  leader  spoke  admirably.  Never  an  orator  in 
the  ornate  or  declamatory  sense  of  style,  he  was  on  this 
occasion  at  his  best,  in  his  slow,  deeply  earnest,  clear,  and 
emphatic  manner.  His  thoroughly  English  accent,  his  great 
coolness  and  apparently  dispassionate  temper  greatly  im- 
pressed an  audience  that  had  already  learned  in  the  many 
stormy  scenes  of  the  past  ten  years  of  his  parliamentary 
life  how  to  respect  the  tenacity  of  purpose,  the  fighting  quali- 
ties, and  undeviating  resolve  of  the  man  v/ho  now  pleaded  with 
convincing  force  and  restrained  feeling  the  cause  of  his 
country.  The  speech  was  dignified  in  tone  and  excellently 
delivered.     He  made  effective  use  of  the  Tory  overtures  for 

494 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

his  support  twelve  months  previously,  and  rendered  the 
anti  -  Home  -  Rule  hosts  uneasy  in  their  seats  as  he  recalled 
the  facts  of  the  Churchill  and  Carnarvon  intrigue. 

"I  have  been  reproached,"  he  said,  "and  it  has  been  made 
an  argument  against  the  honesty  of  my  declaration  regarding 
the  final  character  of  this  settlement,  that  in  a  speech  at 
Wicklow  I  proclaimed  a  right  to  protect  Irish  manufactures. 
This  bill  gives  no  such  right.  Undoubtedly,  I  did  claim  that 
right,  but  it  was  not  when  the  Liberal  party  was  in  power. 
That  speech  about  protection  at  Wicklow  was  made  at  a  time 
when  we  had  every  reason  to  know  that  the  Conservative 
party,  if  they  should  be  successful  at  the  polls,  would  have 
offered  to  Ireland  a  statutory  legislature  with  the  right  to 
protect  her  own  industries,  and  that  this  would  have  been 
coupled  with  a  settlement  of  the  land  question  upon  a  process 
of  purchase  on  a  larger  scale  than  that  now  proposed  by  the 
prime-minister."  * 

It  was  probably  the  best  parliamentary  speech  the  Irish 
leader  had  ever  made  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Its  manifest 
sincerity,  and  the  solemn  assurance  which  the  speaker  gave, 
in  impressive  words,  that  he  would  accept  the  bill  if  it 
became  law  as  a  binding  pact  of  peace  between  the  two 
nations,  had  a  marked  effect  upon  Mr.  Gladstone.  If,  on  the 
one  hand,  he  was  now  an  ally  of  Mr.  Parnell's,  in  a  common 
crusade  against  coercion,  the  foremost  Irishman  of  his  day 
thus  pledged  himself  honorably  to  the  cause  of  peace.  There 
was,  in  a  sense,  a  dual  and  mutual  victory  thus  signalized  and 
gained.  Mr.  Pamell  stood  to  conquer,  should  the  debated 
measure  pass  the  ordeal  of  the  division  lobbies,  but  Mr.  Glad- 
stone would  reap  a  compensating  triumph  for  England  in  the 
success  of  his  policy  of  conciliation. 

It  was  doubtless  this  reflection  which  gave  to  the  prime- 
minister's  closing  speech  its  tone  of  aggressive  pleading  and 
solemn  warning.  He  felt,  and  probably  knew,  that  the  fates 
were  leagued  to  defeat  him  and  his  proposals  in  the  lobby. 
Mr.  Chamberlain's  was  the  main  influence  which  made  this 
adverse  verdict  probable.  To  this  opposition,  therefore,  Mr. 
Gladstone  directed  his  trenchant  comments,  and,  wide  as  was 
the  gap  which  had  already  divided  the  premier  and  the 
recent  heir-presumptive  to  the  leadership  of  the  Liberal 
party,  no  bridge  was  likely  ever  to  close  that  gap  again 
after  the  old  man's  thundering  assault  upon  his  late  lieu- 
tenant's action  and  inconsistency  had  been  delivered.  "No 
wind  that  blows  from  the  political  heavens,"  exclaimed  the 

*  Parliamentary  Debates,  Jime  7  and  8,   1886. 
495 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

aged  orator,  in  withering  scorn,  and  while  looking  full  at  the 
bent  head  of  the  member  for  Birmingham,  "can  fail  to  find 
my  right  honorable  friend's  sails,  for  he  trims  them  to  catch 
every  passing  gale."  And  he  then  swept  along  like  a 
mighty  torrent,  bearing  everything  before  him  in  argument, 
analogy,  reasoning,  and  persuasive  pleading — but  against 
a  stone  wall  of  immovable  anti-Irish  prejudice  supported 
by  Lord  Hartington  and  Mr.  Chamberlain.  His  peroration 
was  incomparable  in  the  eloquence  of  its  diction  and  in  the 
magic  influence  of  its  delivery.  The  whole  House  sat  and 
listened,  entranced,  as  the  deep,  rich  voice  rang  through  the 
chamber  in  tones  of  commanding  yet  pleading  power  in 
behalf  of  the  cause  for  which  he  spoke.  "Go  into  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  world,"  he  declared,  in  impassioned  words, 
"ransack  the  literature  of  all  countries,  find  if  you  can  a 
single  voice,  a  single  book,  in  which  the  conduct  of  England 
towards  Ireland  is  anywhere  treated  except  with  profound 
and  bitter  condemnation.  Are  these  the  traditions  by  which 
we  are  exhorted  to  stand?  No.  They  are,  in  fact,  the  sad  ex- 
ception to  the  glory  of  England.  They  are  a  broad  and  black 
spot  upon  the  pages  of  its  history.  What  we  want  to  do  is 
to  stand  by  the  traditions  of  which  we  are  the  heirs  in  all 
matters  except  our  relations  with  Ireland,  and  to  make  our 
relations  with  Ireland  to  conform  to  the  other  traditions 
of  our  country.  So  we  hail  the  demand  of  Ireland  for  what 
I  call  a  blessed  oblivion  of  the  past.  Slie  asks  also  a  boon 
for  the  future,  and  that  boon  for  the  future,  unless  we  are 
much  mistaken,  will  be  a  boon  to  us  in  respect  of  honor, 
no  less  than  a  boon  to  her  in  respect  of  happiness,  prosperity, 
and  peace.  Such  is  her  prayer.  Think,  I  beseech  you, 
think  well,  think  wisely,  think  not  for  the  moment,  but  for  the 
years  that  are  to  come,  before  you  reject  this  bill."' 

Then  the  fateful  division-bell  rang  after  the  echoes  of 
thundering  applause  from  Liberal  and  Irish  benches  which 
marked  the  close  of  the  great  speech  had  died  away,  and 
the  pulse  of  hope  beat  fast  in  every  Irish  heart  as  members 
trooped  out  to  record  their  votes.  Mr.  Parnell  and  his 
party  waited.  They  watched  the  streams  of  friends  and 
opponents  go  by,  but  when  the  aged  premier,  with  his  white 
hair  and  blanched  face,  walked  towards  the  lobby  there 
went  up  an  Irish  cheer  loud  and  long,  a  cheer  of  gratitude  and 
of  admiration,  which  may  have  offered  some  little  compensa- 
tion to  the  illustrious  object  of  it  for  the  defeat  that  was  soon 
to  be  recorded  by  English  votes  against  his  noble  appeal. 

'  Parliamentary  Debates,  June  7  and  8,   1886. 
496 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

The  first  to  announce  a  victory  for  the  enemies  of  the 
bill  was  the  soi-disant  Home-Ruler  of  the  previous  autumn, 
Lord  Randolph  Churchill.  The  numbers  were  three  hundred 
and  thirteen  for  the  bill,  and  three  hundred  and  forty-three 
against — a  majority  of  thirty  in  a  house  of  six  hundred  and 
fifty-six  members.  Then  there  arose  from  the  triumphant 
English  ranks  such  a  shout  of  exultation  as  the  blood-stained 
legions  of  a  Mount  joy  or  a  Carew  might  have  given  after  the 
butchery  of  some  Munster  village  or  at  the  sight  of  a  bon- 
fire of  Leinster  homesteads.  A  yell  of  savage  victory,  with  a 
corresponding  action  of  young  Tories  leaping  on  the  benches 
and  frantically  waving  their  hats  at  the  overthrow  of  the 
Irish  and  their  allies;  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  leading  this 
rowdy  demonstration  as  if  his  intrigue  with  Mr.  Parnell 
of  the  previous  year  called  for  an  extra  show  of  anti-Irish 
animus  on  his  part  now.  But  shouts  as  wild,  as  loud,  and  as 
militant  rang  back  in  defiant  challenge  from  the  Irish  ranks, 
as  it  was  felt  that  it  was  the  votes  of  England  and  not  of 
Scotland  and  Wales  that  had  turned  the  scale.  It  was  the 
old  combat  of  Saxon  and  Celt,  after  all,  in  which  numbers 
counted  for  everything  and  justice  had  to  kick  the  beam. 
It  was,  however,  no  ignominious  or  hope-killing  encounter, 
but  a  moral  victory  for  Mr.  Parnell's  forces  which  more 
auspicious  days  and  chances  would  turn  into  an  act  of  de- 
liverance for  Ireland.  And  thus  the  first  attempt  of  Glad- 
stone to  undo  the  disastrous  act  of  union  failed. 

Throughout  the  whole  discussion  upon  the  defeated  bill 
the  Irish  members  had  shown  an  ability  and  a  resource  as 
debaters  worthy  of  the  best  traditions  of  Ireland  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton's  speech  on  the 
second  reading  was  his  greatest  parliamentary  achievement. 
Mr.  Gladstone  declared  it  to  be  the  most  eloquent  he  had 
heard  in  a  generation  of  great  speakers.  Nor  was  this 
marked  compliment  too  generous  a  tribute  for  so  masterly 
a  plea  for  the  cause  in  which  he  spoke,  and  for  so  complete 
an  answer  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  the  other  formidable 
assailants  of  the  measure.  The  press  generally  acclaimed 
the  speech  to  be  an  effort  of  the  very  highest  order  of  par- 
liamentary debating  power,  combined  with  an  extraor- 
dinary display  of  argument,  epigram,  wit,  and  sarcasm.  Mr. 
T.  M.  Healy,  Mr.  John  Redmond,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  Mr. 
Dillon,  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  Mr.  T.  D.  Sullivan,  and  Mr. 
Dwyer  Gray  made  able  and  effective  speeches,  too — all  Par- 
nell's lieutenants,  in  fact,  acquitting  themselves  in  spirit, 
style,  and  manner  worthy  of  the  great  occasion. 

The  ministry,  on  the  premier's  advice,  resolved  to  dissolve 
3*  497 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Parliament  and  to  obtain  a  verdict  against  the  opponents 
of  his  bill  from  the  electorate.  Opinion  has  been  divided 
since  then  as  to  whether  this  was  a  wise  or  imprudent  course. 
Mr.  Morley,  in  his  Life  of  Gladstone,  says  it  was  an  inevitable 
step,  seeing  that  the  prime-minister  had  insisted  upon  it 
as  a  duty  imperatively  required  of  him  under  the  circum- 
stances. He  was  also,  it  appears,  sanguine  of  a  favorable 
judgment  from  the  resulting  elections.  The  masses  of 
Great  Britain  had,  to  all  ordinary  appearances,  as  viewed 
by  the  size,  number,  and  enthusiasm  of  great  meetings, 
supported  the  wonderful  old  man  who  had  taken  this  huge 
burden  of  duty  on  his  shoulders  at  the  age  of  seventy-six. 
This  manifestation  of  popular  approval  was  extraordinary, 
remembering  the  events  of  the  previous  six  years,  and  how 
deep-seated  anti-Irish  sentiment  is  in  the  average  English 
mind.  It  was  a  belief  in  Mr.  Gladstone  more  than  a  liking  for 
Home  Rule  which  explained  this  friendly  disposition.  Mr. 
Schnadhorst,  the  able  and  astute  manager  of  the  Radical 
caucus,  gave  it  as  his  conviction  that  the  Liberal  Home-Rulers 
would  be  sustained  by  the  constituencies,  and  it  was  for 
the  foregoing  reason  and  in  this  hope  that  Parliament  was 
again  dissolved  and  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  people 
against  those  who  had  defeated  the  proposed  message  of 
peace  to  Ireland. 

Once  more  the  wonderful  old  man  made  a  triumphant 
pilgrimage  to  Midlothian,  armed  as  ever  with  his  unequalled 
weapons  of  eloquence  and  earnestness,  which  bore  down 
every  opponent.  He  addressed  great  gatherings,  also,  in 
Manchester  and  Liverpool,  and  roused  the  country  with  his 
marvellous  display  of  vigor  and  enthusiasm  in  the  cause 
of  justice  to  Ireland.  Irish  members  were  in  demand  every- 
where for  Liberal  meetings  in  Great  Britain,  Mr.  Pamell 
being  naturally  most  in  quest.  It  was  exceedingly  dif- 
ficult to  persuade  him  to  speak  at  a  single  English  demon- 
stration. He  disliked  the  thought  of  it,  somehow,  though 
assured  of  the  friendliest  welcome.  At  last  he  consented 
to  speak  at  a  series  of  some  six  meetings,  but  after  addressing 
three,  in  Portsmouth,  Manchester,  and  some  other  city,  he 
relinquished  the  task,  and  awaited  the  decision  that  was 
being  registered  in  the  ballot-boxes  of  the  three  countries 
for  or  against  the  proposed  settlement  of  the  feud  with 
England  which  he  had  accepted  in  behalf  of  the  Irish  race. 

The  causes  which  operated  against  Gladstone's  first  Home- 
Rule  bill  were  these :  The  unpreparedness  of  the  English 
mind  for  the  idea  of  a  separate  Parliament  for  Ireland;  the 
unscrupulous  tactics  of  the  Tories  and  their  organizations  in 

498 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

appealing  to  the  forces  of  political  fear  and  religious  bigotry; 
the  dead  weight  of  Gladstone's  land-purchase  scheme;  the 
bolting  of  Hartington  and  Chamberlain  from  the  Liberal 
party;  and  the  irritation  in  the  minds  of  a  large  section 
of  English  and  Scotch  Radicals  at  the  support  given  by 
the  Irish  voters  in  Great  Britain  to  the  Tory  party  in  the 
previous  general  election. 

Natural  as  the  idea  of  a  Home-Rule  government  seems  to 
Irishmen,  and  just  and  expedient  as  its  concession  must  ap- 
pear from  the  American  point  of  view,  the  proposal  amounted 
to  nothing  short  of  a  sudden  revolution  to  the  mass  of  the 
British  people.     Nor  was  this  matter  of  astonishment. 

Ignorant  of  what  Mr.  Gladstone  had  truly  stigmatized 
as  "the  baseness  and  blackguardism  of  the  act  of  union  of 
1 80 1,"  the  English  mind  was  possessed  of  the  belief  that 
Ireland  had  fully  acquiesced  in  that  infamous  transaction. 
Englishmen  also  convinced  themselves  that  the  Imperial 
Parliament  could  legislate  as  well  and  as  sympathetically 
for  Irish  interests  as  for  British  concerns.  They  were  like- 
wise schooled  in  the  faith  that  the  integrity — nay,  the  very 
existence — of  the  British  Empire  depended  upon  the  main- 
tenance of  a  single  parliament  for  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
This  being  the  condition  of  ordinary  public  feeling  in  Eng- 
land on  the  Home-Rule  question  previous  to  Mr.  Gladstone's 
conversion  to  that  principle,  the  enemies  of  the  Irish  cause 
found  it  comparatively  easy  to  arouse  the  potent  forces 
of  fear  and  bigotry  against  his  proposed  Irish  constitution. 
Statements  the  most  false  and  assertions  the  most  unscrupu- 
lous were  made,  written  and  circulated  by  Tories  and  their 
Liberal  -  Unionist  allies  about  the  scope  and  character  of 
Gladstone's  scheme.  He  was  charged  with  "betraying  the 
British  Empire  to  the  disloyal  Irish  people."  It  was  affirmed 
daily  in  every  organ  of  anti-Home-Rule  feeling  that  such  a 
parliament  as  that  proposed  to  be  established  in  Dublin 
was  intended  but  as  a  door  through  which  the  Irish  enemies 
of  England  were  to  pass  into  total  separation  from  the 
empire.  Frantic  appeals  from  press,  platform,  and  pulpit 
were  addressed  to  the  pride,  prejudices,  and  fears  of  the 
English  people  to  stand  by  the  empire  against  the  forces 
of  disruption,  and  to  save  the  honor  and  interests  of  England 
from  the  disgrace  of  capitulation  to  the  forces  of  the  Irish 
National  League.     Nor  was  this  all. 

Religious  bigotry  and  racial  hate  were  evoked  to  do  service 
against  Home  Rule  and  Gladstone.  The  veteran  Liberal 
leader  was  held  up  as  "a  conspirator  with  the  Pope  to  hand 
over  Ireland  to  the  rule  of  the  Catholic  majority,  and  thereby 

499 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

bring  about  the  extermination  of  the  Protestant  population." 
Home  Rule  was  defined  as  "Rome  Rule,"  while  every  other 
sectarian  bugbear  which  bigotry  could  invent  was  called 
into  play  to  frighten  the  British  voter  into  opposition  to 
the  hapless  Gladstone  bill. 

It  may  be  of  some  interest  to  Ireland's  friends  in  America 
and  Australia  to  learn  something  of  how  this  opposition  to 
Gladstone  was  so  successfully  worked. 

The  agencies  employed  comprised  two  very  powerful 
organizations,  one  known  as  the  "Loyal  and  Patriotic 
Union,"  and  the  other  as  the  "Primrose  League,"  both 
working  in  conjunction  with  each  other  as  well  as  with  every 
other  Tory  and  Orange  organization  throughout  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland.  Unlimited  funds  were  provided  through  the 
operations  of  the  female  wing  of  the  Primrose  League,  known 
as  the  "Primrose  Dames,"  and  headed  by  the  Duchess  of 
Marlborough,  the  mother  of  Lord  Randolph  Churchill.  These 
dames  collected  money,  distributed  anti-Home-Rule  literature, 
and  canvassed  for  Tory  votes. 

Their  "habitations,"  as  branches  of  their  organization  are 
termed,  spread  all  over  England.  The  wives  and  daughters 
of  dukes,  earls,  lords,  baronets,  and  squires  were  actively 
engaged  in  the  work  of  counteracting  Gladstone.  The  homes 
of  artisans  were  visited,  during  their  absence,  by  these  titled 
ladies,  and  laborers'  and  mechanics'  wives  were  familiarly 
appealed  to  for  support  in  the  patriotic  task  of  saving  English 
homes  from  ruin  and  England  from  disgrace  at  the  hands 
of  the  terrible  Irish  National  League.  Working-men,  in  their 
turn,  were  invited  to  picnics  and  other  pleasure  parties  held 
in  the  parks  of  noblemen,  where  speeches  would  be  delivered 
to  them  about  the  disaster  which  Home  Rule  would  inevitably 
bring  upon  the  great  British  Empire,  and  the  ruin  which 
would  consequently  ensue  to  labor  and  the  interests  of  the 
English  industrial  classes. 

Meanwhile  the  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union, ^  supported  by 

*  E.  C.  Houston,  secretary  of  this  association,  and  the  person  who 
negotiated  the  purchase  of  the  "  forged  Parnell  letters,"  which  were  pub- 
Hshed  in  The  Times  and  led  to  the  trial  in  the  special  commission,  wrote 
as  follows  to  the  Dublin  Daily  Express  of  April  2,  1887:  "During 
1886  we  prepared,  published,  and  circulated  11,122,100  leaflets; 
520,300  pamphlets;  11,000  copies  of  'The  Irish  Question,'  for  colonial 
circulation,  which  have  been  distributed  over  the  world;  20,000  copies 
of  'Notes  on  the  Irish  Land  Question,'  prepared  in  connection  with 
Mr.  Parnell's  bill;  5000  copies  of  'Local  Government  in  Ireland,' 
a  sketch  of  the  present  system  and  methods  of  procedure;  5250 
copies  of  Dr.  Webb's  reply  to  Mr.  Gladstone's  pamphlet;  5500  murder 
maps,  showing  the  Land-League  murders  of  1880-82 ;  7000  '  Footprints 
of  the    Land" League,'    an   illustrated   broadsheet  showing  the  con- 

500 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

the  money  collected  through  the  Primrose  League  and  from 
other  sources,  took  a  more  open  and  aggressive  stand  in  the 
fight  against  Ireland.  Newspapers  were  subsidized  to  malign 
every  public  man  who  stood  by  Gladstone,  and  to  distort  and 
misrepresent  the  meaning  of  Irish  national  self-government; 
a  corps  of  capable  speakers  being  employed  to  stump  Great 
Britain  for  the  same  end.  Meetings  were  organized  and  paid 
for  in  every  town  of  importance  throughout  England,  Wales, 
and  Scotland.  A  staff  of  able  writers  was  organized  to  pre- 
pare anti-Home-Rule  literature,  which  in  pamphlets,  leaflets, 
and  newspaper  articles  of  the  most  rabid  form  of  abuse  and 
mendacity  were  circulated  in  millions  in  every  town  and 
hamlet  in  the  three  countries. 

In  addition  to  all  this  a  few  renegade  Irishmen  were 
secured  to  dish  up  fabricated  "revelations"  about  the  past 
political  careers  of  leading  Irish  nationalists,  Richard  Pigott 
being  the  chief  libeller,  while,  in  order  to  leave  no  resource 
of  opposition  untried,  this  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union 
deliberately  organized  and  incited  the  Orangemen  of  Belfast 
to  manifest  their  opposition  to  Home  Rule  to  the  extent 
of  openly  terrorizing  that  city  and  provoking  violence  and 
bloodshed. 

What  is  known  as  "The  O'Shea "  incident,  which  threatened 
for  a  time  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Parnell  from  the  head  of  the 
Irish  movement,  occurred  during  the  month  of  February, 
1 886.  Captain  O'Shea,  who  had  represented  one  of  the 
divisions  of  County  Clare  since  1880,  had  figured  prominently 
in  negotiating  the  Kilmainham  treaty.  He  was  the  in- 
termediary between  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  in  the 
first  stages  of  this  transaction,  and  between  the  Irish  leader 
and  Mr.  Gladstone  subsequently.  This  record,  coupled  with 
the  reputed  relations  between  his  family  and  his  friend, 
caused  him  to  be  intensely  disliked  by  most,  if  not  all,  of 
Mr.  Parnell's  lieutenants.  He  was  looked  upon  as  a  dan- 
gerous intriguer  who  was  capable  of  working  some  harm  to  a 
party  and  a  movement  in  which  he  had  no  standing  of  any 
kind,  but  over  the  fortunes  of  which,  through  his  close 
association  with  their  leader,  he  had  a  power  for  injury  out 
of  all  proportion  to  the  value  of  his  public  services  and  the 
capacity  of  the  man. 

nection  between  the  crime  record  and  the  Parnellite  vote;  91,500 
copies  of  'Notes  from  Ireland,'  the  weekly  record  of  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  the  Parnellite  party;  100,000  wall  posters  of  different  kinds. 
We  had  forty-three  speakers  in  eighty-six  of  the  most  important 
English  constituencies  and  twelve  of  the  most  important  Welsh 
constituencies." 

501 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Timely  warning  was  conveyed  to  Mr.  Pamell  that  there 
would  be  no  place  for  this  person  in  the  next  representation 
for  County  Clare.  That  spirited  county  would  tolerate  no 
such  candidature  as  his,  no  matter  by  whom  recommended  or 
upheld.  Provision,  therefore,  had  to  be  made  elsewdiere  for 
him,  and  he  was  put  forward  by  Mr.  Parnell,  in  conjunction 
with  the  Liberals,  for  one  of  the  divisions  of  Liverpool. 
He  was  defeated.  In  the  same  general  election  Mr.  T.  P. 
O'Connor  was  returned  both  for  Gal  way  city,  his  first  con- 
stituency, and  the  Scotland  Ward  division  of  Liverpool, 
which  was  largely  an  Irish  Parliamentary  division  of  the 
Mersey's  big  maritime  city.  O'Connor  selected  to  sit  for 
the  Liverpool  seat,  whereupon  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the  Citie 
of  the  Tribes. 

For  the  Galway  seat  Mr.  Parnell  determined  to  have  his 
friend  elected.  It  was  an  astounding  resolve,  in  face  of  the 
known  antipathy  existing  in  the  party  towards  the  object  of 
this  patronage,  and  on  account  of  certain  other  facts  only 
too  well  and  too  truly  suspected  at  the  time.  But,  repre- 
hensible as  it  was  in  its  audacious  disregard  of  all  con- 
sideration for  the  constitutional  rights  and  honor  of  an 
Irish  constituency,  it  was  but  an  exercise  of  that  very  au- 
thority of  absolutism  so  subserviently  preached  for  him 
by  Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  O'Brien  in  United  Ireland  during 
the  three  previous  years.  Had  he  not  been  described  as  "  an 
honest  dictator ' '  ?  Was  he  not  applauded  for  having  trampled 
upon  the  prerogative  of  a  convention  in  Tipperary?  Were 
not  stanch  nationalists  Hke  Mr.  John  Duddy  and  other 
Belfast  leaders  denounced  as  factionists  because  they  had 
dared  to  think  for  themselves  on  the  land  question,  and  not 
as  some  of  Mr.  Parnell's  lieutenants  had  thought  they  should 
think — hence  had  he  not  been  encouraged  to  assert  the  right 
of  imposing  his  views  upon  them?  So  long  as  this  autocracy 
was  directed  against  men  who  followed  principles  and  not 
persons  it  was  unobjectionable  to  the  political  staff  of  the 
great  leader,  but  when  he  wished  to  exercise  this  prerogative 
of  personal  authority  against  their  prejudices  and  wishes 
it  began  to  assume  another  character,  and  to  appeal  to  a 
spirit  of  revolt  among  the  hitherto  complacent  disciples  of 
Mr.  Parnell's  right  of  dictation. 

Mr.  Healy  and  Mr.  J.  G.  Biggar  had  the  courage  to  proceed 
to  Galway  and  to  openly  oppose  the  scandal  of  the  O'Shea 
candidature.  Popular  feeling  was  overwhelmingly  on  the 
side  of  the  local  candidate,  Mr.  Lynch,  who  came  forward  as 
a  Parnellite.  The  issue  was  therefore  knit  between  Mr. 
Parnell  and  two  of  his  most  loyal  followers,  when  he  at  once 

502 


HOME  RULE,  AND  HOW  DEFEATED 

resorted  to  the  very  power  with  which  they  had  invested  him 
and  held  the  pistol  of  threatened  resignation  to  the  party's 
head.  Armed  in  this  manner,  he  followed  the  two  rebellious 
members  to  Galway,  reduced  Mr.  Healy  to  silence,  and  forced 
upon  city,  party,  and  friends  the  man  who  within  four  short 
years  was  to  become  the  instrument  of  his  own  ruin,  and  a 
name  of  everlasting  ill-omen  to  nationalist  Ireland. 

I  remember  a  conversation  I  had  with  Mr.  A.  M.  Sullivan 
shortly  before  the  lamented  death  of  this  most  estimable 
and  able  Irishman  in  September,  1884.  He  was  then  ill,  but 
in  his  characteristic  ardent  manner  he  spoke  warmly  and 
most  hopefully  of  the  prospects  of  the  national  cause.  "I 
have  only  one  dread,"  he  remarked,  as  if  in  a  prophetic 
reverie,  "and  that  is  O'Shea.  Should  no  harm  come  from 
that  quarter,  Home  Rule  is  sure  in  your  time,  if  not  in  mine." 
That  was  a  year  and  a  half  before  the  Galway  incident,  and 
it  was  a  truly  far-seeing  prediction. 

It  was,  obviously,  the  party's  duty  to  their  own  honor  and 
integrity  to  have  stood  clear  of  the  Galway  scandal,  if  they 
refused  to  sanction  it.  O'Shea  would  have  been  beaten  had 
Messrs.  Healy  and  Biggar  not  been  opposed  by  the  party's 
decision  as  well  as  its  leader's  purpose,  and  possibly  the 
calamity  of  1890  and  1891  might  not  have  realized  the 
prophetic  vision  of  A.  M.  Sullivan  in  1884.  But  the  party, 
like  Mr.  Healy,  had  already,  and  more  than  once,  surrendered 
both  their  will  and  authority  to  their  leader's  absolute  keep- 
ing, and  he  stamped  upon  both  with  the  same  contempt  with 
which  he  treated  Galway  when  he  was  compelled  to  find  a 
parliamentary  seat  for  the  man  in  whose  power  he  had  placed 
both  his  own  and  his  country's  political  fortunes. 


CHAPTER  XLI 

LAND-PURCHASE     SCHEMES 

This  brief  outline  of  the  unscrupulous  policy  and  tactics 
resorted  to  by  the  enemies  of  Home  Rule  will  give  a  faint 
idea  of  the  state  of  feeling  against  which  Mr.  Pamell  and  his 
forces  had  to  contend  in  their  efforts  to  win  a  favorable 
verdict  for  our  cause  at  the  second  general  election.  But 
there  were  heavier  odds  still  against  the  hapless  Home-Rule 
measure. 

In  an  evil  hour  both  for  his  administration  and  his  Irish 
government  bill,  Mr.  Gladstone  proposed  that  an  indispensable 
portion  of  his  policy  would  be  the  buying  out  of  the  Irish 
landlords  by  aid  of  a  loan  in  consols  from  the  imperial 
exchequer.  He  argued  that  an  act  of  justice  to  the  people 
of  Ireland  should  be  accompanied  by  one  of  relief  to  the  Irish 
landlords  from  an  untenable  position.  This  proposal  alarmed 
the  British  taxpayer.  Chamberlain  attacked  it  in  a  most 
unfair  manner.  The  landlords,  in  their  blind  fury  against 
Home  Rule,  joined  in  a  chorus  of  condemnation  of  a  scheme 
actually  brought  forward  for  their  benefit.  In  fact,  the  whole 
of  Great  Britain  rang  with  denunciation  of  a  proposal  which 
was  represented  as  asking  the  laboring  and  ratepaying  classes 
of  England  and  Scotland  to  run  the  risk  of  being  taxed  to 
the  tune  of  one  thousand  million  dollars  for  the  benefit  of 
Irish  landlords  and  Irish  farmers. 

This  sealed  the  fate  of  the  Home-Rule  bill.  One  measure 
appeared  to  be  bound  up  in  the  other,  and  thousands  of 
voters  w^ho  would  have  supported  Home  Rule,  if  presented  in 
a  separate  issue,  recorded  their  ballots  against  it  as  a  twin 
measure  with  the  scheme  for  the  purchase  of  Irish  landlord 
property.  Still,  what  was  the  actual  result  of  all  this  ex- 
traordinary combination  of  Tory  power  and  influence, 
Liberal  -  Unionist  treachery,  vast  expenditure  of  wealth, 
appeals  to  religious  rancor  and  to  racial  hate?  Why,  this: 
That  Ireland  again  returned  Home-Rulers  at  the  rate  of  four 
and  a  half  to  one  of  her  total  representation;  that  Scotland 
elected  three  to  two  in  our  favor;  that  gallant  little  Wales 

504 


LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 

gave  us  five  to  one;  while  out  of  a  total  of  four  hundred 
and  sixty-five  members  elected  by  England  one  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  were  returned  pledged  to  a  separate  parliament 
for  Ireland.  In  a  word,  if  the  comparatively  small  number 
of  seventy  thousand  more  votes,  out  of  the  total  electorate 
of  England,  had  been  polled  for  Gladstone,  his  scheme  of 
Home  Rule  would  have  passed  through  the  British  Parlia- 
ment. 

When  it  is  recollected  how  hopeless  the  Home-Rule  cause 
appeared  to  be  five  short  years  previously,  when  the  Liberal 
government  had  imprisoned  one  thousand  Land  -  Leaguers 
without  trial,  when  account  is  taken  of  the  iron  rule  of  coercion 
which  prevailed  in  Ireland  under  Earl  Spencer  from  1882  to 
1885,  and  when  it  is  borne  in  mind  that  we  were  then  but 
five  millions  of  souls  in  the  old  country,  struggling  against 
one  of  the  greatest  empires  in  the  world,  it  was  more  like 
victory  than  defeat  when  Gladstone  and  Spencer,  Harcourt 
and  Granville — our  previous  jailers,  in  fact — became  avowed 
Home- Rulers,  with  Scotland  and  Wales  and  a  million  and  a 
half  of  English  voters  declaring  in  favor  of  an  Irish  legislature 
in  College  Green  for  the  management  of  Irish  affairs,  vice 
Dublin  Castle  abolished. 

These  results  had  been  achieved  by  the  twofold  process  of 
convincing  the  English  people  who  followed  the  lead  of  Mr. 
Gladstone  that  neither  to  force  nor  coercion,  imprisonments 
nor  defeat,  would  Irish  nationalists  lay  down  their  arms  until 
they  obtained  the  restoration  of  Ireland's  right  to  national 
self-government,  and  in  the  task  of  accomplishing  this  ration- 
al and  righteous  end  to  resort  only  to  such  means  as  civilized 
public  sentiment  throughout  the  world  would  endorse. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  complete  Home-Rule  plan,  as  already  ex- 
plained, comprised  at  first  a  proposal  to  buy  out  the  Irish 
landlords  and  to  create  a  peasant  proprietary  in  place  of  the 
system  of  Irish  landlordism.  This  proposal  he  justified  on 
the  ground  that  there  might  be  some  danger  to  the  inter- 
ests of  an  unpopular  class  in  leaving  their  property  in  land 
at  the  mercy  of  a  legislative  body  in  which  the  tenantry  of 
Ireland  would  be  in  an  overwhelming  majority  as  against  the 
landlord  interest.  It  was  a  right  and  chivalrous  proposal, 
no  matter  what  might  be  said  of  the  fears  which  in  part 
prompted  the  Liberal  leader  to  encumber  his  Home- Rule  bill 
with  so  huge  a  scheme  as  one  involving  at  least  ;^  150,000,000 
of  imperial  credit  in  its  execution.  The  price  the  landlords 
were  to  receive  was  at  the  time  thought  to  be  excessive  by 
all  but  the  partisans  of  the  landlords.  They,  however, 
scouted  the  whole  proposal.     They  refused  "to  barter  their 

505 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

rights  as  British  subjects  in  Ireland"  for  pecuniary  con- 
siderations, and  this  portion  of  the  Home  -  Rule  plan  was 
dropped  out  of  the  general  Gladstone  programme  without 
much  regret  from  either  side,  but,  unfortunately,  not  in 
time. 

While  the  Gladstone  land-purchase  scheme  was  still  before 
the  public,  some  remarkable  pronouncements  were  made  in 
the  British  press,  which  shed  an  instructive  light  upon  the 
difference  between  the  estimated  English  value  of  Irish  land- 
lord property,  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  relation  to  economic 
rent,  when  its  sale  had  to  be  considered  as  a  matter  involving 
the  credit  of  the  British  taxpayers,  and,  contrariwise,  when 
the  Irish  tenant  was  alone  concerned  with  the  same  property 
as  a  rentpayer  or  would-be  purchaser. 

Sir  James  Caird,  writing  to  The  Times  on  March  20,  1886, 
against  Mr.  Gladstone's  proposal  to  buy  out  the  Irish  land- 
lords, said,  inter  alia  : 

"The  land  of  Ireland  is  held  by  two  distinct  classes  of 
tenants — the  small  farmers  who  pay  rent  from  ;;^i  to  ;^20, 
and  the  comparatively  large  farmers  who  pay  rent  from 
;£20  upward.  Of  the  first  class  there  are  five  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  thousand  holdings,  averaging ;^6  each;  of  the  sec- 
ond class  one  hundred  and  twenty-one  thousand  holdings, 
averaging  ;^56  each.  The  rent  payable  by  the  first  class  is 
;^3,572,ooo,  and  by  the  second  class  ;^6,845,ooo.  Five- 
sixths  of  the  Irish  tenants  thus  pay  about  one-third  of  the 
total  rental,  and  one-sixth  pay  nearly  two-thirds.  ...  If  the 
present  prices  of  agricultural  produce  continue,  I  should  fear 
that  from  the  land  held  by  the  large  body  of  poor  farmers  in 
Ireland  any  economical  rent  has  for  the  present  disappeared. 
A  purchase  of  it,  at  any  price,  would  therefore  be  certain 
loss.  How  many  years'  purchase,  even  with  better  prospects, 
would  any  sane  capitalist  give  for  a  nominal  rental  of  three 
and  a-half  millions,  to  be  collected  from  five  hundred  thou- 
sand holdings  of  poor  land  from  tenants  averaging  £b  each  ?  .  .  . 

"The  collapse  of  agricultural  values,  when  capitalized, 
amounts  to  many  hundred  millions,  to  which  must  be  added 
losses,  probably  not  less  in  proportion,  in  every  other  branch 
of  business  and  trade  in  this  kingdom. 

"A  change  so  great,  however  brought  about,  whether  by 
enormous  development  of  foreign  production  and  diminished 
cost  of  transport,  or  by  appreciation  of  gold,  or  by  these 
united,  cannot  be  met  by  partial  help  in  favor  of  a  single 
interest.  All  interests  must  be  allowed  time  to  settle  into 
what  may  prove  a  new  condition.  But  there  can  be  no 
adequate  security  at  present  given  by  the  land  of  Ireland 

506 


LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 

for  such  a  stupendous  advance  by  the  British  people.  And  I 
trust  that  the  wisdom  of  Parhament  may  guard  the  country 
from  being  committed  to  an  engagement  which  could  only 
end  in  loss  and  possibly  disaster." 

Commenting  upon  this  economic  "no-rent  manifesto,"  the 
London  Times,  of  the  same  date,  was  even  more  pro-Land 
League  than  Mr.  Parnell  in  its  language  of  warning  to  the 
public  and  Parliament.     It  said: 

"We  print  to-day  a  very  important  and  able  contribution 
to  the  discussion  of  Irish  land  purchase  by  Sir  James  Caird, 
whose  authority  upon  agricultural  questions  is  universally 
recognized.  .  .  .  His  extensive  knowledge  and  long  experience 
are  sufficient  warranty  for  the  substantial  accuracy  of  his 
figures,  even  were  they  not  borne  out  by  the  facts  unhappily 
too  patent  to  all  the  world.  From  them  we  may  judge  what 
has  been  the  fall  in  Irish  agricultural  values,  and  can  easily 
conceive  that  on  the  soil,  to  a  great  extent  'poor,  worn-out, 
and  badly  farmed,'  not  only  has  rent  disappeared,  but  cultiva- 
tion threatens  to  become  impossible.  .  .  .  These  are  figures 
affording  much  food  for  reflection.  It  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that  the  rental  of  the  five  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
thousand  holdings  is  practically  irrecoverable  by  anybody, 
whether  landlord,  English  government,  or  Irish  government. 
...  At  the  same  time  a  wholesale  purchase  even  of  the  good 
land  of  Ireland  would  be  a  very  dangerous  speculation.  The 
market  has  fallen  and  is  still  falling.  We  have  reason  to 
believe  that  the  full  effect  even  of  the  existing  shrinkage  of 
values  has  not  yet  been  experienced,  and  we  have  no  cer- 
tainty whatever  that  values  will  not  fall  lower  still.  In  that 
case  all  the  weaker  men  among  the  comparatively  strong 
will  go  down,  and  their  rental  will  have  to  be  written  off  as  a 
bad  debt.  Thus  one-third  of  the  total  rental  is  worthless 
ab  initio  and  the  other  two  -  thirds  are  obviously  liable, 
apart  from  all  political  difficulties,  to  indefinite  depreciation. 
Sir  James  Caird  is  surely  fully  justified  in  concluding  that 
'there  can  be  no  adequate  security  given  at  present  by  the 
land  of  Ireland  for  such  a  stupendous  advance  by  the  British 
people'  as  even,  on  the  lowest  estimate,  Mr.  Gladstone's 
scheme  involves." 

To  be  fair  to  such  a  consistent  enemy  of  Ireland  as  The 
Times,  it  is  right  to  add  that,  in  its  view,  some  of  the  blame 
for  the  condition  of  the  Irish  tenants  should  be  given  to  those 
who  had  attacked  the  law,  and  had  thereby  depreciated  the 
security  and  value  of  landlord  property,  while  the  smaller 
tenants,  in  its  opinion,  could  have  materially  improved  their 
position   and   prospects   by   greater  industry.     Making  fair 

507 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

allowance  for  these  partisan  views,  these  facts  still  remained: 
It  was  for  a  war  against  rack-renting  on  the  very  land  which 
was  subject  to  the  adverse  circumstance  of  falling  markets 
and  foreign  competition,  explained  and  admitted  as  above, 
that  the  Land  League  had  been  suppressed  in  1881.  It  was 
for  affirming  on  hundreds  of  platforms  the  facts  and  con- 
clusions fully  admitted  in  1886 — but  vehemently  denied  in 
1881 — by  The  Times,  that  a  thousand  Irish  leaguers  were 
put  in  prison  in  Ireland.  In  other  words,  landlord  property 
was  of  the  highest  rental  and  purchasable  value,  in  English 
opinion,  when  Ireland  only  was  concerned  in  the  transactions 
between  landlord  and  tenant,  but  of  no  economical  value 
whatever  when  it  was  a  question  of  its  being  bought  out  by 
imperial  credit  as  a  part  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home-Rule  pro- 
posal. 

Before  Mr.  Gladstone's  proposed  land-purchase  plan  had 
virtually  killed  his  Home-Rule  bill,  a  proposal  far  abler  and 
infinitely  less  alarming  to  the  British  taxpayer  was  placed 
before  the  public  by  the  eminent  economist,  Mr.  (now  Sir) 
Robert  Giffen,  in  a  letter  to  The  Economist.  It  absolutely 
safeguarded  the  imperial  exchequer  against  possible  loss,  and 
had  the  Liberal  leader  adopted  this  plan,  which  was  approved 
of  both  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  Mr.  Chamberlain  at  the  time, 
it  might  have  saved  the  measure  which  the  other  more 
complicated  and  more  expensive  scheme  weighed  down  to 
defeat  and  ruin.     Summarized,  the  Giffen  plan  was  this: 

The  imperial  government  was  (i)  to  buy  out  every  land- 
lord in  Ireland,  giving  him  consols  at  par,  equal  in  nominal 
amount  to  twenty  years'  purchase  of  the  present  judicial 
rents;  (2)  to  give  the  land  free  to  the  present  occupier, 
subject  only  to  a  rent-charge  of  one-half  or  two-thirds  of  the 
present  judicial  rent,  payable  to  the  new  local  authorities 
in  Ireland;  and  (3)  to  relieve  the  imperial  exchequer  of  all 
payments  now  made  out  of  it  in  connection  with  the  local 
government  of  Ireland.  The  plan  was,  in  fact,  to  throw  the 
cost  of  local  government  in  Ireland  upon  Irish  resources 
exclusively,  and  to  give  the  Irish  people  the  rent  of  the 
country  for  the  purpose  of  conducting  it.  The  conflict  be- 
tween landlords  and  people  would  thus  come  to  an  end.  Eng- 
land need  no  longer  fear  that  if  she  gave  Ireland  Home  Rule 
the  property  of  the  landlords  would  be  confiscated. 

The  Giffen  scheme  of  settlement  was  widely  discussed  in 
the  press,  and  met  with  an  all-round  public  support,  excepting 
from  the  extreme  landlord  organs.  Mr.  Parnell,  in  his  speech 
on  the  opening  of  the  then  current  session  of  Parliament,  spoke 
of  these  proposals  as  follows: 

508 


LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 

"Some  scheme  of  purchase  may  be  devised  on  the  lines 
understood  to  be  suggested  by  that  eminent  statistician,  Mr. 
Giffen,  in  a  recent  letter,  under  which  it  may  be  possible — I 
do  not  pledge  myself  to  the  details — but  generally  under 
which  it  may  be  possible  to  purchase  for  a  bulk  sum  the 
land  in  the  occupation  of  the  agricultural  tenants." 

The  Archbishop  of  Cashel,  Dr.  Croke,  in  a  letter  which 
appeared  in  The  Statist  of  February  6th,  said; 

"I  approve  of  the  principal  or  main  features  of  the  proposal 
for  the  settlement  of  the  Irish  land  question  which  appeared 
in  a  recent  issue  of  The  Statist  over  the  signature  of 'Economist.' 
The  principle,  as  I  take  it,  substantially  is  that  the  interest  of 
existing  landlords  should  be  purchased  out,  and  the  land 
given  to  the  tenant  subject  to  a  rent-charge  amounting  to 
considerably  less  than  the  present  judicial  rents." 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  Mr.  Gladstone  on  February  17th 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  hierarchy  of  Ireland,  the  following 
passage  occurs: 

"As  regards  'the  settlement  of  the  land  question,'  we  have 
no  hesitation  whatever  in  stating  that,  in  our  opinion,  it  now 
imperatively  calls  for  a  final  solution,  and  that  this  cannot 
be  better  effected  than  by  some  such  measure  as  that  which 
certain  English  journalists  and  statesmen  have  recently  advo- 
cated— that  is,  the  purchase  by  government  of  the  landlord 
interest  in  the  soil  and  the  reletting  of  the  latter  to  tenant- 
farmers  at  a  figure  very  considerably  below  the  present 
judicial  rents." 

The  Freeman's  jfournal,  the  most  powerful  organ  of  public 
opinion  in  Ireland,  likewise  expressed  its  approval,  subject 
to  certain  amendments  in  matters  of  detail.  In  England 
the  reception  given  to  the  proposals  may  be  fairly  represented 
by  what  a  writer  in  the  Fortnightly  Review  for  February 
(presumed  to  be  Mr.  Chamberlain)  had  said  of  them: 

"The  scheme  published  in  The  Statist  newspaper,  and  which 
has  been  attributed  to  Mr.  Giffen,  has  been  objected  to  in 
some  of  its  details,  and  it  certainly  appears  to  contemplate 
too  large  a  payment  to  the  existing  land-owners,  while  the 
amount  of  grants  from  the  exchequer  to  local  purposes  seems 
to  be  estimated  too  highly  But  in  any  case,  the  fact  remains 
that  such  grants  are  made  annually  to  a  very  large  extent, 
and  that  they  represent  a  capital  sum  which  affords  the  basis 
for  an  immense  operation  in  the  way  of  land  purchase,  and 
of  the  municipalization  of  the  land  of  Ireland  by  its  transfer 
to  local  authorities,  who  may  be  invited  and  empowered, 
under  proper  conditions  devised  to  prevent  subletting  and  the 
re-creation  of  the  landlord  class,  to  deal  with  the  existing 

509 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

tenants,  and  to  give  them  full  and  independent  rights  of 
ownership,  subject  to  a  quit-rent  of  very  much  less  than  the 
present  payment." 

Encouraged  by  this  most  representative  expression  of  opin- 
ion in  support  of  his  scheme,  Sir  Robert  Giffen  further  ex- 
plained it  as  follows: 

"i.  I  should  be  quite  disposed  to  believe  that  when  we 
come  to  business  it  will  be  found  that  the  effective  rent 
which  Irish  landlords  will  have  to  sell  and  the  government 
to  buy  will  not  be  so  much  as  eight  millions.  As  my  letter 
showed,  I  had  no  intention  to  name  an  exact  figure  which 
would  be  equitable  in  the  circumstances — I  only  named  a 
figure  which  would  give  a  general  idea  of  the  subject,  and 
which  would  probably  exceed  and  not  be  less  than  the  real 
effective  rent  that  would  have  to  be  dealt  with.  It  is  for 
those  acquainted  in  detail  with  the  circumstances  of  Ireland, 
with  the  conditions  of  past  valuations  and  the  methods  in 
fixing  judicial  rents  in  different  localities  with  the  exact  in- 
cidence of  rates,  which  would  appear  in  some  cases  to  diminish 
the  effective  interest  the  landlords  will  have  to  sell,  to  make 
the  necessary  calculations,  if  such  a  scheme  as  I  suggested  is 
to  be  tried  at  all. 

"2.  As  to  the  number  of  years'  purchase  to  be  paid,  twenty 
years  was  equally  no  more  than  a  suggestion  on  my  part. 
What  ought  to  be  the  normal  number  of  years'  purchase  to 
be  given  to  Irish  landlords  on  the  compulsory  expropriation 
of  their  property  is  a  question  that  could  only  be  answered 
after  much  study  of  many  facts,  and  which  could  only  now 
be  answered  approximately  by  those  acquainted  with  the 
circumstances  and  selling  value  of  land  in  Ireland  in  former 
times,  when  there  was  less  agitation  and  doubt  about  rents 
+han  there  have  lately  been.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  if 
the  Irish  landlord  is  to  be  bought  out,  not  upon  a  nominal 
but  upon  an  effective  rent,  the  number  of  years'  purchase 
ought  to  be  higher  than  it  was  customary  to  give  when  the 
nominal  rental  was  the  basis  of  the  calculation.  In  suggesting 
twenty  years  I  was  desirous  not  to  suggest  too  low  a  figure. 
It  was  important  to  show  that  the  scheme  was  practicable 
even  if  the  landlord  got  very  good  terms. 

"3.  In  my  former  letter  I  assumed  what  appeared  to  be 
true  on  the  face  of  the  figures — that  if  the  imperial  govern- 
ment bought  out  the  Irish  landlords  on  the  terms  suggested, 
and  gave  the  new  rent-charge  to  the  Irish  local  authorities  in 
return  for  the  withdrawal  of  contributions  from  the  imperial 
exchequer  to  the  internal  administration  of  Ireland,  it  would 
be  Ireland  and  not  Great  Britain  that  would  gain  by  the 

510 


LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 

plan.  We  would  assume  a  burden  on  the  one  hand  costing 
;i£4, 800,000  a  year.  We  were  only  to  be  relieved,  on  the 
other  hand,  of  an  annual  charge  of  ;i^4,ooo,ooo.  The  exact 
figure  of  the  latter  charge,  I  may  say,  according  to  the  last 
finance  and  revenue  accounts,  is  ;;£3, 800,000,  apart  from  an 
average  annual  loss  by  loans  to  Ireland,  which  would  bring  up 
the  total  to  very  nearly  ;;^4,ooo,ooo,  if  not  rather  over  that 
figure.  So  far  there  would  appear  to  be  a  new  charge  of 
;i^8oo,ooo  upon  the  imperial  exchequer  involved,  and  I 
suggested  that  it  might  be  equitable  to  require  the  local 
authorities  in  Ireland  to  contribute  to  the  imperial  ex- 
chequer the  difference  between  the  annuity  of  ;^4,8oo,ooo  we 
should  have  to  pay  to  the  landlords  and  the  annual  charge 
for  the  internal  administration  of  Ireland  of  which  we  would 
be  relieved. 

"I  am  satisfied,  however,  on  further  consideration  of  the 
subject,  that  the  arrangement  does  not  really  involve  any 
large  concession  by  Great  Britain.  At  present  Ireland  pays 
more  in  taxes  than  its  fair  share,  comparing  its  resources 
with  those  of  Great  Britain.  The  figures  are  not  quite  certain, 
but  the  Irish  taxpayer  appears  to  contribute  ;:^6,7oo,ooo^ 
to  the  imperial  exchequer,  whereas  his  proper  contribution 
ought  to  be  about  half  that  sum.  If  Ireland  contributed 
proportionately,  however,  it  would  only  be  entitled  to  have 
spent  upon  it  in  return  for  purposes  of  internal  administration 
£800,000  a  year — a  twentieth  part,  that  is,  of  the  total  sum 
spent  on  the  internal  administration  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland — instead  of  ;(^4,ooo,ooo,  which  is  practically  now  spent 
in  Ireland.  The  imperial  exchequer  thus  gets  out  of  Ireland, 
in  the  first  place,  about  ;£3,2oo,ooo  more  than  it  ought  to  get, 
and  then  spends  upon  the  internal  administration  of  Ireland 
the  whole  amount.  The  expenditure  does  not  benefit  Ireland 
as  it  ought  to  do,  because  it  is  largely  waste;  but  neither  does 
Britain  gain. 

"The  effect  of  the  proposed  arrangement  would  be: 

"  I.  That  we  should  cease  to  spend  on  Ireland  the  ;^4,ooo,- 
000  we  now  spend — both  the  ;^8oo,ooo  to  which  Ireland 
would  be  entitled  if  it  only  contributed  originally  in  pro- 
portion to  its  resources,  and  the  £3,200,000  additional  that 
we  spend,  and  in  so  doing  return  to  Ireland  an  apparent 
equivalent  for  the  excess  taxation  received  from  Ireland ;  and 

"2.  That  we  should  burden  ourselves  in  exchange  with  a 
new  annuity  of  £4,800,000  to  Irish  landlords.  If  the  latter 
annuity  should  be  reduced  to  £4,000,000  the  account  would 

'  He  contributes  fully  £2,000,000  more  now. — M.  D. 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

be  balanced  as  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned,  but  Ireland 
would  gain  absolutely  nothing  in  return  for  its  dispropor- 
tionate contributions  to  the  imperial  exchequer.  It  is  en- 
titled to  about  ;^4, 000,000  a  year  from  that  exchequer  for 
the  purposes  of  internal  administration — the  rent-charge  it  is 
proposed  to  give  over  to  the  Irish  local  authorities  is  only  an 
equivalent  for  the  latter  sum. 

"Where  both  parties  would  gain  by  the  transaction  would 
be,  as  far  as  Great  Britain  is  concerned,  by  the  substitution 
of  an  amicable  for  a  hostile  Ireland,  if  that  should  be  the 
happy  result,  and,  as  far  as  Ireland  is  concerned,  by  the  relief 
of  the  tenants  from  the  difference  between  the  excessive  rents 
which  they  now  pay  and  the  rent-charge  to  be  constituted. 
In  other  respects  the  arrangement  seems  strictly  equitable, 
or  nearly  so,  and  it  cannot  be  said  that  it  is  a  large  concession 
to  Ireland.  If  Ireland  were  to  demand  now  a  strict  account 
of  its  contributions  to  the  imperial  exchequer  it  would  be 
very  difficult  to  show  that  it  gets  value  for  the  excess  it  con- 
tributes beyond  the  fair  proportion  to  its  resources.  It  is 
easy  for  us  to  say  that  the  taxes  are  indiscriminate,  the  only 
exception  being  that  Ireland  is  exempted  from  some  of  them. 
If  in  point  of  fact  the  taxes  are  of  such  a  nature  that  they 
effectively  discriminate  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland, 
so  that  the  taxpayers  of  the  poorer  country  pay,  in  fact,  more 
than  their  share,  the  latter  have  a  clear  right  to  the  con- 
sideration of  the  fact  in  the  disposal  of  the  proceeds.  By 
this  plan  suggested  Ireland  will  have  a  real  equivalent  and 
no  more."^ 

I  had  worked  out  a  plan  for  solving  the  problem  of  the 
Irish  agrarian  war  on  those  very  lines  while  in  Portland 
Prison  in  1881,  which  was  elaborated  in  a  speech  delivered 
in  Liverpool  shortly  after  my  release.  The  Times  of  June 
7,  1882,  reported  this  speech  in  full,  and,  while  rejecting  the 
plan  as  a  whole,  commented  upon  it  as  follows: 

"It  is  characteristic  of  Mr.  Davitt's  cast  of  mind  that  he 
believes  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  plan  without  wrong 
to  any  man,  without  loss  to  the  state,  with  full  compensation 
to  vested  interests,  and  with  relief  to  the  taxpayer  as  well 
as  to  the  tenant." 

And  yet  this  plan  and  speech  have  figured  in  Irish-landlord 
speeches  for  twenty  years  as  "the  ticket-from-Kingstown- 
to-Holyhead  kind  of  compensation  proposed  by  Mr.  Davitt 
for  the  Irish  landlords." 

Two  years  subsequently  (to  1886),  during  the  period  of  the 

»  The  Statist,  February  6,   1886 
512 


LAND-PURCHASE    SCHEMES 

"plan  of  campaign,"  and  while  the  Unionist  government 
was  in  power,  Mr.  Chamberlain  proposed  a  scheme  of  com- 
pulsory purchase  for  the  solution  of  the  Irish  land  ques- 
tion, in  which  he  adopted  the  Giffen  terms  of  compensation 
and  practically  the  same  plan  of  settlement.  His  proposals 
were  summarized  as  follows  by  himself: 

"To  sum  up,  we  put,  in  the  following  propositions,  the 
objects  to  be  aimed  at  in  any  measure  for  the  solution  of  the 
Irish  land  question: 

"i.  To  make  the  tenant  practically  the  owner  of  his 
holding,  subject  to  an  ultimate  fixed  payment,  or  land  tax, 
of  a  moderate  amount,  and  to  conditions  which  it  may  be 
in  the  interest  of  the  state  to  impose,  in  order  to  prevent 
subdivision  and  the  growth  of  encumbrances. 

"2.  To  give  to  the  present  owner  of  the  land  its  fair  capital 
value  in  a  security  easily  marketable  at  par. 

"3.  To  relieve  the  British  taxpayer  from  all  risk  of  loss. 

"4.  To  interpose  a  local  authority  as  creditor  of  the  ten- 
ant, with  direct  interest  in  enforcing  payment  of  any  rent  or 
tax  which  may  be  imposed. 

"5.  To  make  the  tenant  debtor  to  an  Irish  local  authority, 
instead  of  to  an  individual  landlord,  often  an  absentee. 

"6.  To  secure  the  proper  use  of  the  land,  and  prevent 
undue  subdivision,  by  the  action  of  the  local  authority,  in 
the  interest  of  the  whole  community. 

"7.  To  ascertain  the  true  market  value  of  estates  as  a 
basis  for  compensation,  with  special  regard  to  the  circum- 
stances of  each  estate. 

"8.  To  secure  present  relief  to  the  tenant  by  an  immediate 
reduction  of  rent. 

"9.  To  relieve  congested  districts  by  a  rearrangement  of 
the  smaller  holdings  where  these  are  insufficient  to  provide 
means  of  existence  for  a  family."^ 

'  Sketch  of  Unionist  policy.     Pamphlet  No.  2,  pp.  76,  77, 
33 


CHAPTER  XLII 
"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

Mr.  T.  Harrington,  the  secretary  of  the  National  League, 
was  the  author  of  the  plan  of  campaign,  against  which 
combination,  in  its  later  stages,  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  pitted  all 
the  resources  of  English  power  in  Ireland  in  a  combat  with- 
out quarter.  The  story  of  "the  plan"  needs  no  lengthy  nar- 
rative to  tell.     The  facts  are  as  follows: 

Lord  Salisbury  and  his  Liberal-Unionist  allies,  with  a  par- 
liamentary majority  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  actual 
majority  of  votes  recorded  in  the  elections,  came  into  office 
in  July,  1886,  and  opened  Parliament  with  a  ministerial  pro- 
gramme in  August.  This  programme  had  to  be  in  the  nature 
of  an  antithesis  to  that  defeated  at  the  polls.  The  electors 
in  England  had  rejected  the  Home  Rule  for  which  Ireland, 
Scotland,  and  Wales  had  polled  an  overwhelming  majority 
of  votes  and  a  majority  of  more  than  two  to  one  of  mem- 
bers to  the  House  of  Commons.  England,  however,  was  the 
predominant  voting  power,  and  she  backed  Lord  Salis- 
bury's policy  of  "twenty  years  of  resolute  Castle  govern- 
ment "  as  against  the  Gladstonian  proposal  of  an  Irish  na- 
tional legislature. 

Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  was  made  chief  secretary  for 
Ireland.  His  accession  to  that  post  almost  coincided  with 
the  appointment  of  a  royal  commission  to  inquire  into  the 
conditions  of  agriculture  in  Ireland,  as  they  v/ere  affected 
by  a  marked  fall  in  prices  of  produce  for  the  3'ears  1885  and 
1886,  and  the  results  of  these  conditions  upon  the  working 
of  the  Land  Act  of  1881.  It  was  again  a  resort  to  the  stereo- 
typed English  policy  of  kicks  and  halfpence.  The  special 
power  for  kicking  was  not  demanded  immediately  from 
Parliament,  but  it  was  unmistakably  intimated  that  Lord 
Salisbury's  "twenty  years  of  resolute  government"  panacea 
was  to  be  applied  whenever  the  chief  secretary  should  call 
upon  the  resources  of  Parliament  to  that  end. 

The  National  League  was  by  this  time  almost  as  strong 
a  power  as  the  Land  League  had  been  in  1881.     Its  resources 

514 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

were  increasing  as  the  auxiliary  movements  in  America  and 
Australia  were  progressing  in  active  co-operation.  The  third 
convention  of  the  American  League  was  held  in  Chicago  in 
August,  1886,  and  was  attended  by  Messrs.  William  O'Brien, 
John  E.  Redmond,  the  late  John  Deasy,  and  myself,  as 
representing  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  league  in  Ireland.  The 
gathering  of  delegates  was  large  and  influential,  and  the 
proceedings  attracted  unusual  attention  both  from  the  Brit- 
ish and  American  press,  on  account  of  the  recent  elections 
in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and  the  transcendent  impor- 
tance of  the  issue  on  which  these  contests  had  been  fought. 
It  was  generally  expected  that  the  Irish- American  organiza- 
tions would  favor  an  extreme  policy,  in  view  of  the  defeat 
of  Home  Rule,  but  these  expectations  were  not  realized.  The 
convention  was  influenced  and  led  by  the  delegates  from 
Ireland,  and  there  was  an  all  but  unanimous  decision  come  to 
in  favor  of  Mr.  Parnell 's  position  and  in  support  of  the  home 
organization.  Mr.  Patrick  Egan  resigned  the  presidency  of 
the  league,  which  he  had  held  from  the  date  of  the  Boston 
convention,  and  was  succeeded  by  the  late  Mr.  John 
Fitzgerald,  of  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  a  wealthy  contractor  and 
banker  of  that  city,  with  the  Rev.  Charles  O'Reilly,  of  Detroit, 
again  elected  as  treasurer,  and  Mr.  J.  P.  Sutton,  of  Lincoln, 
as  secretary. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Parnell  had  introduced  a  bill  in  the  new 
session  of  Parliament  based  largely  upon  the  facts  and  ad- 
missions put  before  the  public  in  Sir  James  Caird's  letter 
of  the  March  previous  and  on  the  generally  admitted  crisis 
in  agriculture  caused  by  the  collapse  of  prices.  The  action 
of  the  government  in  appointing  the  Cowper  Commission 
acknowledged  the  existence  of  this  crisis.  Mr.  Parnell  had 
called  attention  to  it  in  an  amendment  to  the  address  on  the 
opening  of  the  new  Parliament,  and  in  the  debate  upon  his 
motion  Mr.  Chamberlain  spoke  as  follows: 

"We  have  to  deal  in  the  amendment  with  a  crisis  which 
is  apparently  imminent,  with  the  general  inability  to  pay 
rents,  with  the  numerous  evictions  and  consequent  suffering, 
and  with  great  danger  to  social  order.  I  do  not  think  that 
any  one  will  deny  that  there  has  been  a  great  fall  in  the 
price  of  almost  all  the  chief  produce  of  Ireland  since  the 
judicial  rents  were  fixed.  That  fall  may  be  variously  es- 
timated, but  I  should  put  it  myself  at  twenty  or  thirty  per 
cent.  Now,  if  the  judicial  rents  were  fixed  upon  the  basis  of 
former  prices,  and  at  that  time  they  were  fair,  then  they  must 
necessarily  be  unfair  now.  I  do  not  admit  for  a  moment  that 
there  is  any  sanctity  about  judicial  or  any  other  rents.     If 

515 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

rent  cannot  be  paid  and  leave  a  fair  subsistence  to  the  tenant, 
no  doubt  the  landlord  must  bear  the  loss."^ 

No  Land  -  Leaguer  could  have  put  the  case  clearer  or 
stronger,  but  Mr.  Chamberlain  voted  against  Mr.  Parnell's 
amendment. 

It  was  to  meet  the  case  thus  conclusively  made  that  the 
Irish  leader  brought  forward  his  tenants'  relief  bill  sub- 
sequently. This  measure  proposed  to  do  three  things,  to 
this  end:  (i)  To  stay  evictions  for  non-payment  of  rent 
until  the  ability  of  the  tenant  to  do  so,  or  otherwise,  was 
legally  inquired  into;  a  lodgment  of  fifty  per  cent,  of  the 
rent  due  to  be  made  to  the  landlord's  credit  as  an  essential 
condition  to  obtaining  this  redress;  (2)  judicial  rents  ad- 
judicated upon  since  1881  to  be  again  revised  in  the  land 
courts  on  tenants'  applications,  in  consequence  of  con- 
tinuous depression;  and  (3)  the  admission  of  leaseholders 
to  the  benefits  of  the  Land  Act  of  1881;  this  class  of 
tenant  having  been  excluded  therefrom  against  the  protests 
of  the  Irish  party. 

On  September  27th  Mr.  Parnell's  bill  was  rejected  by  a 
ministerial  majority,  the  leaders  of  the  government  declaring 
they  would  not,  on  any  account,  sanction  any  of  the  three 
main  proposals  of  the  Irish  measure. 

On  October  23d,  twenty-six  days  later,  Mr.  T.  Harrington, 
in  consultation  with  Messrs.  Dillon,  O'Brien,  and  others, 
launched  his  plan  of  campaign  in  United  Ireland  in  conse- 
quence of  the  refusal  of  Parliament  to  provide  any  legisla- 
tive remedy  for  a  crisis  which  was  patent  to  every  observer 
and  had  been  admitted  and  emphasized  in  Mr.  Chamberlain's 
speech.  It  was  a  fighting  policy  on  extreme  lines;  and  to 
be  in  any  way  effective  in  its  purpose  it  was  necessary  to  put 
it  in  force  without  delay.  The  November  rents  were  falling 
due.  No  rent,  or  scarcely  any,  had  been  earned  by  the 
land,  for  the  reasons  so  clearly  pointed  out  by  Mr.  Chamber- 
lain ;  and  in  view  of  the  refusal  of  the  government  to  agree  to 
the  proposed  legislative  remedy  offered  in  Mr.  Parnell's  bill, 
it  became  evident  to  the  tenants  and  their  leaders  that  it  was 
a  case  of  God  helping  those  who  resolved  to  help  them- 
selves, at  once. 

The  chief  proposals  of  Mr.  Harrington's  plan  were  these: 
The  tenants  on  an  estate  where  no  voluntary  abatement 
of  rent  was  offered  by  the  landlord  were  to  wait  upon  him 
in  deputation  and  ask  for  one  on  reasoned  grounds.  If  this 
request  was  refused,  the  tenants  were  then  to  resolve  not 

'  Parliamentary  Debates,  August,  1886. 
516 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

to  pay  any  rent  until  the  landlord  would  agree  to  a  reduction 
commensurate  with  the  prevailing  depression.  They  were 
to  pay  into  "a  campaign  fund,"  on  the  estate,  the  reduced 
rent  offered  to  and  refused  by  the  landlord,  to  be  given  to 
him  should  he  consent,  under  this  pressure,  to  grant  the 
abatement  asked  for,  or  to  be  used,  as  far  as  necessary, 
in  the  fight  which  might  follow  if  he  should  resort  to  legal 
proceedings  and  eviction. 

The  plan  possessed  an  extreme  and  arbitrary  purpose  to 
all  who  were  unacquainted  with  both  the  old  and  new  con- 
ditions of  land  tenure  in  Ireland.  It  looked  like  a  combina- 
tion to  repudiate  legal  contracts,  and  the  English  press  made 
its  usual  prejudiced  uses  of  the  apparent  injustice  of  the  plan 
by  describing  it  as  a  system  of  robbery  resorted  to  by  dis- 
loyal tenants  to  the  injury  of  loyal  and  pro-English  landlords. 

This  view  purposely  overlooked  the  patent  facts  of  the 
whole  situation  as  well  as  the  neglect  of  the  legislature  to 
provide  some  remedy  for  a  crisis  that  could  not  be  disguised. 
The  conditions  of  tenure  were  no  longer  what  they  had  been. 
Previous  to  the  Land  Act  of  1881  the  landlord  claimed  to  be 
the  sole  owner  of  the  land.  He  fixed  what  rent  he  pleased 
and  confiscated  at  will  whatever  property  or  right  the  tenant 
might  possess  in  his  holding.  This  state  of  things  produced 
the  Land  -  League  revolution,  and  the  legislature  was  in- 
duced to  intervene  with  a  law  which  recognized  two  proper- 
ties in  the  land — the  soil  itself,  in  its  intrinsic  rent-bearing 
value,  and  the  improvements  made  in  farms  by  the  capital 
and  labor  of  the  tenants.  The  law  declared  that  no  rent 
should  be  levied  on  this  latter  property  in  behalf  of  the 
landlord.  The  administrators  of  the  law,  the  nominees  of 
Dublin  Castle  and  the  landlords,  decided  otherwise,  and 
measured  the  fair  rents  levied  by  the  land  courts  accordingly. 
Here  the  trouble,  friction,  and  injustice  came  in.  Mr.  Parnell 
and  his  party  made  repeated  attempts  to  have  this  wrong 
rectified  at  the  time.  He  had  all  Ireland,  except  the  land- 
lords, behind  him  in  his  demands — Ulster  as  well  as  the  South. 
But  he  failed,  even  in  that  very  session,  in  face  of  an  all-round 
depression  in  prices,  to  induce  the  new  ministry  to  listen  to 
the  claims  of  reason  and  of  justice  in  behalf  of  those  who  were 
tied  down  to  rents  which  Mr.  Chamberlain  had  declared  to 
be  no  longer  fair. 

There  were  other  and  even  stronger  grounds  than  these 
under  the  platform  of  the  plan  of  campaign.  There  was  no 
economic  product  in  the  soil  of  Ireland  at  the  time  such  as 
would  equitably  and  fairly  warrant  the  imposition  of  such  a 
rent  as  partisan  tribunals  levied  in  the  landlords'  interests. 

517 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

The  rent  thus  imposed  was  in  every  essential  respect  a  tax 
upon  industry  and  not  upon  the  intrinsic  value  of  the  land. 
Sir  James  Caird  and  The  Times  loudly  proclaimed  this  fact 
only  six  months  previously,  when  there  appeared  to  be  some 
danger  to  English  credit  in  Mr.  Gladstone's  proposal  to  buy 
out  the  Irish  landlords  at  twenty  years'  purchase  of  the 
judicial  rents.  The  plan  took  all  these  facts  and  admis- 
sions into  account,  and  in  making  a  reasoned  demand  for 
a  fair  abatement  in  current  rents  it  was  only  claiming,  in  a 
limited  degree,  that  the  tenant's  own  property  in  his  farm 
should  not  be  too  highly  taxed  by  the  land  courts  in  the 
interest  of  the  other  partner  in  the  ownership  of  the  holding. 
One  other  ground  of  justification  upheld  the  aim  of  Mr. 
Harrington's  scheme.  From  1884  to  the  rejection  of  Mr. 
Parnell's  bill  in  September,  1886,  no  fewer  than  eight  thousand 
tenants  had  been  deprived  of  their  statutory  rights  in  their 
holdings  by  eviction  for  non-payment  of  excessive  rents. 
Most  of  those  were,  it  is  true,  left  in  their  farms,  but  only 
as  tenants-at-will,  as  in  the  pre-land-act  period.  With  these 
facts  to  justify  it,  and  with  an  avowed  hostile  political 
party  in  power,  it  was  felt  by  the  originators  of  the  new 
movement  that  no  remedy  but  a  fighting  policy  remained, 

>and  they  therefore  launched  the  plan  of  campaign: 
Mr.  Parnell  was  not  consulted.  On  my  return  from  the 
United  States,  early  in  1887,  he  requested  me  not  to  take 
any  part  in  the  new  agitation  until  I  had  seen  him.  I 
crossed  to  London,  where,  during  parts  of  three  days,  the 
whole  situation  in  Ireland  and  the  Home-Rule  position  in 
England  were  fully  gone  over  by  him  in  the  most  outspoken 
manner. 

He  complained  that  neither  Mr.  Dillon  nor  Mr.  O'Brien 
had  communicated  to  him  their  intention  to  open  up  in  this 
way  the  agrarian  conflict  again.  He  said  not  a  word  about 
motives,  but  he  severely  criticised  the  tactical  unwisdom 
of  the  whole  proceeding.  The  plan  could  not  possibly  be 
justified  before  English  public  opinion,  which,  unfortunately, 
had  the  fate  of  Home  Rule  at  its  disposal.  Home  Rule  had 
been  beaten  by  lies  and  tricks  only,  and  this  but  in  England. 
Scotland  and  Wales  were  sound,  and  it  only  needed  the 
conversion  of  about  one  hundred  thousand  out  of  some  four 
million  English  voters  to  enable  Gladstone  to  win  at  the  next 
general  election.  Gladstone  was  now  "the  one  and  only 
hope  for  Ireland."  He  was  seventy-six  years  of  age.  He 
had  flung  himself  in  the  most  courageous  and  chivalrous 
manner  into  the  fight  for  an  Irish  parliament,  and  it  was 
nothing  short  of  cruel,  apart  from  the  merits  of  a  scheme 

S18 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

which  was  a  deliberate  challenge  to  a  new  measure  of  coercion, 
to  handicap  the  great  Liberal  leader  in  his  mighty  task  by 
an  agitation  which  would  only  wear  a  sordid  character  to 
the  voting  classes  of  Great  Britain  in  comparison  with  the 
national  interests  and  future  welfare  of  Ireland  embraced  in 
the  fortunes  of  Home  Rule. 

Mr.  Parnell  was  suffering  at  this  time  from  some  serious 
illness,  the  real  nature  or  extent  of  which  he  was  too  proud 
a  man  to  explain  to  his  political  friends.  He  appeared  to  be 
in  wretched  health,  and  remarked,  in  a  kind  of  foreboding 
spirit,  "I  don't  care  who  leads  when  I  am  gone,  but  I  am 
anxious  the  old  country  should  get  some  kind  of  parliament.as 
a  result  of  our  struggles,  and  unless  Mr.  Gladstone  can  do 
this  for  us  no  other  living  Englishman  can." 

This,   beyond   all   question,   was   the  real  motive  of  Mr. 

Parnell's    abstention    from    the    Dillon -O'Brien   movement. 

N^      He  was  undoubtedly  right  in  his  view  at  the  time,  and  at 

;    his  request  I  took  little_^rj[io_part  in. tlie- campaign  which 

^^^    his  two  foremost   lieutenants  fought   with  such  tenacity  of 

purpose  and  for  which  they  subsequently  endured  so  much 

adverse  criticism  and  blame. 

But  there  was  another  and  a  personal  objection  weighing 
s       with   him  to   which    he    did    not    refer.     The    plan.  3ras    a 
y     breach.,  of  the   conditions   of    the   Kilmainham    treaty,   and 
to  this   arrangement   Mr.   Parnell   held  true  with  a  loyalty 
which  did  him  infinite  credit,  considering  its  unpopularity  in 
Ireland   and  the   calamitous  results   which   destiny  had  re- 
solved should  follow  from  it.     For  good  or  evil  he  had  made 
up  his  mind  not  to  enter  again  into  any  phase  of  a  land  war 
'>      that  might  by  any  possible  chance  reproduce  similar  events 
to  those  of  1881-82,  and  though  he  loyally  advanced  moneys 
out  of  the  funds  as  required  by  Dillon  and  O'Brien,  he  took 
care  to  disassociate  himself  from  the  new  agrarian  action  in 
which  they  had  embarked. 

Rumors  asserted  at  this  time  that  Mr.  Parnell's  illness  and 
other  causes  might  lead  to  a  change  in  the  headship  of  the 
movement.  Mr.  Dillon's  name  was,  unfairly  to  him,  freely 
mentioned  as  Mr.  Parnell's  probable  successor,  while  a  re- 
ligious order  that  is  impartially  abused  in  Catholic  and  Prot- 
estant countries  alike  for  its  alleged  proficiency  in  the 
science  of  political  mischief-making,  the  Jesuits,  were  be- 
lieved in  some  quarters  to  be  zealously  concerned  in  the  future 
political  ambition  of  Sir  T.  G.  Esmonde,  M.P.  I  asked  Mr. 
Parnell  whether  he  attached  any  importance  to  these  state- 
ments, and  it  was  in  reply  to  this  question  he  made  the 
answer  already  recorded — he  did  not  care  who  succeeded  to 

519 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

his  post  after  he  had  gone.  He  created  the  impression  on 
my  mind  that  he  thought  Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien  were 
desirous  of  taking  the  direction  of  the  movement  and  party 
out  of  his  hands,  and  I  shared  in  that  belief  at  the  time. 
This  was  an  injustice  to  two  men  who  had  been  among  Mr. 
Parnell's  most  loyal  followers,  and  was  especially  so  towards 
Mr.  John  Dillon,  whose  name  was  put  in  rivalry  with  his  lead- 
er's. No  leader  ever  had  a  more  devoted  or  more  energetic 
lieutenant  and  no  cause  a  more  unselfish  or  unsullied  record 
than  that  of  the  foremost  protagonist  of  the  plan  of  cam- 
paign. 

This  movement  was  not  officially  connected  with  the 
National  League.  The  secretary  of  the  national  organiza- 
tion was  the  author  of  the  plan,  but  for  reasons  of  discretion 
this  was  not  made  known  at  the  time.  The  finances  of  the 
fight,  its  direction  and  general  policy,  were  attended  to 
apart,  in  order  that  neither  Mr.  Parnell  nor  the  organization 
proper  of  the  league  should  be  involved  in  any  legal  proceed- 
ings arising  out  of  the  advance-guard  attack  upon  the  land- 
lord position. 

The  scheme  was  put  in  operation  on  eighty-four  estates. 
The  tenants  formed  estate  combinations,  paid  the  "plan 
rent"  into  the  hands  of  a  committee,  and  awaited  results. 
In  no  fewer  than  sixty  instances  the  landlords  prudently 
gave  way,  and  settled  on  the  plan  terms,  which  averaged  less 
than  twenty-five  per  cent,  of  an  abatement.  On  twenty-four 
estates  a  brief  struggle  ensued,  but  wisdom  prevailed  over 
obstinacy,  and  the  landlords  came  to  terms  on  a  similar 
average  of  reductions.  In  the  case  of  seventeen  estates, 
where  the  landlords,  including  Lord  Clanricarde,  stood  out 
against  the  tenants'  demand,  an  average  concession  of  a 
thirty  per  cent,  abatement  would  procure  a  similar  peaceful 
settlement.  Evictions  followed  instead  of  agreements,  with 
the  result  that  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  were  lost 
by  landlords,  tenants,  and  the  state;  the  cost  of  extra  police, 
employment  of  military  forces,  and  of  special  prosecutions 
alone  amounting,  from  1887  to  1894,  to  an  estimated  sum  of 
;^96o,ooo. 

In  the  session  of  1887,  six  months  after  the  rejection  of 
Mr.  Parnell's  bill,  and  four  months  following  the  launching  of 
the  plan,  the  Lord  Cowper  Commission  issued  its  report 
(February,  1887),  and  declared,  ijiter  alia,  as  follows: 

"16.  The  fall  in  the  price  of  produce  of  all  kinds,  and  in  all 
parts  of  the  country,  has  much  impaired  the  ability  of  the 
farmer  to  pay  the  full  rent,  and  this,  following  on  a  previous 
restriction   of  credit  by  the  bankers  and  other  lenders  of 

520 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

money,  as  well  as  by  the  shopkeepers,  has  very  greatly  in- 
creased their  financial  difficulties. 

"17.  The  land  commissioners,  recognizing  this  depression, 
began  towards  the  end  of  1885  to  reduce  the  rents  then  being 
judicially  fixed  by  from  ten  to  fourteen  per  cent,  below  the 
scale  of  reduction  in  the  four  previous  years,  and  they  have 
since  continued  to  act  on  this  principle. 

"18.  The  sudden  fall  in  prices  during  the  last  two  years  was 
intensified  in  its  effect  by  a  gradual  deterioration  which  had 
been  going  on  in  the  quality  and  produce  of  the  soil,  both 
tillage  and  grass,  during  a  series  of  years  of  low  temperature 
and  much  rain,  especially  in  1879,  the  worst  year  of  the 
century.  During  this  period  much  of  the  tenants'  capital 
had  disappeared.  The  cost  of  cultivation,  compared  with 
that  of  an  earlier  period,  had  also  greatly  increased." 

Here  was  Lord  Salisbury's  own  Unionist  commission  found 
confirming  the  very  grounds  upon  which  Parliament  was 
asked  to  legislate  by  Mr.  Parnell  in  September,  1886.  Surely, 
then,  the  troubles,  evictions,  and  other  evils  which  followed 
from  the  ministerial  policy  that  had  closed  its  eyes  to  patent 
facts,  for  party  reasons,  in  September,  1886,  to  open  them 
again,  for  party  purposes,  in  February,  1887,  ought  to  be 
fathered  upon  the  maladroit  expediency  of  Lord  Salisbury 
and  not  upon  Mr.  John  Dillon  and  the  plan. 

In  one  —  and  that  the  most  striking  —  instance  of  the 
plan  of  campaign  contests  the  leaders  did,  in  my  opinion, 
commit  a  big  blunder.  The  Tipperary  fight  was  a  grave 
mistake.  On  one  important  point  it  violated  even  the 
principles  of  the  plan  itself.  That  scheme  of  combination 
very  wisely  laid  down  the  rule  that  "Holders  of  town  parks 
who  are  shopkeepers  have  a  strong  claim  to  exemption 
[from  joining  the  combination],  for  a  judgment  against  them 
may  be  ruin."  Just  so.  It  is  both  bad  tactics,  in  a  fight  of 
the  kind,  and  a  lamentable  want  of  a  sound  knowledge  of 
human  nature  also,  to  ask  a  man  to  run  the  risk  of  losing  a 
business  worth  ;^5ooo  on  account  of  an  agricultural  rent  of 
;£20  or  ;;^3o.  Somc  of  the  Tipperary  shopkeepers  were  called 
upon  to  sacrifice  sums  equal  to  this,  and  herein  is  where  the 
blunder  of  breaking  away  from  the  written  advice  of  the 
plan  itself  came  in.  Mr.  Smith  Barry's  policy  of  retalia- 
tion in  helping  to  frustrate  what  otherwise  promised  to  be 
an  amicable  settlement  on  the  Ponsonby  estate  brought 
upon  himself  the  weight  and  cost  of  the  Tipperary  struggle; 
but  his  opponents  gave  themselves  very  badly  away  when 
they  put  their  own  weakest  wing — the  shopkeepers — forward 
to   turn   the   flank   of   their   strongest   antagonist.     It   was 

521 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"magnificent,"  no  doubt,  and  called  forth  a  few  splendid 
exhibitions  of  self-sacrifice,  and  enthusiasm  galore,  but  it  was 
very  bad  "war"  all  the  same. 

Lord  Randolph  Churchill,  who  as  chancellor  of  the  ex- 
chequer had  led  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  autiunn 
session  of  1886,  suddenly  resigned  in  December,  on  a  ques- 
tion of  English  party  policy.  The  resignation  was  intended 
as  an  argument  of  pressure  upon  Lord  Salisbury,  and  was 
tendered  only  to  be  withdrawn,  according  to  the  canons  of 
ministerial  courtesy.  The  prime-minister  had  far  more 
relatives  than  courtesy  at  his  disposal,  however,  and  he 
accepted  with  alacrity  what  had  only  been  offered  to  be 
returned.  The  pretended  Home- Ruler  of  the  elections  of  1885 
fell  a  victim  to  kindred  tactics  on  another  question  within  a 
year,  and  thus  terminated  in  effect  what  had  promised  at 
one  time  to  be  a  career  culminating  in  the  blue-ribbon  prize 
of  British  politics,  the  premiership  of  the  British  Empire. 
Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  succeeded  Churchill  at  the  ex- 
chequer, whereupon  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  became  chief  secre- 
tary for  Ireland. 

Meanwhile  the  plan  of  campaign  was  in  full  swing.  The 
victories  already  alluded  to  were  recorded,  and  it  became 
necessary,  in  face  of  the  recommendations  of  the  Cowper 
Commission,  to  justify  still  further  Mr.  Harrington's  clever 
plan  by  legislating  on  the  very  lines  proposed  in  vain  by 
Mr.  Parnell  in  the  September  previously.  A  bill  was  in- 
troduced by  the  government  authorizing  the  land  commission 
to  revise  the  judicial  rents  that  had  been  fixed  from  1881  to 
1886,  and  to  admit  the  exempted  leaseholders  to  the  benefits 
of  the  Gladstonian  land  act.  Had  this  been  done  six  months 
earlier  there  would  have  been  no  plan  of  campaign.  But, 
being  done  six  months  too  late,  it  became  necessary,  in  due 
accord  with  English  ideas,  to  accompany  the  ameliorating 
bill  by  a  corresponding  measure  of  repression.  There  was,  in 
fact,  to  be  a  further  provision  for  closure  on  debates  in  the 
House  of  Commons  and  a  maximum  of  coercion  for  Ireland. 
To  make  things  as  "thorough"  as  possible,  a  perpetual 
coercion  bill  was  to  be  made  to  signalize  the  year  of  Queen 
Victoria's  jubilee,  as  an  unconscious  testimony  to  the  triimi- 
phant  failure  of  the  act  of  union. 

^r.  Balfour  was  no  believer  in  half  measures,  and  was 
determined  to  be  armed  with  all  the  powers  that  a  parlia- 
mentary majority  could  give  him  in  his  fight_  against  the 
plan.  He  engrafted  upon  his  land  bill  a  legal  process  of 
'eviction  which  would  obviate  the  ordinary  serving  of  evic- 
tion notices,  and  in  this  way  he  succeeded  in  enabling  land- 

522 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

lords  in  Ireland,  almost  without  cost,  to  deprive  thirty  or 
forty  thousand  tenants  of  all  the  statutory  advantages  se- 
cured for  them  under  the  act  of  1881.  In  addition,  he  suc- 
ceeded in  manning  the  large  staff  of  land  court  sub  -  com- 
missioners with  open  partisans  of  his  own  party  and  enemies 
of  the  tenants'  cause.  His  coercion  armory  included  a 
provision  to  enable  himself  to  declare  any  association  in  Ire- 
land an  illegal  combination,  and  to  remove  trials  to  wherever 
the  most  promising  juries  could  be  empanelled.  And,  thus 
fortified  for  the  counter-war  which  he  had  planned  against 
the  movement  led  by  Dillon  and  O'Brien,  he  stripped  him- 
self to  the  combat  and  refused  all  quarter. 

He  virtually  challenged  all  the  elements  of  disorder  to  a 
free  fight  with  the  Castle,  and  the  country  was  soon  plunged 
into  a  state  of  turmoil  which  recalled  the  exciting  times 
of  1881.  Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien  were  prosecuted  and 
imprisoned  more  than  once.  During  their  trial  in  the  first 
instance,  at  Green  Street,  Dublin,  a  comical  incident  occurred 
which  is  no  rare  commentary  upon  the  absurdities  associated 
with  the  rule  of  Dublin-Castle  law  and  order.  One  of  the 
large  Western  landlords,  having  had  enough  of  the  plan  of 
campaign  on  his  estate,  made  overtures  to  the  leaders  that 
he  was  willing  to  settle  and  to  avert  any  resort  to  the  law. 
There  was,  however,  a  difficulty  in  the  way — the  responsible 
leaders  were  in  the  very  act  of  being  tried  in  Dublin  for 
the  illegality  of  the  plan.  But  the  landlord  could  not  afford 
to  wait.  Money  was  wanted  and  could  only  be  got  in  the 
payment  of  his  rent.  He  came  straight  to  Dublin.  Mr. 
Dillon  was  wilhng  to  effect  a  settlement,  but  he  was  engaged 
in  court  —  on  his  trial.  No  matter.  The  case  of  rent  was 
more  urgent  than  that  of  law,  and  it  came  to  pass  that  Mr. 
Dillon  left  the  court  where  his  trial  was  proceeding  for  an 
official's  room  in  the  same  building,  where  he  met  the  agent 
of  the  Western  landlord,  and,  having  ratified  an  illegal  agree- 
ment under  the  plan,  within  a  few  paces  of  the  judge's  bench, 
walked  back  to  the  court  to  be  sentenced  to  find  bail,  or 
an  alternative  of  six  months'  imprisonment,  for  his  conduct 
in  similar  cases  elsewhere. 

It  was  due  to  and  arising  out  of  the  Balfour  policy  of  legal 
aggression  that  "the  Mitchelstown  massacre"  occurred  in 
September,   1887. 

A  great  meeting  was  being  held  in  the  large  square  of  that 
town,  at  which  Mr.  John  Dillon  and  other  leaders  of  the 
plan  were  to  speak.  Numbers  variously  estimated  at 
from  five  to  ten  thousand  persons  attended  from  Cork, 
Tipperary,    and    Waterford    counties.      As   the    proceedings 

523 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

were  about  to  begin  a  body  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary 
marched  into  the  throng,  escorting  a  government  reporter. 
No  application,  it  appears,  had  been  made  to  the  promoters 
of  the  meeting  to  allow  the  note-taker  to  occupy  a  place  on 
the  platform.  The  intrusion  of  the  police  was  a  stupid  or 
deliberate  attempt  to  create  confusion  and  a  disturbance, 
and  it  succeeded  possibly  far  beyond  the  wishes  of  the 
officer  in  command.  The  crowd  at  once  resented  the  action 
of  the  police,  and  these  had  to  fall  back.  This  incident  was 
reported  to  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  barracks,  whereupon 
a  reinforcement  arrived  on  the  scene  and  attempted  to  open 
up  a  way  for  the  reporter  to  the  vicinity  of  the  speakers. 
This  was  accepted  as  a  challenge  to  the  meeting  as  to  whether 
the  people  or  the  police  should  have  their  way,  and  the  row 
began.  Batons  were  swinging  in  the  air  at  once,  and  were 
met  with  stout  blackthorns  in  a  resolute  blow-for-blow  spirit 
which  soon  compelled  the  protectors  of  the  Castle  reporter 
to  run  for  the  shelter  of  the  constabulary  barracks,  pursued 
by  stones  and  other  missiles  from  the  victorious  crowd.  This 
building  stood  flanked  by  other  dwellings  in  a  street  which 
traversed  the  bottom  of  the  square,  and  was  distant  about 
two  hundred  yards  from  where  the  row  had  begun.  On 
reaching  the  shelter  of  the  barracks  some  of  the  police  fired 
with  rifles  from  the  windows  back  at  the  people  who  were 
assembled  at  the  corner  of  the  square  where  the  street  en- 
tered it.  Mr.  Dillon,  on  seeing  the  flight  of  the  police,  di- 
vined what  would  happen,  and  rushed  to  prevent  the  crowd 
from  pursuing  the  constabulary  into  the  street  where  the 
barracks  stood.  Almost  all  the  crowd  responded  to  his 
orders,  but  a  few  men  and  boys  remained  on  each  side  of  the 
thoroughfare  where  it  and  the  square  merged  into  the  wider 
space,  and  shots  deliberately  fired  at  these  took  effect.  An 
old  man  named  Casey  was  killed  on  the  spot,  and  two  more, 
Lonergan  and  Shinnock,  one  a  youth,  were  so  severely  hit 
that  they  died  a  few  days  subsequently. 

The  shooting  created  intense  indignation  in  the  country. 
This  feeling  was  rendered  more  bitter  by  the  conduct  of 
Mr.  Balfour,  who  openly  prejudged  the  whole  case,  and 
espoused  the  side  of  the  accused  police  by  asserting  in  the 
House  of  Commons  that  they  were  not  to  blame  in  any  sense, 
and  only  acted  in  self-defence,  and  to  preserve  their  lives 
from  a  furious  onslaught  by  a  riotous  mob. 

A  coroner's  jury  tried  the  case  against  the  constabulary, 
and  after  a  fortnight's  forensic  fight  between  counsel  on  both 
sides  a  verdict  of  wilful  murder  was  recorded  against  the 
officer  who  ordered  the  firing  and  four  or  five  of  his  subordi- 

524 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN'* 

nates.  But  no  other  trial  was  ever  held.  No  person  was  ever 
punished  for  the  deaths  of  three  innocent  citizens,  and  this 
shameful  protection  of  police  criminals  by  Dublin  Castle  did 
not  invite  any  new  degree  of  respect  for  an  old,  incriminated 
offender  against  the  highest  as  well  as  the  other  rights  of 
Irish  citizenship. 

A  copy  of  a  telegram  from  Dublin  Castle  to  a  magistrate 
in  a  Southern  county  about  this  time  fell  into  the  hands  of 
United  Ireland,  and  part  of  its  contents  —  "Don't  hesitate 
to  shoot" — when  published,  was  not  calculated  to  make 
popular  feeling  any  less  tender  towards  Mr.  Balfour.  On 
the  other  hand,  this  amazing  language  was  freely  interpreted 
by  his  subordinates  during  the  period  of  the  plan.  The 
Mitchelstown  case  has  been  referred  to.  At  Youghal,  in  the 
same  county,  a  young  man  named  Hanlan  was  stabbed  to 
death  by  a  policeman,  on  the  occasion  of  the  arrest  of  a 
most  popular  and  respected  priest.  Rev.  Canon  Keller,  on  a 
charge  of  putting  the  plan  of  campaign  into  operation. 
A  large  crowd  had  gathered  to  show  popular  sympathy  with 
their  esteemed  pastor.  The  people  were  ordered  to  disperse, 
and  the  youth  was  bayoneted  while  in  the  act  of  running 
away.  The  coroner's  jury  brought  in  a  verdict  of  wilful 
murder,  but  the  Crown  concerned  itself  only  with  steps  to 
enter  a  nolle  prosequi. 

Another  man  was  bludgeoned  to  death  by  police  at  Fermoy. 
The  coroner's  jury  found  a  verdict  of  murder,  but  two  of  Mr. 
Balfour's  removable  magistrates  acquitted  the  accused,  who, 
they  declared,  "left  the  court  without  a  stain  on  their 
characters." 

A  boy  was  killed  during  some  excitement  in  the  town  of 
Tipperary.  He  was  shot  by  a  policeman  who  was  believed 
to  be  semi-intoxicated.  The  coroner's  jury  brought  in  a  ver- 
dict of  murder,  but  the  Crown  refused  to  prosecute. 

At  Timoleague  the  police  fired  on  a  crowd  and  killed  a 
peasant.  The  jury  was  carefully  packed,  and  disagreed. 
There  was  no  further  prosecution  by  the  Castle. 

On  the  other  hand,  when  on  the  occasion  of  the  arrest  of  the 
Rev.  James  McFadden,  of  Gweedore,  County  Donegal,  a  police 
inspector  named  Martin  was  killed  in  a  riot,  both  the  priest 
and  several  of  the  crowd  were  tried  before  a  specially  packed 
jury  at  Maryborough  and  sentenced  to  various  terms  of  im- 
prisonment. 

During  fierce  riots  in  Belfast  the  Orangemen  terrorized  the 
city.  A  trooper  of  the  West  Surrey  regiment,  named  Hughes, 
and  a  head  constable  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constabulary,  whose 
name  I  have  forgotten,  were  killed.     Two  Orangemen  were 

525 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tried  for  the  murder,  but  no  Belfast  jury  would  convict  them. 
One  of  them  was  ultimately  sent  to  prison,  but  released  after 
a  few  years'  incarceration. 

Culprits  were  more  summarily  dealt  with  in  the  South, 
where  Mr.  Balfour's  magistrates  were  judges  and  jury  com- 
bined. One  boy  was  charged  with  "intimidating  her  Maj- 
esty's subjects."  The  evidence  to  support  this  indictment 
proved  that  "the  lad  had  looked  at  the  poHceman  with  a 
humbugging  kind  of  a  smile."  He  was,  of  course,  sent  to 
prison. 

Several  other  crimes  of  a  kindred  atrocity  were  duly 
punished.  One  consisted  in  the  whistling  of  a  tune  called 
"Harvey  Duff"  in  the  hearing  of  the  sensitive  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary.  Another  amounted  to  this  extraordinary  in- 
stance of  criminality:  the  prosecuting  policeman  swore  that 
he  had  heard  the  accused  "cheering  for  Mr.  Gladstone  " !  This 
culprit  was  relegated  to  prison  for  a  week. 

In  County  Mayo,  in  December,  1887,  a  disturbance  took 
place  over  a  seizure  for  rent.  An  old  woman,  Ellen  Tighe, 
aged  seventy,  was  twice  examined  before  the  magistrates  for 
riotous  conduct.  She  was  ultimately  discharged.  Not  so 
Ellen  Conroy.  She,  too,  had  obstructed  the  majesty  of  the 
law  while  its  agents  were  engaged  in  seizing  some  sheep, 
belonging  to  a  peasant,  in  the  interest  of  a  landlord.  Ellen 
was  found  guilty  and  sent  to  jail  for  a  week.  Rev.  P.  Mc- 
Alpine,  who  knew  the  girl  as  one  of  his  parishioners,  assured 
me  that  her  age  on  the  previous  birthday  was  twelve  years. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  riotous  temper  of  the  law  during 
these  exciting  years,  the  following  week's  diary  of  coercion 
proceedings  may  prove  interesting  to  readers  who  reside  in 
other  lands  than  Ireland: 

"Tuesday. — Mr.  Dillon  summoned  before  the  court  of 
Queen's  Bench,  and  ordered  to  give  bail  to  be  of  good  be- 
havior or  go  to  jail  for  a  year. 

"  Thursday. — Police  make  a  raid  on  popular  rent-office  at 
Loughrea,  illegally  seize  money,  documents,  pencils,  and 
blotting-paper,  arrest  Messrs.  Dillon,  O'Brien,  Sheehy,  and 
Harris,  and  charge  them  with  conspiracy  before  a  magistrate, 
who  commands  them  at  their  peril  to  appear  before  him 
again  at  Loughrea  the  following  Thursday.  Mr.  Dillon's 
second  prosecution  within  two  days. 

"Thursday  {later). — Mr.  Sheehy  served  with  another  docu- 
ment requiring  him  to  appear  before  a  magistrate  in  Temple- 
more  to  answer  a  charge  of  making  a  speech  calculated  to 
create  public  disorder.  Mr.  Sheehy 's  second  prosecution  in 
one  day. 

526 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

''Friday. — Mr.  Dillon  receives  a  summons  to  appear  at 
his  peril  in  the  police  court,  Inns  Quay,  Dublin,  to  answer 
a  charge  of  conspiracy,  on  the  same  day  and  at  the  same  hour 
as  he  is  commanded  at  his  peril  to  appear  in  Loughrea.  Mr. 
Dillon's  third  prosecution  within  three  days. 

"Messrs.  O'Brien,  Harris,  and  Sheehy  similarly  warned  to 
appear  in  the  same  two  places  at  the  one  time,  this  being 
Mr.  Sheehy's  third  prosecution  within  two  days. 

"Messrs.  Crilly,  M.P.,  and  W.  Redmond,  M.P.,  summoned 
to  Dublin  on  same  charge. 

"Saturday. — Resolute  government  discovers  its  Boyle- 
Rochery,  and  has  Mr.  Dillon  and  his  sureties  served  with  a 
notice  announcing  that  he  needn't  appear  at  Loughrea,  and 
that  that  prosecution  is  abandoned.  Mr.  Dihon  now  the 
target  for  only  two  prosecutions.  Messrs.  O'Brien,  Sheehy, 
and  Harris  informed  that  the  Loughrea  prosecution  against 
them  is  likewise  abandoned.  Two  prosecutions  still  aimed  at 
Mr.  Sheehy. 

''Sunday. — The  plan  of  campaign  having  been  advertised 
from  the  house-tops  for  two  months,  put  into  operation  in 
all  directions,  under  the  eyes  of  government  policemen  and 
reporters,  and  declared  by  the  attorney-general  to  be  beyond 
the  reach  of  the  executive,  is  proclaimed  an  illegal  and 
criminal  conspiracy,  whose  promoters  the  executive  intend 
to  arrest,  and  whose  money,  documents,  and  so  forth  they 
intend  to  seize  whenever  they  can. 

"Monday. — Mr.  Sheehy  notified  to  pay  no  attention  to  his 
summons  to  Templemore,  that  prosecution  against  him  being 
abandoned.  Father  Fahy  released  from  Galway  jail  without 
being  asked  to  complete  his  sentence."^ 

Many  dramatic  scenes  and  some  romantic  episodes  marked 
the  three  years'  fierce  combat  between  Mr.  Balfour  as  coercion- 
ist  ruler  of  Ireland  and  the  forces  led  by  Messrs.  Dillon  and 
O'Brien.  On  one  occasion  Mr.  O'Brien,  instead  of  accom- 
modating a  removable  court  by  appearing  before  it  when 
summoned  to  do  so,  crossed  from  Wexford  to  Manchester  to 
keep  a  public  engagement  to  address  a  meeting  in  that  city. 
A  warrant  was  issued  for  his  arrest.  He  was  most  courteously 
entertained  by  the  mayor  of  Manchester  before  addressing 
the  assembled  audience,  and  after  fulfilling  this  duty  was  con- 
ducted back  to  Ireland  to  be  sent  to  prison. 

During  one  of  his  terms  of  imprisonment  he  fought  a 
resolute  battle  against  the  degradation  inflicted  upon  prisoners 
not   charged  with   any   dishonorable   offence  in   being  com- 

*  Six  Months  of  Unionist  Ride,  pp.  32,  33.  John  J.  Clancy,  M.P., 
Irish  press  agency,  1887. 

527 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

pelled  to  wear  prison  clothes.  i\Ir.  O'Brien  was  forcibly 
stripped  by  prison  warders,  but  he  successfully  resisted  their 
efforts  to  garb  him  in  prison  dress.  He  was  assisted  by 
friends  inside  and  out  of  Tullamore  jail  in  obtaining  a  suit 
of  clothes  to  replace  the  garments  of  which  he  had  been 
deprived.  After  courageously  struggling  for  the  principle  in- 
volved in  the  right  of  a  prisoner  to  wear  his  own  clothes,  he 
was  ultimately  victorious  in  the  manly  fight  thus  made. 

It  was  in  resisting  a  similar  brutal  indignity  that  Mr. 
John  Mandeville,  a  gentleman  farmer  residing  near  Mitchels- 
town,  contracted  an  illness  which  directly  resulted  in  his 
death. 

The  campaign  against  Clanricarde  and  company,  like  every 
previous  phase  of  the  land  war,  had  its  humorous  as  well  as  its 
tragic  incidents.  The  late  Dr.  Tanner,  M.P.,  or  "Charley 
Tanner,"  as  his  friends  loved  to  call  one  of  the  kindest  and 
most  courageous  of  men,  who  was  only  unkind  to  himself, 
had  many  amusing  encounters  with  the  police,  and  led  them 
many  a  wild  and  bootless  chase.  On  one  occasion  he  an- 
nounced his  intention  to  address  a  meeting  near  a  lake  in 
County  Clare.  There  was  a  warrant  for  his  arrest  in  the 
hands  of  the  police  for  "campaigning"  performances,  and, 
having  pursued  him  in  vain  for  weeks,  they  believed  he  had 
at  last  voluntarily  placed  himself  in  their  hands.  The  day  of 
the  meeting  arrived,  a  large  number  of  people  assembled,  and 
the  "peelers"  lay  handy  at  a  convenient  distance  to  execute 
the  delayed  message  of  the  law.  A  shout  from  the  gathering 
announced  the  approach  of  the  genial  doctor.  He  came — 
in  a  boat.  The  people  grasped  the  humor  of  the  situation 
at  once,  as  Charley,  rowing  his  way  within  some  twenty 
feet  of  the  shore,  commenced  to  address  the  assembled  crowd, 
and  to  indulge  in  more  than  his  usual  vehement  orthodoxy 
on  the  virtues  of  the  plan  and  the  vices  of  "the  blood- 
stained law  of  the  Mitchelstown  murders."  Finishing  his 
speech,  with  a  few  more  complimentary  allusions  to  the  police 
and  the  chief  secretary,  the  member  for  Mid-Cork  bade  a 
genial  au  revoir  to  the  baffled  magistrate  and  constabulary, 
and  departed  as  he  came. 

A  batch  of  campaigners  were  awaiting  trial  before  a  re- 
movable court  in  a  town  in  Cork  County.  The  local  prison 
was  seldom  taxed  in  its  lodging  capacity  to  the  extent  of  more 
than  a  few  disorderly  cases  following  a  good  fair,  and  on 
this  occasion  its  sole  inhabitants,  besides  the  warder  in 
charge,  were  the  six  plan  prisoners.  Two  of  his  charges 
were  members  of  Parliament,  and  all  the  accused  were 
personally  known  to  him.     The  prison  rules  were  not  too 

528 


"THE    PLAN    OF    CAMPAIGN" 

rigidly  enforced  during  the  period  of  detention,  as  the  follow- 
ing facts  will  testify: 

The  best  of  good  things  in  the  town  of  M were  freely 

at  the  disposal  of  prisoners  and — warder.  The  night  before 
the  day  of  trial  there  was  an  extra  "good  time"  being  en- 
joyed, a  kind  of  farewell  to  the  place,  when  the  keeper  of  her 
Majesty's  prison  opened  the  door  of  the  banqueting-room  with 
this  apology:  "I  beg  yer  pardon,  jintlemin.  I  don't  wish  to 
interrupt  the  harmony  in  any  way,  but  there  is  an  ay-co  in 

Mr.  C 's  voice  when  he's   singing    'The   West's   Awake' 

that  might  disturb  the  sleep  of  the  peelers,  down  at  the 
police  office  in  the  town,  and  I  thought  I  would  just  mintion 
a  lower  kay  for  the  music."  An  hour  afterwards  the  vigilant 
jailer  was  carefully  put  to  bed  by  his  prisoners,  his  keys  were 
borrowed,  and  the  whole  party  retired  to  a  friend's  house  in 
the  town  where  the  good  time  was  continued  until  4  a.m. 
By  five  o'clock  Mr.  Balfour's  prisoners  were  back  again  in 
custody.  The  warder  was  reminded  of  his  duties,  in  the 
return  of  the  keys,  and  the  culprits  were  subsequently  dealt 
with  according  to  "removable"  law. 

The  assistance  given  by  the  Irish  people  and  the  national 
organization  to  the  "wounded  soldiers"  of  the  plan  of 
campaign  agitation  was  on  a  generous  scale. 

In  1887  a  sum  of  ^^8890  was  expended  in  the  movement 
and  for  the  maintenance  of  the  evicted  families;  in  1888, 
£i'j,S6g;  1889,  £T,6,2oy,  1890,  ^83,930;  1891,  ;^48,i5i; 
1892,  £i'],<)2'];  1893,  £1'] ,g(iO\  or  a  total  of  over  ^230,000  in 
seven  years.^ 

When  to  this  is  added  a  sum  of  ;£2  9,ooo  which  has  been 
distributed  to  evicted  tenants  by  Mr.  Dillon  and  myself  out 
of  the  "Paris  Funds"  during  the  past  ten  years  (i 893-1 903), 

'  "I  may  say  that  from  the  beginning  of  this  movement,  which 
commenced  in  November,  1886,  I  kept  a  very  accurate  account  of  all 
the  moneys.  I  kept  books,  and  we  received  by  deposits  from  the 
tenants  under  the  plan  of  campaign,  £41,894  145.  50?.,  and  out  of 
this  we  have  returned  to  the  tenants  on  settlements  of  one  kind  or 
another,  ;^3o, 06 7  165.  "jd.  The  balance  spent  in  supporting  and  aiding 
the  tenants  was  £1 1 ,000  odd.  I  can  give  the  commission  all  the 
expenses  and  details.  The  total  sum  received  by  us  from  all  sources 
was  ;,^234,43i  145.  8t/. ;  grants  to  tenants  and  maintenance,  £i2'j,:^ig 
lis.  yd.;  legal  expenses  in  defending  tenants,  £11,435  i4-^-  loc?.;  building 
and  repairing  houses  for  the  evicted  tenants,  £50,607  gs.  yd.;  mis- 
cellaneous expenses  (including  travelling  expenses) ,  £17,035  55.  gd.; 
deposits  returned  to  tenants,  £30,067  165.  id.;  grants  to  aid  the  tenants 
in  effecting  settlements,  £1051  155.  gd.:  and  the  balance  was  made  up 
of  grants  to  isolated  tenants  not  belonging  to  the  movement." — 
Evidence  of  Mr.  John  Dillon,  M.P.,  before  the  Evicted  Tenants' 
Commission,  January,   1893. 

34  529 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

it  will  be  seen  that  the  country  has  not  been  as  unmindful 
of  the  victims  of  the  land  war  of  the  later  eighties  as 
English  political  opponents,  and  some  unfair  Irish  critics, 
have  alleged.  The  merit  of  this  is  due  entirely  to  the  pro- 
verbial open-handedness  of  the  Celtic  people  of  Ireland  tow- 
ards every  deserving  cause  which  appeals  to  their  patriotism 
and  love  of  justice  for  approval  and  support. 


CHAPTER  XLIII 

THE    r/M£:5-UNIONIST    P  L  O  T— "  P  A  R  N  E  L  L  I  S  M 
AND    CRIME " 

While  all  the  resources  of  coercion  were  busily  employed 
in  Ireland  in  a  conflict  with  the  forces  of  the  Irish  National 
League,  the  chief  secretary's  allies  were  not  idle  in  a  kindred 
combat  in  England  against  the  cause  of  Home  Rule.  In  fact, 
a  front  and  flank  attack  was  made  in  1887  and  1888  upon  the 
whole  Irish  moveinent,  which  has  never  been  paralleled  in 
the  history  of  political  agitations.  The  explanation  of  this 
crusade  was  twofold:  The  enemies  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  Home- 
Rule  policy  were  startled  at  the  enormous  vote  that  had 
been  recorded  by  the  electors  of  Great  Britain  in  support  of 
the  proposal  to  restore  to  Ireland  a  domestic  legislature. 
As  already  pointed  out,  a  hundred  thousand  more  ballots 
would  have  condemned  the  Unionist  coalition  against  the  bill 
of  1886,  and  secured  the  return  of  the  Liberal  leader  to  power 
with  a  mandate  to  enact  that  measure  into  law.  To  the 
latent  anti-Irish  spirit  in  the  average  English  mind  this  was 
an  alarming  development  of  pro-Irish  feeling.  It  threatened 
the  existence  of  minority  rule  and  of  privileged  ascendency 
in  the  government  of  Ireland.  The  strongest  of  English 
racial  prejudices  was  therefore  challenged  and  excited,  and  for 
an  envenomed  expression  of  this  hatred  of  everything  national 
in  connection  with  the  Irish  question  The  Times  has  ever  been 
the  watchful  and  accredited  organ. 

The  Salisbury  cabinet  and  its  Irish  policy  were  the  minis- 
terial embodiment  of  this  anti-Irish  prejudice.  They  had 
appealed  to  it,  and  were  put  into  office  as  its  parliamentary 
instruments.  But  the  premier  in  his  Newport  speech.  Lord 
Carnarvon  in  his  interview  with  Mr.  Parnell,  and  Lord  Ran- 
dolph Churchill  in  his  sinister  intrigues  with  the  Irish  party 
had  given  both  moral  and  political  justification  for  Mr. 
Gladstone's  more  consistent  policy.  They  had  more  than 
coquetted  with  Home  Rule  for  Irish  support.  It  became 
necessary,  therefore,  for  the  party  having  this  recent  record, 
but  which  had  been  elected  on  an  anti-Home  Rule  issue,  to 

531 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

break  away  from  the  policy  of  1885  by  attempting  to  govern 
Ireland  on  the  most  extreme  coercionist  lines.  The  Loyal 
and  Patriotic  Union  and  the  London  Times  had  been  the 
zealous  allies  of  the  Tory  party  in  the  defeat  of  Mr.  Gladstone, 
and  the  same  forces  were  now  employed  in  a  campaign  of 
systematic  calumny  against  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  Liberal  leader 
in  their  joint  pursuit  of  a  pact  of  peace  between  the  two 
countries. 

It  was  in  furtherance  of  the  ends  of  the  campaign  thus  en- 
tered upon  that  on  March  7,  1887,  The  Times  published  its  first 
of  a  series  of  contributions  under  the  caption  of  ' '  Parnellism 
and  Crime."  The  articles  were  outspoken  enough  in  all  con- 
science. They  left  nothing  to  be  desired  by  the  most  rabid 
enemy  of  the  Irish  movement  in  the  way  of  imputation  and 
indictment,  while  the  editorial  comments  punctuated  with 
trenchant  accusation  every  charge  contained  in  the  articles. 
These  articles  were  continued  at  intervals  during  March, 
April,  May,  and  June,  and  necessarily  created  a  sensation, 
owing  to  the  great  journalistic  position  and  influence  of  the 
paper,  and  the  crimes  which  it  sought  to  bring  home,  in 
language  about  which  there  could  be  no  two  meanings,  to  a 
prominent  parliamentary  and  political  leader  and  to  his 
chief  lieutenants.  But  the  contributions  in  the  month  of 
April  were  reinforced  by  a  publication  before  which  all  the 
preceding  allegations  paled  into  comparative  insignificance. 
This  was  a  letter  in  facsimile,  with  Mr.  Parnell 's  signature, 
purporting  to  justify  the  Phoenix  Park  murders.  Its  terms 
were  as  follows: 

"  Alay  15,  1882. 

"Dear  Sir, — I  am  not  surprised  at  your  friend's  anger,  but 
he  and  you  should  know  that  to  denounce  the  murders  was 
the  only  course  open  to  us.  To  do  that  promptly  was 
plainly  our  best  policy. 

"  But  you  can  tell  him  and  all  others  concerned  that  though 
I  regret  the  accident  of  Lord  F.  Cavendish's  death,  I  cannot 
refuse  to  admit  that  Burke  got  no  more  than  his  deserts. 

"You  are  at  liberty  to  show  him  this,  and  others  whom 
you  can  trust  also,  but  let  not  my  address  be  known.  He 
can  write  to  House  of  Commons. 

"Yours  very  truly, 

"Chas.  S.  Parnell." 

In  a  previous  article,  printed  on  March  loth,  The  Times 
openly  charged  Mr.  Parnell  with  having  consorted  with  cer- 
tain men,  afterwards  connected  with  the  Invincibles,  during 
his  release  on  parole  from  Kilmainham  early  in   1882.      The 

532 


THE    r/MES- UNIONIST    PLOT 

author  of  the  above  letter,  if  it  were  genuine,  and  if  the  charge 
of  March  loth  were  true,  would  be  writing  to  those  he  had 
seen,  as  suggested,  to  explain  his  action  in  signing  the  mani- 
festo of  May  7,  1882,  in  which  the  perpetrators  of  the  park 
murders  were  strongly  condemned.  The  time,  the  circum- 
stance, and  the  phrasing  of  the  letter  were  cleverly  con- 
trived to  sustain  the  atrocious  imputation  previously  made, 
while  the  apparent  genuineness  of  the  signature  lent  a 
seeming  proof  to  the  authenticity  of  the  document  which 
created  a  wide-spread  belief  that  it  was  genuine.  In  fact, 
no  such  thunderbolt  had  fallen  in  the  Irish  camp  since  the 
deed  of  May  6,  1882,  of  which  this  letter  was  an  accursed 
re-echo. 

There  is  a  strong  proof  of  the  connivance  of  members  of  the 
Tory  government  in  the  }iou?>ton-Times  conspiracy  to  ruin 
Parnell  in  the  appearance  of  this  product  of  a  villanous 
plot  on  the  very  day  on  which  the  Unionist  coercion  bill  was 
to  be  read  a  second  time.  No  hired  bravo,  in  undertaking 
to  despatch  some  victim  in  a  Sicilian  vendetta,  ever  made 
a  more  business-like  arrangement  for  driving  a  stiletto  into 
the  object  of  his  professional  vengeance  than  did  the  men  who 
planned  and  premeditated  this  assassin-blow  at  the  Irish 
cause  through  its  leader  on  that  April  18,  1887.  Coercion 
had  not  been  popular  in  the  latter  end  of  the  late  Parliament, 
even  with  Tories.  They  had  repudiated  it  in  1886.  Their 
leaders  had  even  denounced  it  in  1885.  They  had  provided 
for  a  Maamtrasna  debate,  and  more  than  one  of  them  had 
censured  Lord  Spencer  for  having  carried  repressive  measures 
in  Ireland  to  extreme  lengths.  This  record  had  to  be  ob- 
scured or  explained  away  in  order  to  justify  a  renewed  coercion 
act  which  was  not  to  be  limited  in  time  of  duration.  In  what 
more  efifective  manner,  therefore,  could  this  be  done  than  in 
the  Houston  -  Times  way  of  launching  this  letter  upon  the 
public  on  the  morning  of  the  day  when  the  fate  of  the  new 
coercion  act  was  to  be  decided? 

Our  information  was  that  the  late  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith  and  the 
then  home  secretary  were  both  privy  to  the  intended  publica- 
tion of  this  letter,  and  that  Mr.  Walter,  of  The  Times,  arranged 
for  its  appearance,  in  conjunction  with  them  and  others,  on 
that  very  date.  The  part  played  by  The  Times  manager  in 
this  whole  business,  as  explained  by  himself  at  the  special 
commission,  was  that  of  a  whipping-boy  for  his  master. 
Mr.  MacDonald  was  not  the  simpleton  he  would  lead  the 
public  to  believe,  and  was  not  imposed  upon  by  either 
Houston  or  Pigott.  He  was  screening  other  and  more  im- 
portant persons  .when  taking  upon  his  broad  Scotch  shoul- 

533 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

ders  the  burden  of  responsibility  which  rightly  belonged  to  a 
higher-placed  member  in  the  hierarchy  of  this  political  plot. 

The  appearance  of  the  letter  created  a  momentary  con- 
sternation even  in  the  Irish  ranks.  The  effect  was  stupefying. 
The  superscription  was  so  much  like  Mr.  Parnell's  well-known 
writing  that  the  inherent  improbability  of  the  wording  and 
purport  of  the  document  was  obscured  by  the  staggering 
similarity  of  the  signature.  If  this  was  the  impression  that 
was  made  on  the  minds  of  many  of  Mr.  Parnell's  own  friends, 
it  can  easily  be  imagined  how  great  was  the  effect  produced 
on  popular  opinion  in  England.  The  test  and  extent  of 
this  were  given  in  the  House  of  Commons  when  the  Irish 
leader  rose  to  speak  before  the  division  which  the  atrocious 
letter  was  intended  to  influence.  Dead  silence  marked 
his  rising,  except  among  his  own  party,  who  cheered  him 
generously.  He  was  clear  and  collected  as  usual  in  his  lan- 
guage, and  employed  the  strong  and  scornful  manner  of  an 
innocent  man  in  exposing  TJie  Tivies  production  as  a  forgery. 
An  angel  from  heaven  could  not  use  words  more  truthful  or 
indignant  than  his  were.  But  the  allies  of  The  Times  on  the 
ministerial  benches  laughed  back  a  scornful  disbelief  of  his 
dignified  assertion  that  the  whole  thing  was  an  audacious 
fabrication — just  as  they  would  have  done  even  if  the  speaker 
had  been  a  saint  from  heaven  who  might  fall,  as  an  Irish  leader, 
under  the  ban  of  English  suspicion. 

This,  then,  was  the  conduct  of  a  great  English  party  inside 
what  is  supposed  to  be  an  equally  great  tribunal,  in  face  of 
an  honest,  outspoken  declaration  of  a  nation's  leader  that  his 
signature  was  forged.  Was  it  any  wonder  that  the  feeling 
outside  was  more  incredulous  still  as  to  the  declarations  of 
an  innocent  Irishman? 

The  Times  fabrication  was  at  once  pressed  into  the  active 
service  of  the  enemies  of  Home  Rule.  Lord  Salisbury,  the 
descendant  of  the  saintly  Burleigh  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  time, 
took  the  guilt  of  Mr.  Parnell  for  granted,  and  attacked  Mr. 
Gladstone  for  having  an  ally  "tainted  with  the  strong  pre- 
sumption of  conniving  at  assassination!"  This  example  en- 
listed thousands  of  imitators,  and  politicians  and  news- 
papers pressed  home  the  charge  in  support  of  the  worthy 
cause  of  the  unholy  act  of  union  of  1801. 

And  the  course  which  this  state  of  feeling  in  England  com- 
pelled Mr.  Parnell  to  adopt  only  confirmed  the  judgment 
which  an  English  prime-minister  had  already  given.  "Why 
does  he  not  sue  The  Times  for  libel?"  was  the  English  reply 
to  the  Irish  denial  and  complaint.  "Let  a  jury  decide  it," 
was  the  view  of  those  who  would  conscientiously  permit  their 

534 


THE    r/iV/ES-UNIONIST    PLOT 

faith  in  The  Times  to  outweigh  the  value  of  a  mere  Irishman's 
reputation.  A  verdict,  if  not  against  a  person  by  chance 
innocent,  would  at  least  be  against  a  man  who  was  known  to 
oppose  English  rule  in  Ireland.  So  Mr.  Parnell  rightly  refused 
to  play  the  game  of  The  Times  by  trusting  the  case  to  a  London 
jury,  and  this  only  increased  the  presumption  in  England  that 
his  fears  were  of  another  kind. 

Mr.  Parnell  believed  in  one  source,  and  one  only,  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  forgery  and  of  the  deadly  blow  which  was  aimed 
at  him  in  its  publication.  Captain  O'Shea  was  the  object  of 
this  suspicion.  Few  of  his  friends  went  with  him  in  this 
belief.  Not  that  they  had  any  greater  tiiist  in  his  honor 
or  reputation,  but  because  the  act  was  above  his  capacity  to 
execute,  even  though  the  motive  might  not  be  so  far  removed 
from  the  character  of  his  friendship.  Pigott  was  my  first 
belief,  and  it  remained  so  to  the  end.  So  also  was  it  of  most 
of  Mr.  Parnell's  lieutenants;  a  few  of  them  dissenting  and 
putting  the  authorship  down  to  a  former  member  of  the 
Irish  party  whom  Mr.  Parnell  had  expelled  from  public  life. 
Still,  the  victim  of  the  forgery  remained  obdurate  in  his  own 
conviction.  Pigott  might,  as  we  all  believed,  be  behind  the 
"  Parnellism  and  Crime  "  articles,  but  he  was  not,  in  his  opinion, 
the  author  of  the  facsimile  letter.  Only  one  man  could,  in  his 
view,  be  guilty  of  this  deed,  and  he  was  the  individual  whom 
Mr.  Parnell  knew  to  have  some  ground  for  a  human  desire 
to  do  him  a  retaliatory  injury. 

During  the  summer  months  proof  of  the  most  complete 
kind  that  Pigott  was  either  the  actual  forger  or  his  accomplice 
came  to  Mr.  Parnell  from  Mr.  Patrick  Egan.  who  then  re- 
sided in  Lincoln,  Nebraska.  Mr.  Egan  had  known  Pigott 
very  intimately  when  residing  in  Dublin,  and  it  was  with  the 
Land-League  treasurer  Pigott  negotiated  the  sale  of  his  papers. 
The  Irishman  and  The  Flag  of  Ireland,  to  the  league.  When 
The  Times  containing  the  facsimile  letter  reached  America, 
Mr.  Egan  at  once  suspected  the  origin  of  the  document,  and 
in  looking  over  letters  received  from  Pigott,  and  copies  of  those 
written  in  reply,  figures  and  phrases  which  had  been  used  in 
the  genuine  letters  were  found  by  Egan  in  the  forged  ones. 
Mr.  Egan's  proofs  finally  convinced  Mr.  Parnell  that  Pigott 
and  not  O'Shea  was  the  author  of  the  facsimile  letter.^ 

*  After  Patrick  Egan,  on  the  advice  of  Alexander  Sullivan,  of  Chicago, 
former  president  of  the  American  National  League,  got  the  analysis  of 
the  forgeries  in  legal  form,  Mr.  J.  Dee,  of  the  Detroit  Michigan  News, 
was  selected  to  carry  the  papers  to  London.  At  the  last  moment  he 
was  unable  to  go.  Mr.  Sullivan  then  suggested  the  Rev.  Maurice 
Dorney,  of  Chicago,  who  consented  at  once  to  be  Mr.  Egan's  messenger, 

535 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

During  this  interval  The  Times  articles  were  continued,  with 
additional  "revelations,"  while  the  practice  of  taunting  Mr. 
Parnell  with  his  reluctance  to  face  a  jury  had  become  a  party 
parrot-cry  in  anti- Home -Rule  discussions.  But  this  baiting 
of  Parnell  did  not  succeed.  He  waited  for  the  complete 
evidence  which  time  nearly  always  brings  in  refutation  of  a 
great  wrong,  and  for  circumstances  which  would  give  truth  a 
fair  trial  in  a  contest  with  a  falsehood  skilfully  put  forward. 
An  injudicious  friend  broke  in  upon  this  policy  of  prudent 
reserve  and  precipitated  a  clash. 

In  November,  1887,  Mr.  F.  H.  O'Donnell,  a  former  brilliant 
member  of  Mr.  Parnell 's  party,  took  action  against  The  Times 
for  libel,  alleging  that  the  articles  on  "  Parnellism  and  Crime" 
had  some  reference  to  him.  Mr.  Parnell  was  not  consulted. 
He  tried  to  induce  O'Donnell  not  to  proceed  with  the  case, 
but  the  latter,  believing  he  coiild  not  then  withdraw  from  his 
action  without  injury  to  himself,  resolved  to  proceed.  The 
Times  engaged  the  attorney-general  of  England,  Sir  Richard 
Webster,  to  conduct  the  defence,  which  was  that  the  articles 
were  substantially  true,  as  to  others,  but  did  not  relate  to  the 
plaintiff.     On  this  issue  the  case  was  listed  for  trial. 

It  came  on  for  hearing  before  Lord  Chief-Justice  Coleridge 
and  a  special  London  jury  on  July  2,  1888.  The  chief  law 
officer  of  England,  as  counsel  for  The  Times,  made  a  three 
days'  speech,  in  which  he  read  all  the  articles  complained  of 
in  reply  to  the  case  made  out  for  O'Donnell,  justified  their 
statements,  declared  he  w^ould  prove  both  them  and  the 
facsimile  letter  to.  be  true,  and  reinforced  this  position  by 
producing  a  batch  of  other  letters,  including  five  or  six  which 
he  asserted  were  signed  by  Parnell  and  about  a  dozen  by 
Egan,  many  of  these  pointing  more  definitely  to  complicity 
in  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  than  did  the  letter  which  was 
published  in  TJie  Times  in  April,  1887.  It  was  piling  more  fuel 
from  the  same  source  on  the  fire  which  was  expected  to  de- 
stroy the  reputation  of  the  Irish  leaders. 

But  the  tactics  of  the  accusers  were  even  more  unfair  if 
possible  than  the  use  they  had  made  of  materials  which  they 
knew  had  reached  them  from  a  tainted  and  disreputable 
source.  The  letters  were  not  put  to  the  proof  in  the  trial, 
nor  were  the  accusations  in  The  Times  attempted  to  be 
substantiated.  This  would  have  shown  the  hollowness  of 
the  whole  case.  So  the  attorney-general  of  England,  having 
created  by  his  speech  and  declarations,  his  reading  of  the 

and  in  due  course  handed  to  Mr.  Henry  Labouchere,  M.P.,  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  proofs  which  convicted  Pigott  as  the  forger 
of  The  Times  letters. 

536 


THE    r/MES-UNIONIST    PLOT 

letters  and  the  rest,  a  darker  cloud  of  suspicion  than  ever 
over  the  names  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  others,  urged,  in  the  best 
style  and  spirit  of  English  rectitude,  that  it  would  not  be  just 
to  Mr.  Parnell  and  those  accused  with  him  for  the  whole  case 
of  The  Times  to  be  gone  into,  with  no  one  in  court  to  meet  these 
charges  except  a  plaintiff  against  whom  no  one  alleged  in- 
criminatory conduct.  And,  with  a  verdict  against  the  plaintiff 
from  the  complacent  jury,  the  proceedings  came  to  an  end. 

Mr.  Parnell,  acting  on  the  best  advice,  had  hitherto  re- 
fused to  enter  a  court  in  England  in  search  of  a  vindication 
against  the  leading  English  paper.  He  might  as  well  have 
chosen  a  jury  from  the  staff  of  the  journal  that  had  libelled 
him,  as  was  shown  in  the  verdict  against  O'Donnell.  The 
wells  of  English  justice  had  been  poisoned  by  the  conspiracy 
of  which  The  Times  was  but  the  mouth-piece.  But  the  work- 
ing alliance  of  the  government  with  his  accusers  in  the  speech 
and  declarations  of  the  attorney  -  general  in  the  trial  of 
O'Donnell  and  Walter  forced  Mr.  Parnell  to  make  a  choice 
between  two  methods  of  possible  political  destruction:  either 
to  take  proceedings  to  force  the  proof  of  Sir  Richard  Webster's 
accusations  before  a  London  jury,  or  to  ask  another  tribunal 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  the  House  of  Commons,  to  assert 
its  power  to  clear  or  convict  some  of  its  own  members  of 
complicity  in  crime.  At  first  he  inclined  to  the  more  risky 
course  of  taking  action  in  the  courts  for  libel  on  the  matter 
of  the  letters.  This  step,  however,  he  allowed  himself  to  be 
persuaded  to  abandon,  and  he  finally  decided  to  put  upon 
the  House  of  Commons  itself  the  responsibility  of  probing 
the  whole  case  to  the  bottom  by  the  machinery  of  a  select 
committee. 

To  this  obviously  fair  demand  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  the  leader 
of  the  House,  who  was  actually  a  confederate  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  secret  enemies,  gave  a  point-blank  refusal.  The  gov- 
ernment would  not  consent  to  give  him  any  fair  chance 
of  exposing  the  plot  to  which  they  were  parties.  They  had, 
however,  an  alternative  proposal ;  they  would  give  him  a 
special  commission  of  English  judges  with  power  to  in- 
vestigate "the  charges  and  allegations  that  had  been  made 
against  Mr.  Parnell  and  other  members  of  Parliament  by  The 
Times  in  the  recent  action  of  O'Donnell  and  Walter."  This 
offer  was  appropriately  made  on  July  12th.  It  was  virtually 
the  tender  to  Mr.  Parnell  of  a  halter  with  which  to  execute 
himself.  The  offer  resembled  nothing  so  much  as  that  of 
one  from  a  head  Orange  society  of  Ulster  to  give  the  use  of 
an  Orange  lodge,  and  the  services  of  three  grand  masters 
of    the    Orange    organization,    to    any    aggrieved    Catholics 

537 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

who  might  have  been  denounced  by  some  Orange  newspaper 
for  practices  or  deeds  wanting  in  due  reverence  for  the  names 
and  memory  of  William  of  Orange  and  of  Martin  Luther. 

Bad  as  the  government  adaptation  of  a  similar  course  was, 
worse  remained  in  the  final  form  of  the  terms  of  reference. 
It  was  feared  by  Mr.  Smith's  friends,  the  Walters,  Houstons, 
Blennerhassets,  Maguires,  and  the  others,  that  these  terms 
were  not  an  absolutel}^  closed  trap.  The  victim  might 
escape.  They  knew,  of  course,  that  Pigott  had  forged  the 
letters,  and  they  wanted  to  bring  into  play  the  odious  principle 
contained  in  the  star-chamber  law  of  seditious  conspiracy — 
the  law  which  makes  an  innocent  man  legally  responsible  for 
crimes  committed  by  some  one  who  may  be  associated  with 
him  for  some  otherwise  declared  honest  and  legal  end.  The 
plotters  behind  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  therefore,  amended  the 
proposed  scope  of  the  inquiry,  and  added  "other  persons" 
to  the  original  offer,  which  had  meant  to  confine  the  in- 
vestigation to  the  charges  alleged  against  Irish  members  of 
Parliament.  Nothing  more  atrociously  unfair  in  spirit  and 
object  ever  prompted  the  purposes  of  a  political  plot.  There 
was  one  parallel  to  this  action,  and  one  only,  in  Anglo-Irish 
history.  Since  an  ancestor  of  Lord  Salisbury's  had  instructed 
an  Irish  lord  deputy  to  invite  the  leaders  of  the  Irish  clans 
of  Lein.ster  to  a  feast  at  Mullaghmast,^  and  to  assassinate 
them    while    enjoying   the    hospitality   of    England's   repre- 

'  O'Connell  held  one  of  his  great  monster  meetings  in  1S43  on  this 
spot,  and  thus  he  spoke  its  history: 

"It  is  not  bjr  accident  that  to-night  we  are  on  the  rath  of  Mullagh- 
mast.  Where  my  voice  is  sounding,  and  yovi  are  attentively  listening, 
there  were  once  raised  the  yells  of  despair,  the  groans  of  approaching 
death,  the  agony  of  wounds  inflicted  on  the  perishing  and  the  im- 
armed.  On  this  very  spot  they  fell  beneath  the  swords  of  the  Saxon, 
who  used  them  securely  and  delightedly  grinding  their  victims  to 
death.  Upon  this  very  spot  three  hundred  brave  Irishmen  perished, 
who,  confiding  in  Saxon  promises,  came  to  a  conference  with  the 
Queen  of  England's  commissioners,  and  in  the  merriment  of  the  repast 
they  were  slaughtered.  There  never  returned  home  but  one,  their 
wives  were  widowed  and  their  children  were  made  orphans.  Here  the 
Saxon  triumphed.  Here  he  raised  a  shout  of  victory  over  his  un- 
anned  prey." 

Thomas  Davis  wrote  a  poem  on  this  event; 

"At  the  feast,  unarmed  all, 
Priest,  bard,  and  chieftain  fall, 
In  the  treacherous  Saxon  hall, 

O'er  the  bright  wine  bowl. 
And  now  nightly  round  the  board, 
With  unsheathed  and  reeking  sword. 
Strides  the  cruel  felon  lord 
Of  the  blood-stained  soul." 
538 


THE    r/MES-UNIONIST    PLOT 

sentative,  no  fouler  stroke  had  been  dealt  at  Ireland's  spokes- 
men than  in  the  means  tlius  resorted  to  by  the  allies  of  the 
London  Times  and  Lord  Salisbury's  first  lord  of  the  treasury, 
working  in  a  common  plot  to  secure  the  same  end — the 
political  and  moral  assassination  of  the  Irish  leaders  of  1888. 

GENERAL     CHARGES    AND    ALLEGATIONS 

The  Land  League  and  National  League,  their  leaders  and 
prominent  members,  were  charged  with : 

The  promotion  of  and  inciting  to  the  commission  of  crimes, 
outrages,  boycotting,  and  intimidation. 

The  collection  and  providing  of  funds  to  be  used,  or  which 
it  was  known  were  used,  for  the  promotion  of  and  the  payment 
of  persons  engaged  in  the  commission  of  crimes,  outrages, 
boycotting,  and  intimidation. 

The  payment  of  persons  who  assisted  in,  were  affected  by, 
or  accidentally  or  otherwise  injured  in  the  commission  of 
such  crimes,  outrages,  and  acts  of  boycotting  and  intimida- 
tion. 

Holding  meetings  and  procuring  to  be  made  speeches,  in- 
citing to  the  commission  of  crimes,  outrages,  boycotting,  and 
intimidation.  Some  of  the  meetings  referred  to,  which  were 
attended  by  members  of  Parliament,  with  the  approximate 
dates  and  place  of  meeting,  were  given  in  the  schedule. 

The  publication  and  dissemination  of  newspaper  and  other 
literature  inciting  to  and  approving  of  sedition  and  the  com- 
mission of  crimes,  outrages,  boycotting,  and  intimidation, 
particularly  the  Irish  World,  the  Chicago  Citizen,  the  Boston 
Pilot,  the  Freeman's  Journal,  United  Ireland,  The  Irishman, 
The  Nation,  the  Weekly  News,  Cork  Daily  Herald,  the 
Kerry  Sentinel,  the  Dublin  Evening  Telegraph,  the  Sligo 
Champion. 

Advocating  resistance  to  law  and  the  constituted  authorities, 
and  impeding  the  detection  and  punishment  of  crime. 

Making  payments  to  or  for  persons  who  were  guilty,  or 
supposed  to  be  guilty,  of  the  commission  of  crimes,  outrages, 
and  acts  of  boycotting  and  intimidation  for  their  defence,  or 
to  enable  them  to  escape  from  justice,  and  for  the  main- 
tenance of  such  persons  and  their  families. 

It  was  charged  and  alleged  that  the  members  of  Parliament 
mentioned  in  the  schedule  approved,  and  by  their  acts  and 
conduct  led  people  to  believe  that  they  approved,  of  resistance 
to  the  law  and  the  commission  of  crimes,  outrages,  and  acts  of 
boycotting  and  intimidation  when  committed  in  furtherance 
of  the  objects  and  resolutions  of  the  said  societies,  and  that 

539 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

persons  who  engaged  in  the  commission  of  such  crimes, 
outrages,  and  acts  would  receive  the  support  and  protection 
of  the  said  societies  and  of  their  organization  and  influence. 

They  attended  meetings  of  the  said  societies,  and  other 
meetings  at  various  places,  and  made  speeches,  and  caused 
and  procured  speeches  to  be  made,  inciting  to  the  com- 
mission of  crimes,  outrages,  boycotting,  and  intimidation. 

They  were  parties  to,  and  cognizant  of,  the  payment  of 
moneys  for  the  purposes  above  mentioned,  and  as  testi- 
monials or  rewards  to  persons  who  had  been  convicted,  or 
were  notoriously  guilty  of  crimes  or  outrages,  or  to  their 
families. 

With  knowledge  that  crimes,  outrages,  and  acts  of  boy- 
cotting and  intimidation  had  followed  the  delivery  of  speeches 
at  the  meetings,  they  expressed  no  bona-fidc  disapproval  or 
public  condemnation,  but,  on  the  contrary,  continued  to  be 
leading  and  active  members  of  the  said  societies  and  to 
subscribe  to  their  funds. 

With  such  knowledge  as  aforesaid  they  continued  to  be 
intimately  associated  with  the  officers  of  the  same  societies, 
many  of  whom  fled  from  justice,  and  with  notorious  criminals 
and  the  agents  and  instruments  of  murder  and  conspiracies, 
and  with  the  planners  and  paymasters  of  outrage,  and  with 
the  advocates  of  sedition,  violence,  and  the  use  of  dynamite. 

They  and  the  said  societies,  with  such  knowledge  as  afore- 
said, received  large  sums  of  money  which  were  collected 
in  America  and  elsewhere  by  criminals  and  persons  who  were 
known  to  advocate  sedition,  assassination,  the  use  of  dyna- 
mite, and  the  commission  of  crimes  and  outrages. 

When  on  certain  occasions  they  considered  it  politic  to 
denounce,  and  did  denounce,  certain  crimes  in  public  they 
afterwards  made  communications  to  their  associates  and 
others  with  the  intention  of  leading  them  to  believe  that 
such  denunciation  was  not  sincere. 

The  additional  charges  embraced  in  the  forged  letters  were 
made  against  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  Mr.  James 
O'Kelly,  and  Mr.  Michael  Davitt. 

The  two  special  charges  referred  to  at  the  end  of  the  Judges' 
Report  were  made  against  Mr.  Davitt. 

The  following  Irish  members  of  Parliament  were  included 
in  the  general  charges  made  by  The  Times: 

Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  Thomas  Sexton,  Joseph  Gillis 
Biggar,  Joseph  Richard  Cox,  Jeremiah  Jordan,  James  Chris- 
topher Flynn,  William  O'Brien,  Dr.  Charles  K.  D.  Tanner,  Will- 
iam J.  Lane,  James  Gilhooly,  Joseph  E.  Kenny,  John  Hooper, 

540 


THE    r/ ME  5 -UNIONIST    PLOT 

Maurice  Healy,  James  Edward  O'Doherty,  Patrick  O'Hea, 
Arthur  O'Connor,  Michael  McCartan,  John  J.  Clancy,  Sir 
H.  Grattan  Esmonde,  Bt.,  Timothy  D.  Sullivan,  Timothy 
Harrington,  William  H.  K.  Redmond,  Henry  Campbell, 
Patrick  J.  Foley,  Matthew  Harris,  David  Sheehy,  John 
Stack,  Edward  Harrington,  Denis  Kilbride,  Jeremiah  D. 
Sheehan,  James  Leahy,  Patrick  A.  Chance,  Thomas  Quinn, 
Dr.  Joseph  Francis  Fox,  Michael  Conway,  Luke  Patrick 
Hay  den,  William  Abraham,  John  Finucane,  Francis  A. 
O'Keefe,  Justin  McCarthy,  Timothy  M.  Healy,  Joseph  Nolan, 
Thomas  P.  Gill,  Daniel  Crilly,  John  Deasy,  John  Dillon, 
James  F.  O'Brien,  Patrick  O'Brien,  Richard  Lalor,  James 
J.  O'Kelly,  Andrew  Commins,  Edmund  Leamy,  P.  J.  O'Brien, 
Thomas  Mayne,  John  O'Connor,  Matthew  J.  Kenny,  Jasper 
D.  Pyne,  Patrick  Joseph  Power,  James  Tuite,  Donal  Sullivan, 
Thomas  Joseph  Condon,  John  E.  Redmond,  John  Barry, 
Garrett  Michael  Byrne,  and  Thomas  P.  O'Connor. 


CHAPTER  XLIV 
"THE     GREAT     INQUISITION" 

Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  as  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had  to 
introduce  the  bill  which  was  to  give  statutory  authority  to  the 
proposed  commission.  He  was  not  a  lawyer,  but  he  was  a 
personal  friend  of  the  proprietor  of  The  Times  and  an  active 
worker  in  the  political  plot  behind  the  newspaper  which 
had  brought  things  to  this  pass.  In  framing  this  bill  he 
would  have  the  assistance  of  the  law  officers  of  the  Crown,  the 
head  of  these  being  Sir  Richard  Webster,  who  had  lent  the 
position  of  attorney-general  to  the  work  of  The  Times  in  the 
recent  case,  and  had  declared  in  open  court  that  the  forged 
letters  were  genuine  documents  and  The  Times  charges  true 
allegations.  Another  adviser  to  the  first  lord  of  the  treasury 
would  be  the  home  secretary,  formerly  member  of  Parliament 
for  Dungarvan,  by  aid  of  Fenian  influence,  and  now  one 
of  the  committee  of  three  in  the  Salisbury  government  who 
were  in  active  league  with  Houston  and  the  Loyal  and  Patri- 
otic Union. 

The  bill  was  introduced  after  midnight  on  July  i6,  1888, 
in  a  speech  which  lasted  exactly  fifty  seconds.  It  was  a  take- 
it-or-leave-it  measure.  It  was  not  printed  at  the  time.  There 
had  been  no  explanation  of  its  provisions,  no  names  of 
judges  given,  and  no  promise  that  time  sufficient  would 
be  offered  for  the  second  -  reading  debate  of  such  an  ex- 
traordinary legislative  proposal.  Mr.  Parnell  in  vain  pro- 
tested against  this  course,  and  was  unusually  vehement  in 
denouncing  the  nature  of  the  tribunal  thus  offered  to  him 
and  the  unlimited  field  of  accusation  that  would  be  thrown 
open  to  The  Times  by  the  terms  which  were  to  be  embodied 
in  the  bill — namely,  "An  act  to  constitute  a  special  commission 
to  inquire  into  the  charges  and  allegations  made  against 
certain  members  of  Parliament  and  other  persons  by  the 
defendants  in  the  recent  trial  of  an  action  entitled  O'Donnell, 
Walter,  and  Another."  Here  Mr.  Parnell's  protest  ended. 
He  did  not  offer  opposition  to  the  bill  at  this  stage,  and  this 
fact  gave  the  government  the  advantage  they  had  sought. 

542 


"THE    GREAT    INQUISITION" 

The  principle  of  the  bill  was  sanctioned  by  the  House  without 
division.  It  was  now  resolved  by  the  ministerial  and  other 
plotters  to  make  the  measure  in  every  sense  a  compulsory 
inquisition  for  the  trial  of  their  political  foes.  The  con- 
ditions imposed  would  make  it  all  but  impossible  for  them 
to  vindicate  themselves  before  a  tribunal  and  under  a  law 
specially  framed  and  devised  to  give  the  accusers  every 
possible  latitude  for  every  conceivable  form  of  allegation  in 
connection  with  what  had  been  a  virtual  Irish  revolution. 
The  government  pressed  their  purpose  forward  by  every 
unscrupulous  means.  The  bill  was  placed  before  the  House 
as  a  matter  for  it  and  not  for  the  ministry  to  deal  with, 
until  Mr.  Parnell,  perceiving  how  useless  it  was  to  contend  for 
an  atom  of  justice  and  fair  play,  allowed  the  measure  to  pass 
a  second  reading  —  without  division.  It  was  finally  rushed 
through  the  House  of  Commons  by  means  of  the  closure,  and 
became  known  on  the  statute-book  as  the  Act  51  and  52 
Vict.,  1888. 

The  special  commission  consisted  of  three  English  judges. 
Sir  James  Hannen,  president.  Sir  J.  C.  Day,  and  Sir  A.  L. 
Smith.  They  were  each  and  all  political  opponents,  not  only 
of  Mr.  Parnell,  but  of  the  English  Liberal  party,  with  which  the 
Irish  leader  was  in  alliance  on  the  Gladstonian  policy  for 
Ireland. 

What  Sir  James  Hannen  termed  a  "Great  Inquisition" 
commenced  its  proceedings  in  the  royal  courts  of  justice 
(Probate  Court  No.  i),  the  Strand,  London,  on  October  22, 
1888. 

The  Times  was  represented  by  the  attorney-general  (Sir 
Richard  Webster),  Sir  Henry  James,  Mr.  Murphy,  and  Mr. 
Graham,  with  Mr.  John  Atkinson  and  Mr.  Ronan,  of  the 
Irish  bar. 

Mr.  Parnell  engaged  the  services  of  Mr.  George  Lewis,  the 
famous  London  attorney,  to  conduct  the  legal  business  of  the 
defence,  and  he  briefed  Sir  Charles  Russell  to  lead,  with  Mr. 
H.  H.  Asquith,  Mr.  R.  T.  Reid,  Mr.  F.  Lockwood,  Mr.  Lionel 
Hart,  Mr.  Arthur  O'Connor,  and  Mr.  Arthur  Russell,  of  the 
London  bar,  and  Mr.  T.  Harrington,  secretary,  of  the  Irish 
National  League. 

I  pressed  strongly  for  the  employment  of  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy, 
but  Mr.  Parnell's  recollection  of  the  Gal  way  election  incident 
intervened,  and  the  able  services  of  one  of  his  most  brilliant 
lieutenants  were,  in  a  measure,  lost,  though  Mr.  Healy  attend- 
ed the  commission  occasionally  to  watch  his  own  case.  The 
late  Mr.  J,  G.  Biggar  and  myself  dispensed  with  legal  assistance, 
and  defended  ourselves. 

543 


THE   FALL    OF    FEUDALISM   IN    IRELAND 

The  proceedings  occupied  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight 
sittings  of  the  commission,  beginning  on  October  22,  1888, 
and  ending  on  Friday,  November  22,  1889. 

Four  hundred  and  fifty  witnesses  were  examined,  in  close 
upon  one  hundred  thousand  questions.  Speeches  of  five, 
seven,  and  ten  days'  duration  respectively,  of  five  hours  each 
day,  were  delivered  in  forensic  combat  between  the  leading 
counsel  on  both  sides,  and  the  final  and  verbatim  report  of 
all  the  evidence,  rulings,  speeches,  and  findings  had  to  be 
reccrded  in  eleven  folio  volumes  of  some  eight  thousand 
pages. 

It  was  a  trial  without  a  jury,  and  a  political  trial,  too, 
in  the  home  of  Magna  Charta;  the  cause  of  the  trial  a  half- 
successful  revolution,  with  the  tribunal  and  its  defined 
jurisdiction  constituted  by  our  political  adversaries,  as  al- 
ready explained.  It  is  but  fair  to  say  that  Sir  James 
Hannen  did  all  that  a  judge  could  well  do  to  be  just  under 
terms  of  reference  as  fairly  framed  as  loaded  dice  could  be 
considered  fair  in  a  game  of  hazard.  He  held  the  leaded 
scales  of  justice  in  an  upright  spirit,  and  did  his  best,  within 
the  rigid  compass  of  the  court's  defined  powers,  to  render 
the  scandalous  partisanship  of  the  tribunal's  charter  as  little 
injurious  to  the  reputation  of  the  English  judicial  bench  as 
transparently  honest  efforts  to  be  impartial  could  hope  to 
achieve  this  high  purpose.  Where  he  occasionally  leaned  to 
the  accusers'  side  he  was  influenced  more  by  the  fact  that  he 
had  no  power  to  weigh  the  value  of  the  political  work  done 
for  Ireland  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  others  who  were  accused 
with  him,  as  against  the  speeches  and  acts  which  TJie  Times 
alleged  to  be  productive  of  crime  and  outrage  only.  His 
rulings,  too,  were  influenced  by  the  terms  of  the  law  for 
which  politicians  and  not  judges  were  responsible.  Probably 
no  man  engaged  in  the  unique  inquiry  over  which  he  had 
to  preside  saw  more  clearly  the  outrage  upon  political  free- 
dom of  seeking  under  the  form  of  a  judicial  investigation 
to  measure  the  bounds  of  political  action  under  constitutional 
rule.  It  was  an  attempt  to  procure  the  conviction  of  a 
great  national  and  political  movement  which  had  already 
persuaded  the  Imperial  Parliament  to  pass  no  fewer  than 
three  great  land  acts  for  Ireland.  To  attain  the  ends  of  the 
anti-Home-Rule  conspiracy,  the  creators  of  the  commission 
and  the  accusers  of  Mr.  Parnell  attempted  to  indict  the 
Irish  nation  as  represented  by  its  leaders  and  their  political 
and  party  organizations. 

It  was  fully  expected  by  our  side,  and  by  the  public  too, 
that  the  very  first  work  of  the  judges  would  be  to  examine 

544 


"THE    GREAT    INQUISITION" 

into  the  genuineness  or  forgery  of  the  letters  pubHshed  by 
The  Times.  These  were  the  central  and  paramount  charges 
against  Mr.  Parnell.  They  constituted  the  greatest  and 
gravest  allegation  ever  made  against  a  political  leader.  If 
he  wrote  them,  no  punishment  would  be  considered  too  severe 
for  his  guilt.  If  they  were  audacious  fabrications,  then  the 
greatest  crime  ever  attempted  against  the  honor,  character, 
and  reputation  of  an  Irish  leader  and  the  hopes  centred  by  a 
nation  in  the  cause  he  had  led  was  committed  by  The  Times 
and  its  agents.  The  origin  and  authenticity  of  the  letters, 
therefore,  rightly  demanded  the  promptest  attention  from 
the  commission.  But  it  was  just  here  where  Mr.  W.  H. 
Smith's  secret  advisers  played  their  desperate  game  with 
successful  purpose.  Pigott  had  told  The  Times  people, 
through  Houston,  at  the  time  of  the  O'Donnell  trial,  that  he 
could  not  prove  the  letters  to  be  genuine!  Consequently 
they  knew  then,  even  if  not  before,  that  they  were  forged. 
This  knowledge  was  in  their  possession  when  the  parliament- 
ary demand  was  made  by  Mr.  Parnell  to  investigate  their 
origin.  Hence  the  terms  of  reference,  vague  and  elastic,  in 
the  charter  of  the  commission.  It  was  in  order  to  keep  back 
as  long  as  possible  the  inevitable  exposure  of  the  known 
forgery  by  Pigott,  which  would  explode  the  whole  plot,  that 
the  attorney-general  induced  the  court  to  permit  him  in 
behalf  of  The  Times  to  relegate  this  vital  part  of  the  in- 
vestigation to  the  very  last  stage  of  the  accusers'  case. 
Thus,  every  possible  allegation  arising  out  of  ten  years 
of  political  agitation,  excitement,  and  of  semi-revolution  in 
Ireland  could  first  be  piled  up  against  the  accused  and  be 
reported  during  four  months  in  the  daily  press  of  Great 
Britain.  To  this  scheme  of  deliberate  evasion  the  commission 
lent  its  sanction,  and  it  was  over  this  vast  area  of  secondary 
matter  the  judges  resolved  to  allow  the  inquiry  to  proceed. 

Trials  in  Ireland  that  had  already  been  decided  in  courts  of 
law  were  again  brought  up;  persons  who  had  been  punished, 
accused,  or  acquitted  on  agrarian  or  political  charges  were 
once  more,  as  it  were,  tried;  murders  which  had  no  con- 
ceivable relation  to  political  agitation,  as  well  as  some  which 
were  both  incidental  and  accidental  to  the  play  of  human 
passions  in  a  wide-spread  agrarian  war,  were  particularized 
in  every  detail;  moonlighting  outrages,  acts  of  violence  of  all 
kinds,  threatening  letters,  maiming  of  cattle,  boycotting  in 
action,  in  threats,  and  in  dubious  resolutions;  speeches  of 
every  kind  and  character  from  deliverances  by  Mr.  Parnell 
to  the  vaporings  of  any  drunken  village  babbler,  and  in 
hundreds,  were  all  introduced  before  the  commission  with 
35  545 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  object  of  proving  that  all  this  crime,  intimidation,  and 
incitation  to  disorder  sprang  from  one  source  and  had  one 
inspiration — namely,  the  Land  League,  its  leaders  and  friends. 
In  support  of  these  wholesale  accusations  hundreds  of 
witnesses  were  brought  over  from  Ireland — injured  persons, 
threatened  persons,  frightened  persons;  peasants  from 
Mayo;  cottiers  from  Kerry;  land-grabbers  from  many  places; 
bailiffs  from  several  estates;  land-agents  from  each  province; 
landlords,  ladies  who  owned  land;  resident  magistrates,  jus- 
tices of  the  peace,  police  officers  and  privates;  convicted  mur- 
derers from  prison;  informers  of  all  kinds,  professional  spies, 
government  reporters,  and  one  Catholic  priest. 

Then  there  were  the  graver  charges  associated  with  the 
contents  of  the  forged  letters  and  the  treasonable  allegations 
contained  in  the  "  Parnellism  and  Crime"  articles.  In  these 
it  was  freely  declared  that  the  Land  League  was  part  of  the 
Clan-na-Gael  revolutionary  conspiracy;  that  the  Invincibles 
were  but  a  wing  of  both  combined;  that  Mr.  Parnell  and 
others  had  consorted  with  the  authors  of  the  Phoenix  Park 
murders,  had  paid  money  for  the  perpetration  of  political 
crime,  were  privy  to  deeds  of  violence  against  public  buildings 
in  London  and  elsewhere,  and  that  the  grand  object  of  Par- 
nellism in  Parliament,  as  in  the  Land-League  movement,  was 
to  effect  the  ultimate  separation  of  Ireland  from  England  by 
the  agency  of  political  crime,  including  the  assassination 
of  government  officials  and  a  resort  to  the  terrorism  of 
dynamite  explosions. 

This  was  what  we  had  to  face  during  four  months,  from 
October,  1888,  to  February,  1889,  before  Pigott  was  pro- 
duced. We  knew  all  this  time  not  only  who  the  forger 
of  the  letters  was,  but  all  about  the  plot  in  which  he  was 
enlisted  as  agent  by  Houston.  We  were  also  aware  of 
the  thousands  of  pounds  that  were  being  expended  by  The 
Times  in  efforts  to  buy  or  to  bribe  men  in  Irish,  English,  and 
American  cities,  and  certain  convicts  in  various  prisons,  to 
come  forward  and  substantiate  all  or  any  charges  which  they 
knew  Pigott  and  their  other  agents  and  witnesses  could  not 
sustain. 

All  this  mass  of  testimony  flowed  on  from  day  to  day  like 
an  endless  stream.  There  were  tales  of  acts  of  cruelty  inflicted 
by  midnight  bands,  and  stories  of  brutal  murders,  with  all  the 
added  horror  of  deliberate  deeds  of  vengeance  in  some  in- 
stances, for  the  taking  of  some  farm  or  for  some  other  cause 
arising  out  of  the  human  hunger  for  land  where  land  is  the 
only  means  of  livelihood.  It  was  all  sickening  and  revolting. 
So  would  be  the  letting  loose  of  all  the  sewers  of  London,  and 

546 


"THE    GREAT    INQUISITION" 

the  turning  of  this  filth  into  the  Strand  with  the  object  of 
showing  that  this  filth  was  a  direct  result  of  the  work  of 
municipal  reformers  and  agitators  against  the  vested  in- 
terests which  stood  in  the  way  of  an  enlightened  system  of 
metropolitan  drainage.  But  the  purpose  of  The  Times 
overreached  itself  in  this  plan.  Irish  history  did  not  begin 
with  the  Land  League  in  1878.  The  agrarian  war  of  Ire- 
land was  then  near  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  in  exist- 
ence, and  in  almost  every  year  of  this  period  the  undeni- 
able wrong  and  oppression  of  landlordism,  the  offspring 
and  agency  of  confiscation,  produced  the  same  crimes 
and  appealed  to  similar  passions  in  the  conflict  for  the 
right  to  live  as  against  the  power  to  tax  the  means  of  human 
existence  as  a  tribute  to  the  interests  of  triumphant  wrong. 
This  was  Mr.  Parnell's  defence,  the  Land  League's  reply 
to  its  accusers,  and,  as  truth  was  on  our  side,  it  was  certain 
ultimately  to  win  a  vindication. 

Sir  Charles  Russell  towered  in  personality  and  in  fame  as  a 
great  lawyer  above  all  the  able  men  engaged  in  the  case.  He 
was  a  combination  of  the  Celt  and  the  Saxon  in  some  features 
of  his  individuality.  His  sympathies  leaned  towards  Ireland, 
his  ambition  towards  England.  He  was  in  no  sense  an  Irish 
nationalist,  but  he  had  a  warm  feeling  and  attachment  for 
the  land  of  his  birth.  He  became  a  Home-Ruler  only  when 
Mr.  Gladstone  did,  but  he  had  taken  an  earlier  interest  in  the 
Irish  land  problem.  He  visited  Kerry  and  other  parts  of 
Ireland  during  the  Land-League  struggle  in  1880,  and  wrote 
a  series  of  informing  letters  to  the  London  Daily  Telegraph, 
which  had  some  influence  in  bringing  Mr.  Gladstone  and 
the  Liberal  party  round  to  what  had  been  Mr.  Isaac  Butt's 
views  of  land  reform.  These  letters  were  subsequently 
published  in  a  book  as  New  Views  on  Ireland. 

This  intimate  knowledge  of  the  question,  and  a  keen 
sympathy  with  the  struggle  of  the  Irish  peasant  to  win  a  hold 
for  himself  on  the  land,  coupled  with  his  reputation  as  the 
foremost  pleader  at  the  English  bar,  gave  Sir  Charles  Russell 
a  great  advantage  over  his  rival,  Sir  Richard  Webster.  The 
Irishman  had  a  greater  intellectual  capacity,  a  far  wider 
knowledge,  and  a  more  robust  imagination.  He  had,  too, 
in  a  conspicuous  degree,  a  greater  skill  in  cross-examination. 
He  dissected  his  witness,  as  it  were,  with  his  own  assent, 
leading  him  irresistibly  towards  the  truth  which  justice 
sought  for,  or  dealing  with  him,  if  perversely  misleading,  in 
the  severest  manner  of  the  counsel  who  unites  the  moral  func- 
tions of  a  judge  in  the  duties  of  an  advocate.  He  was  also,  in 
the  strictly  legal  sense,  a  great  lawyer,  and  his  services  to  Mr. 

547 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Parnell  and  the  Irish  movement  during  the  commission  were 
of  enormous  value.  His  speech  in  opening  the  case  for  the 
defence  was  one  of  the  very  best  ever  dehvered  in  an  EngHsh 
court  of  law,  and  won  from  the  presiding  judge  the  compli- 
ment, "A  great  speech,  worthy  of  a  great  occasion." 

Sir  Richard  Webster  made  up  in  industry,  in  a  marvellous 
knowledge  of  all  the  intricacies  and  details  of  so  vast  a  mass  of 
evidence,  and  in  thorough  bull-dog  tenacity  what  his  rival 
gained  over  him  in  the  higher  equipments  of  personality  and 
profession.  Probably  no  counsel  ever  employed  in  a  mighty 
trial  of  the  kind  flung  so  much  hard  work,  earnest  study, 
and  partisan  enthusiasm  into  his  task  as  Webster  did  in 
serving  The  Times  during  this  great  inquiry.  It  was  im- 
possible not  to  admire  his  truly  gigantic  labors,  no  matter 
what  one  might  think  of  the  political  spirit  and  purpose 
which  inspired  them. 

There  was  little,  if  any,  humor  in  the  whole  proceedings, 
despite  the  Irish  character  of  the  drama  which  went  on 
from  day  to  day  in  the  ugly  royal  courts  of  justice.  The 
"inquisition"  bore  a  truer  relation  in  its  name  and  pro- 
ceedings to  a  tribunal  of  political  torture  inflicted  by  in- 
tolerable wrong  than  to  any  ordinary  court  of  law  where  an 
occasional  flash  of  wit  may  spring  from  a  witness  or  figure  in  a 
lawyer's  speech.  One  genuine  "bull,"  and  one  only,  was,  I 
think,  perpetrated  during  the  inquiry,  but  it  had  the  stamp 
of  originality  upon  it.  A  witness  who  had  been  examined 
on  one  side  was  discussing  the  merits  of  the  case  with  a 
suspected  informer  in  the  employment  of  the  other.  Their 
controversy  took  place  in  a  public-house,  and  so  heated  did 
it  become  that  one  disputant  drew  out  a  revolver  to  support 
his  contention  or  to  repel  that  of  the  other.  This  other 
fled,  and  gave  up  the  argument.  On  being  questioned  in 
the  court  upon  the  incident,  the  witness  was  asked,  "Did  not 
you  run  away?"  "I  did,  faith,"  was  the  reply,  "for  it  was 
better  to  be  a  coward  for  five  minutes  than  to  be  dead  for 
the  rest  of  me  life." 


CHAPTER  XLV 
PLOTS    AND    COUNTER    PLOTS 

The  general  belief  that  the  Unionist  government  was  an 
ally  of  The  Times  in  pressing  its  charges  and  allegations 
against  Mr.  Pamell  and  party  won  for  us  a  great  deal  of 
practical  sympathy  from  unexpected  quarters.  It  was  a 
powerful  combination  in  an  unfair  fight,  carried  on  with 
poisoned  weapons,  and  many  persons  who  were  strongly 
opposed  to  the  league  and  its  leaders  were  coerced  by  an 
honest  indignation  at  so  unfair  a  combat  to  help  us  against 
such  unscrupulous  tactics  and  assailants.  Assistance  came 
to  us  from  all  quarters.  Correspondents,  anonymous  and 
otherwise,  warned  us  of  what  Times  agents  were  doing  in 
British,  Irish,  and  American  cities,  in  the  way  of  hunting  up 
witnesses  and  information.  Letters  from  these  agents  were 
sent  to  us.  Documents  of  all  kinds  came;  in  some  instances 
most  opportunely  and  with  good  results;  in  others  with  no 
object  save  to  offer  well-intentioned  but  useless  matter  and 
service.  From  many  government  departments,  from  ex- 
detectives,  and  in  the  later  stages  of  the  commission  from 
discarded  Times  agents,  we  received  evidence  and  advice  which 
enabled  us  to  checkmate  some  of  the  combined  moves  of  our 
adversary  and  his  ministerial  allies. 

We  soon  had  at  our  disposal  an  irregular  but  most  effective 
intelligence  department,  with  a  staff  of  agents,  private 
detectives,  and  well-informed  correspondents  equal  to  all 
our  requirements.  In  addition  there  was  the  organization 
of  the  National  League  in  Ireland,  Great  Britain,  and  America, 
with  branches  in  every  chief  city  and  town.  The  Irish  peo- 
ple and  friends  of  our  cause  soon  placed  a  fund  of  thirty 
or  forty  thousand  pounds  at  Mr.  Parnell's  disposal  for  the 
defence  of  himself  and  colleagues.  We  thus  found  ourselves 
thoroughly  well  equipped  for  even  an  unmatched  encounter 
with  the  most  powerful  newspaper  in  the  world  and  the 
government  of  England  behind  it.  All  the  resources  of  the 
secret  service  of  the  English  Home  Office,  of  Scotland  Yard, 
and  of  Dublin  Castle  were  at  the  disposal  of  The   Times. 

549 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Nevertheless,  we  were  able  to  cope  with  these  formidable  op- 
ponents by  agencies  which  our  means  enabled  us  to  command, 
many  of  our  most  useful  instruments  being  ex-employes  of 
these  very  departments. 

Some  of  the  men  who  had  for  a  time  been  in  the  service  of 
Mr.  Soames,  The  Times  solicitor,  "as  secret  agents,"  came  into 
our  service  afterwards,  while  at  one  time  a  few  of  his  detectives 
were  in  our  pay.  It  was,  in  fact,  a  case  of  a  la  guerre  comme 
la  guerre,  and  there  were  not  many  scruples  wasted  on  either 
side  over  tampering  with  the  scouts  and  mercenaries  em- 
ployed by  opponents.  We  were  probably  sold,  too,  to  Mr. 
Soames,  but  not,  I  think,  as  fully  as  we  were  able  to  become 
possessed  of  many  of  his  plans  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
"secrets"  for  which  he  had  paid  big  sums  of  money. 

Thanks  to  the  friendly  aid  referred  to  above,  we  were  en- 
abled to  read,  almost  as  soon  as  Mr.  Soames,  all  his  "code" 
despatches  from  the  United  States  and  Canada.  We  easily 
deciphered  these  messages,  and  in  this  way  learned  what  his 
agents  were  doing,  all  about  their  plans,  and  whom  they 
wished  to  enlist  in  the  battalion  of  testimony  for  the  purpose 
of  The  Times.  Some  amusing  experiences  resulted  froin  this 
intimate  knowledge  of  our  adversary's  secrets.  A  witness  was 
leaving  Canada  for  London,  on,  we  learned,  the  initiative 
of  Sir  C.  T.,  who,  in  the  opinion  of  this  eminent  statesman, 
would  give  "valuable  testimony."  We  provided  a  fitting 
reception  for  him,  having  first  obtained  a  full  historj'-  of  his 
disreputable  career.  He  was  met  at  Queenstown  by  a  de- 
tective and  escorted  to  London.  The  detective  was  sent  to 
offer  him  "  a  safe  escort."  He  was  conducted  to  a  West  End 
hotel,  and  liberally  provided  with  champagne.  We  had  all 
the  information  in  his  possession  from  the  successful  detective 
the  following  day. 

Another  agent  of  The  Times  landed  in  New  York,  and  went 
straight  to  the  (then)  head  of  the  police  force  of  that  city, 
now  dead.  His  mission  was  disclosed,  his  plans  were  dis- 
cussed, and  the  amount  of  money  at  his  disposal  was  revealed. 
That  night  our  friends  were  informed  of  everything  that  had 
transpired  at  the  interview.  This  was  in  no  sense  a  breach 
of  police  etiquette.  The  agent  from  London  was  not  in  quest 
of  criminals,  nor  was  he,  though  a  high  official  of  Scotland 
Yard,  on  any  mission  such  as  would  entitle  him  to  a  share  of 
international  courtesy  at  the  hands  of  American  officials. 
He  was  paid  to  hunt  down  the  political  opponents  of  his 
London  private  employers,  and  the  Irishman  in  the  New 
York  police  chief's  personality  was  as  free  to  unselfishly 
serve  those  he  sympathized  with  as  his  visitor  was  to  try 

550 


PLOTS  AND  COUNTER  PLOTS 

and  harm  them  for  the  price  of  a  huge  retainer.  The  sequel 
was  disastrous  for  the  agent,  if  what  was  subsequently  joked 
about  among  the  New  York  police  force  was  well  founded. 
Scores  of  Pamell,  Dillon,  Sexton,  and  Davitt  letters  of  a 
most  "compromising  character"  were  offered  to  the  emissary 
from  Scotland  Yard.  One  batch,  it  is  said,  was  disposed  of 
for  five  thousand  dollars.  But  this  did  not  end  the  costly 
practical  joke  for  the  agent.  Mr.  Blank,  it  was  said,  woke  up 
in  his  hotel,  after  a  previous  night's  "good  time,"  and  found 
himself  minus  the  purchased  documents,  with  a  gentle  hint 
conveyed  in  a  serious  letter  that  the  sooner  he  returned  to 
England  the  better  it  would  be  for  his  state  of  health.  This 
sadder  and  wiser  Englishman  has,  I  believe,  held  strongly 
to  the  opinion  ever  since  that  the  police  force  of  the  United 
States  was  only  one  of  the  many  branches  of  the  Land 
League. 

One  cipher  message  to  Mr.  Soames  from  Colorado  gave  our 
experts  in  reading  cryptic  cables  much  trouble.  It  was  not 
"built"  upon  any  scientific  or  systematic  plan,  and  was  on 
that  account  unintelligible  to  us.  It  looked  formidable,  and 
coming  from  where  we  knew  Times  agents  to  have  been 
engaged  in  hunting  up  Land-League  organizers,  it  was  tan- 
talizing not  to  know  as  much  as  Mr.  Soames  did  about  this 
particular  private  despatch.  It  obstinately  refused,  however, 
to  divulge  the  secrets  represented  by  words,  figures,  and 
hieroglyphics,  and  we  had  to  cable  to  agents  in  New  York  and 
Chicago  to  keep  an  eye  upon  Colorado.  Fortunately,  a  dis- 
tinguished Irishman,  a  learned  embodiment  of  all  the  sciences, 
arrived  in  London  at  this  time,  and  the  puzzle  from  Colorado 
Springs  was  submitted  to  him  in  the  despairing  hope  that, 
as  he  was  an  authority  upon  almost  everything,  he  might 
unravel  its  hidden  story.  He  succeeded  after  a  whole  night's 
labor,  and  the  startling  statements  which  it  unfolded  gave 
us  a  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  the  following  morning. 

The  agent's  communication  informed  Mr.  Soames  that  he 
had  had  several  interviews  with  Mr.  P.  J.  Sheridan,  at  the 
latter 's  ranch,  at  Monte  Vista,  with  the  result  that  Sheridan 
had  shown  him  (Kirby)  a  black  bag  "containing  letters  of 
Parnell's,  Dillon's,  Egan's,  Davitt's,  and  others  which  will 
completely  sustain  The  Times  charges."  Kirby  had  not  seen 
the  letters,  but  there  was  no  mistake  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
bag,  or,  in  his  opinion,  about  the  resolve  of  Sheridan  to 
"be  even"  with  the  "Clan"  and  its  allies,  who,  he  affirmed, 
were  contemplating  his  "removal."  There  was  a  little 
question  about  money  in  the  message.  Sheridan  v/anted 
/^2o,ooo  —  ten  thousand  down,  before  starting,  and  the  bal- 

551 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ance  after  he  had  given  his  evidence  before  the  commission 
in  London. 

This  communication  caused  Mr.  Parnell  much  anxiety  and 
needless  alarm.  He  knew,  of  course,  there  could  be  no 
compromising  letters  of  the  kind  described.  Sheridan  had 
been,  however,  unlike  Pigott,  a  Land-League  organizer,  and 
had  made  bunkum  speeches  in  New  York  about  his  reputed 
connection  with  the  Invincibles — speeches  which  had  much 
more  of  Byronic  bravado  than  of  actual  criminality  to  boast 
about — and  these  proflEered  letters  and  statements  would  tend 
to  increase  suspicion  even  where  they  could  not  establish 
guilt,  and  would  work  an  all-round  mischievous  complication. 
This  was  the  worst  and  most  pessimistic  view  of  the  cable 
from  Colorado.  I  refused  to  believe  a  word  of  Kirby's  yarn. 
Sheridan  was  not  that  kind  of  a  man,  and  I  ventured  to 
suggest  that  it  would  turn  out  to  be  a  repetition  of  the 
New  York  "deal"  in  manufactured  documents. 

I  crossed  at  once  to  Paris  and  cabled  to  Mr.  Thomas 
Brennan,  former  secretary  of  the  Land  League,  then  resident 
in  Omaha,  and  to  Mr.  Alexander  Sullivan,  of  Chicago,  a 
summary  of  the  Kirby  despatch,  referring  to  Sheridan,  not 
by  name,  but  in  a  description  which  I  hoped  would  clearly 
indicate  who  was  the  person  in  question.  I  authorized  Mr. 
Brennan  to  purchase  from  Sheridan  any  letters  or  books 
which  we  could  produce  before  the  commission,  and  any 
correspondence  he  might  have  had  with  the  emissary  from 
Soames.  What  transpired  had  better  be  told  in  a  con- 
temporary account  of  the  affair  as  given  by  Mr.  Brennan 
to  the  New  York  Herald: 

[by  telegraph  to  the  herald.] 

Denver,  Col.,  Jan.  ii,  1890. — Thomas  Brennan,  of  Omaha, 
the  first  secretary  of  the  Land  League  in  Ireland,  and  who 
knows  all  the  inside  workings  of  the  league  on  both  sides 
of  the  water,  furnishes  the  Herald  with  a  history  of  how  the 
London  Times  attempted  to  bribe  Patrick  J.  Sheridan  to  be 
a  witness  against  Parnell,  and  how  Sheridan  hoodwinked  The 
Times  agent. 

He  says:  "On  May  6  last  I  received  a  cable  despatch 
dated  Paris,  and  although  it  was  unsigned  I  believed  it  came 
from  Michael  Davitt.  This  belief  was  subsequently  verified 
by  a  messenger  from  Davitt,  who  came  to  this  country  on  the 
business  referred  to  in  the  cablegram,  the  purport  of  which 
was  that  some  person  on  this  side  had  offered  to  go  over  to 
London  and  give  evidence  in  behalf  of  The  Times  before  the 

552 


PLOTS    AND    COUNTER    PLOTS 

Parnell  Commission ;  that  money  had  been  sent  by  The  Times 
people  to  Chicago  and  Pueblo,  Col.  He  asked  me  to  consult 
with  Patrick  Egan  on  the  subject,  as  he  (Davitt)  had  cabled 
to  him  more  fully  on  the  matter.  On  the  same  day  Alexander 
Sullivan  received  from  Paris  an  unsigned  cable  despatch, 
which  I  am  authorized  by  Mr.  Davitt  to  say  was  also  sent  by 
him,  and  which  was  substantially  the  same  as  the  one  received 
by  me.  This  despatch  Sullivan  repeated  to  Mr.  Egan  at 
Lincoln,  Neb. 

"The  cable  despatch  to  Egan  requested  him  to  see  me, 
and  he  came  to  my  office  at  Omaha  on  May  7th.  After  a  long 
consultation  we  were  unable  to  determine  who  was  referred 
to  in  the  cable  despatch  as  hkely  to  give  evidence. 

"We  remained  in  ignorance  as  to  the  person  with  whom 
The  Times  was  negotiating,  until  both  Egan  and  I  were  called 
to  New  York  to  meet  a  messenger  from  Davitt,  when  we 
learned  for  the  first  time  that  the  man  referred  to  was  P.  J. 
Sheridan,  of  Colorado. 

"We  were  all  then  at  ease,  because  we  had  faith  in  Sheridan. 
Davitt 's  messenger  informed  us  that  by  a  fortunate  accident 
Davitt  and  his  associates  had  discovered  that  Kirby,  The 
Times  agent,  was  negotiating  with  Sheridan,  and  had  re- 
ported that  he  could  secure  that  gentleman  as  a  witness  for 
his  masters  for  a  consideration  of  ;^2o,ooo. 

"It  was  this  discovery  that  led  to  the  sending  of  the 
cable  despatches  and  a  messenger  already  referred  to.  While 
we  had  the  most  perfect  confidence  in  Sheridan,  and  knew 
that  if  he  had  met  TJie  Times  agent  it  was  only  to  ascertain 
what  iniquity  The  Times  proposed,  and  not  to  aid  it,  we 
deemed  it  wise  that  I  should  visit  him  and  get  all  the  in- 
formation possible,  so  as  to  send  it  back  by  the  messenger,  as 
I  did,  instead  of  trusting  it  to  the  mail,  which  is  careftilly 
watched  by  the  British  government. 

"Mr.  Sheridan  had  kept  detailed  accounts  of  his  meetings 
with  Kirby  and  had  preserved  all  the  correspondence  which 
had  passed  between  them.  He  was  glad  to  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  supplying  the  record  to  friends  at  home  by  a  trusted 
messenger,  and  at  once  prepared  and  delivered  me  a  complete 
history  up  to  that  date  in  the  shape  of  a  sworn  statement, 
a  copy  of  which  I  am  glad  to  furnish  you." 

Sheridan's  statement  is  as  follows:  "On  or  about  Octo- 
ber 15,  1888,  a  gentleman  called  on  me  at  my  ranch  at 
Spring  Creek,  Monte  Vista,  Colorado,  representing  that  he 
wished  to  purchase  my  herd  of  sheep,  which  he  had  seen  ad- 
vertised. 

"After  a  reference  to  wool-growing  in  Colorado,  he  in- 

553 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

troduced  himself  as  a  representative  of  the  London  Times 
newspaper,  and  said,  as  it  was  better  not  to  waste  words  or 
time,  he  would  come  to  the  point  at  once  and  tell  me  that 
his  friend  Joseph  Soames,  attorney  for  The  Times,  had  sent 
him  direct  from  London  to  see  if  I  had  any  objection  to  come 
to  London  and  testify  on  behalf  of  that  paper  before  the 
Parnell  Commission;  that  they  believed  that  there  was  no 
man  living  who  could  throw  more  light  on  the  subject  before 
the  commission  than  I,  and  that  he  was  armed  with  plenary 
powers  to  come  to  terms  with  me  and  satisfy  any  demands 
I  might  make  for  my  services  in  giving  evidence. 

"  The  Times  people,  he  added,  did  not  think  I  was  a  cheap 
man,  and  did  not  want  me  at  a  low  figure.  I  told  the 
gentleman,  who  had  introduced  himself  as  J.  F.  Kirby,  of 
Montreal,  Canada,  to  go  back  and  tell  his  friends  that  he 
had  not  gold  enough  to  buy  me  even  if  I  had  any  secrets  to 
sell,  which  I  had  not.  He  apologized  and  took  his  departure. 
The  next  day  he  appeared  again  and  said  that  he  did  not  think 
he  would  be  justified  in  going  back  to  London  without  ex- 
hausting all  the  powers  vested  in  him,  and  that  he  had  carte 
blanche  from  The  Times  to  close  with  me  at  any  figure,  pro- 
vided I  went  to  London  and  told  what  I  knew  before  the 
commission. 

"In  the  mean  time  I  had  thought  over  the  matter  and 
concluded  to  get  as  much  information  from  him  as  I  could, 
and  at  the  same  time  fool  himself  and  his  employers;  so  after 
some  conversation  I  was  requested  by  him  to  name  my  price. 

'"Will  The  Times  give  me  $100,000  to  do  this  thing?'  I 
asked. 

"Kirby  replied:  'Yes.  Provided  your  evidence  is  satis- 
factory you  will  be  paid  that  amount  one  hour  after  your 
examination  closes.' 

"'What  will  you  consider  satisfactory  evidence?'  I  in- 
quired. 

'"The  Times  people  w^ant  evidence  to  the  effect  that 
Parnell  was  party  to  the  Phoenix  Park  murders.  He  did 
not  instigate  them,  and  your  evidence  to  that  effect  will  be 
satisfactory.' 

"'Is  the  government  aiding  The  Times — defraying  the 
expenses  of  the  commission?'  I  inquired. 

"'Not  as  the  government,  but  as  individuals,  I  presume 
they  are,    he  replied. 

"'What  guarantee  will  I  have  that  your  people  will  pay 
the  money  in  the  event  of  my  evidence  proving  satisfactory?' 
I  asked. 

"'Before  you  leave  the  country  Joseph  Soames  will  cable 

554 


PLOTS    AND    COUNTER    PLOTS 

a  draft  on  any  bank  we  may  agree  upon  in  New  York  or 
Chicago  in  favor  of  your  wife,  or  whoever  else  you  may  name, 
the  same  to  be  paid  over  as  soon  as  your  examination  closes, 
provided  it  is  deemed  satisfactory.' 

'"Well,  I  guess  I  don't  care  for  the  voyage,  anyhow,'  I 
said.  'Could  I  not  give  my  evidence  in  this  country  before  a 
sub-commission  ?' 

'"Yes,  but  you  cannot  hope  for  the  protection  here  you 
would  get  in  London,'  he  replied. 

"We  then  debated  at  some  length  the  question  of  giving 
evidence  before  a  sub-commission  in  this  country,  and  I 
ultimately  led  him  to  believe  that  I  would  give  my  evidence 
before  such  sub-commission ;  and,  as  such  evidence  would  make 
it  impossible  for  me  to  live  in  my  present  home,  provision 
was  to  be  made  by  an  advance  of  ;£io,ooo  for  my  wife  and 
family  before  the  sub-commission  sat.  I  then  suggested 
the  advisability  of  my  being  posted  as  to  whatever  evidence 
of  importance  was  to  be  given  by  other  witnesses,  in  order 
that  mine  should  be  corroborative,  or  at  least  non-contra- 
dictory. 

"In  reply  he  said  that  these  were  serious  questions  and 
the  answers  required  to  them  would  be  given  by  Soames  as 
soon  as  he  (Kirby)  got  back  to  London,  after  which  he  was 
to  return  here  and  perfect  arrangements  with  me. 

"He  closed  by  saying  that  he  would  return  to  London  and 
consult  with  Soames,  he  promising  to  be  back  early  in 
December  of  that  year. 

"  Before  parting  with  me  we  agreed  that  in  any  correspond- 
ence that  we  might  have  his  address  would  be  in  care  of  J. 
Donaldson,  and  he  would  address  me  as  M.  Smart. 

"  Not  having  heard  from  him  up  to  January  6,  1889, 1  wrote 
him  in  substance  as  follows: 

'"I  want  to  know  by  return  mail  whether  or  not  you 
mean  to  take  any  further  steps.  I  will  not  consider  myself 
bound  by  our  contract  unless  it  is  attended  to  at  once.' 

"I  sent  that  communication  through  Miss  Jennie  Donald- 
son, of  Ravenswood,  near  Chicago,  Illinois.  Having  received 
no  reply,  on  February  i8th  I  wrote  him  as  follows: 

"'Circumstances  have  altered  since  you  left  here.  Your 
interest  demands  your  speedy  return  to  Colorado.' 

"I  received  the  following  message,  of  which  this  is  a  copy: 

"'London,  March  14,   1889. 
"To  M.  Smart,  care  of  P.  J.  Sheridan,  Del  Norte,  Col.: 

'"Letters,  February  6th  and  i8th,  received.  Leave  for 
Alamosa  Sunday  evening.  J.  D.' 

555 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"I  next  received  from  him  the  following  letter,  dated  New 
York,  March  25,  1889: 

"  'Arrived  per  Ems,  3.30  p.m.  I  leave  to-morrow  for  Denver; 
due  there  Friday  evening.  If  possible,  try  to  meet  me  there 
on  the  evening  of  Friday,  or,  if  you  fail  to  receive  this,  try 
and  come  on  Saturday,  as  it  will  be  very  material  regarding 
purchase  of  ranches  and  flock.  I  will  be  found  at  the 
Windsor  Hotel,  so  if  you  first  call  at  the  post-office  before 
coming  to  the  hotel  you'll  receive  the  letter  addressed  to  this, 
telling  you  that  you  need  not  ask  at  the  hotel. 

"'I  send  sufficient  to  cover  expenses  there  from  your 
place.  I  have  no  bill  but  this,  and  if  I  went  out  to  get  it 
changed  I  would  lose  the  mail.  I  am  over  here  to  close  the 
purchase  if  we  can  come  to  terms,  but  I  don't  think  there 
is  any  use  to  say  more  until  we  meet. 

"'The  card  you  have  will  be  my  name  on  the  Windsor 
books  and  not  the  other.  If  you  can't  be  there  before 
Friday  or  Saturday  wire  me  to  undersigned. 

'"J.  Donaldson,  Windsor  Hotel,  Denver.' 

"On  March  28,  1889,  I  received  the  following  telegram: 

" 'Leavittsbury,  Ohio. 
"'M.  Smart,  care  of  P.  J.  Sheridan,  Monte  Vista,  Col: 

"'Arrive  at  Pueblo  station  Friday  noon.  Meet  me.  Im- 
portant. J.  D.' 

"And  on  the  same  day  I  received  the  following  telegram: 

"'St.  Louis. 
"'M.  Smart,  care  P.  J.  Sheridan,  Monte  Vista,  Col.: 

"'Cannot  reach  Pueblo  before  Saturday  morning.  Letter 
at  Del  Norte.     Leave  to-morrow;  meet  me  at  station.     J.  D.' 

"On  March  30,  1889,  I  received  the  following  telegram: 

"'Union  Depot,  Pueblo,  Col. 
"*M.  Smart,  care  P.  J.  Sheridan,  Spring  Creek  Ranch,  Monte 
Vista,  Col.: 
"'Can  you  come  on  to-night's  train?     To  go  to  Colorado 
Springs.     Answer  paid,  care  station  agent.  J.  D.' 

"I  replied: 

'"y.  Donaldson,  care  station  master,  Pueblo,  Col.: 

"  *  Just  returned  home.  Come  by  next  train  to  Monte  Vista. 
I  will  meet  you  there  and  explain.' 

556 


PLOTS    AND    COUNTER    PLOTS 
"On  April  9,  1889,  I  received  the  following  telegram: 

"'Pueblo,  Col. 
"'M.  Smart,  care  P.  J.  Sheridan,  Monte  Vista,  Col.: 
'"Will  you  come  here  to-night?     Answer  paid. 

"'J.  Donaldson.' 
"I  replied  as  follows: 

"'Meet  me  in  Monte  Vista  on  to-morrow's  train.  I  got 
home  this  morning  only.     Can't  go  to  meet  you.  S.' 

"I  received  the  following  reply: 

" '  Pueblo,  Col. 
'"P.  J.  SJteridan,  Monte  Vista,  Col.: 

'"Reply  received.  Tell  Smart  I  am  agent  he  saw  before; 
will  leave  to-night  for  there.  J.  Donaldson.' 

"On  April  4,  1889,  Kirby  again  called  at  my  ranch. 
He  commenced  our  interview  by  saying  that  he  had  re- 
ceived both  my  letters  forwarded  him  through  the  address 
in  Ravenswood  and  understood  at  once  the  meaning  of 
them. 

"He  knew,  he  said,  that  I  was  sentenced  to  be  assassinated, 
and  that  he  anticipated  as  much,  owing  to  a  mistake  made 
by  Soames  in  his  evidence  before  the  commission,  when  he 
stated  I  had  offered  to  go  to  London  and  give  evidence  before 
the  commission  for  ^^20, 000,  and  explained  that  he  had  called 
Mr.  Soames 's  attention  to  his  mistake  immediately  after  he 
had  given  evidence. 

"I  then  told  Kirby  it  was  true  that  my  assassination  had 
been  ordered  by  the  Clan-na-Gael  and  that  it  would  be  im- 
possible for  me  to  give  evidence  before  the  sub-commission 
as  arranged  in  our  last  interview;  that  at  present  I  had  to 
have  two  men  armed  with  Winchester  rifles  to  protect  me, 
and  as  I  could  not  think  now  of  living  in  this  country  I  would 
go  to  London  on  condition  that  The  Times  would  buy  my 
ranch  and  other  property  in  Colorado  for  ;^io,ooo,  the  money 
to  be  paid  over  to  my  wife  before  I  started  for  London; 
;^io,ooo  to  be  paid  me  after  I  had  given  my  evidence,  and 
that  I  would  be  guaranteed  protection  by  the  English  govern- 
ment. 

"After  some  hesitation  he  consented  to  my  terms,  and 
said  he  could  speak  for  both  The  Times  and  the  government 
in  accepting  them. 

"About  the  nature  of  my  evidence  he  asked  me  if  it 
would  not  be  likely  to  create  a  sensation  and  if  I  did  not 

557 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

think  that  after  my  first  day  on  the  witness-stand  Parnell 
would  be  Hkely  to  f!y  the  country. 

"I  repHed  that  Parnell  and  his  friends  would  either  fly  the 
country  or  walk  into  the  dock  after  I  had  given  my  evidence. 
I  told  him  I  was  desperate  and  was  anxious  to  get  even 
with  the  men  who  had  ordered  my  assassination,  therefore 
I  wanted  to  go  to  London  at  once.  He  said  he  would  im- 
mediately communicate  to  The  Times  the  result  of  our  in- 
terview and  request  that  the  money  be  immediately  forwarded. 
Before  parting  I  asked  him  to  change  the  name  by  which  he 
would  sign  his  communications  to  me  in  future,  and  it  was 
arranged  he  should  sign  as  Smith. 

"Kirby  then  went  to  Pueblo,  from  where  I  received  several 
letters  excusing  his  delay  in  getting  money,  and  laying  the 
blame  upon  The  Times  people. 

"On  May  25th  I  met  him  in  Colorado  Springs  in  obedience 
to  a  telegram  from  him,  and  appointed  a  meeting  for  the 
following  day,  when  he  handed  me  a  list  of  questions  I  was 
to  be  asked  before  the  commission  and  requested  me  to  fill 
in  the  replies  which  the  questions  suggested. 

"I  told  him  I  would  not  answer  such  questions  until  I  got 
to  London  and  was  safe  under  the  protection  of  the  English 
government. 

"He  then  asked  me  to  repeat  to  a  Mr.  Birch,  one  of  the 
agents  employed  by  The  Times,  who  had  just  come  over  from 
London  the  nature,  of  the  contract  existing  between  us,  and 
tell  him  how  far  my  evidence  would  be  corroborated  by  the 
documentary  evidence  in  my  possession.  This  I  refused  to  do, 
and  then  Kirby  asked  me  to  place  Birch  in  a  position  of  being 
able  to  say  when  he  returned  to  London  that  he  had  seen  me 
in  Kirby's  company,  and  state  that  we  had  arrived  at  a  satis- 
factory  understanding. 

"This  I  consented  to,  when  Birch  handed  me  his  card  and 
told  me  he  was  there  as  The  Times  representative.  Kirby 
then  stated  there  was  some  delay  in  receiving  the  money 
from  Chicago,  and  it  was  agreed  that  I  should  return  home 
and  arrange  my  affairs,  and  that  on  the  29th  I  shotdd  return 
to  Colorado  Springs  with  the  papers  to  perfect  the  transfer  of 
my  ranch. 

"In  conclusion,  I  have  to  say  that  I  deliberately  entered 
into  negotiations  with  Kirby  as  The  Times  representative 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  such  information  as  I  could  from 
him  as  to  the  methods  which  The  Times  employs  in  getting  up 
its  case,  for  the  purpose  of  fooling  Kirby  and  his  employers, 
and  with  the  object  of  selling  my  ranch  at  a  good  figure  when 
I  found  he  was  willing  to  buv.     I  have  no  information  to  give 

'S5S 


PLOTS  AND  COUNTER  PLOTS 

that  would  be  useful  to  The  Times  or  injurious  to  Mr.  Parnell 
or  his  friends. 

"Dated  at  Monte  Vista,  Col.,  this  28th  day  of  May,  i88g. 

"P.  J.  Sheridan. 

"Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me  this  28th  day  of  May, 
1889 — Edward  E.  Everson,  Notary  Public." 

"The  statement,  with  the  letters  and  telegrams  referred  to, 
were  forwarded  to  Mr.  Davitt  June  3,  1889.  Since  the  date 
of  that  statement  Sheridan  has  reported  to  me  regularly  every 
movement  made  by  his  victim,  which  I  in  turn  have  forwarded 
to  Davitt.  It  will  interest  the  people  in  this  country  to  know 
that  Sheridan  continued  to  play  with  Kirby,  and  kept  him 
on  the  anxious  seat,  even  up  to  so  late  a  date  as  the  last  ten 
days.  Sir  Henry  James's  tedious  speech  before  the  Parnell 
Commission  was  prolonged  until  it  became  an  unbearable 
nuisance,  in  the  hope  that  Kirby  would  keep  his  oft -repeated 
promise  and  deliver  Mr.  Sheridan,  at  the  last  moment,  as  a 
witness  for  Tlte  Times  to  swear  to  a  lot  of  stuff  which  had 
its  only  foundation  in  Kirby's  diseased  mind."^ 

Another  person  who  was  intelligently  interested  in  behalf 
of  The  Times  in  Mr.  Sheridan's  opinions  and  possible  action 
was  the  late  William  Henry  Hurlbert,  one-time  editor  of  the 
New  York  World.  He  wrote  a  book,  Ireland  under  Coercion, 
during  the  sitting  of  the  special  commission,  which  was  in- 
tended to  show  that  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  National  League, 
and  not  Mr.  Balfour  and  Dublin  Castle,  were  the  true  coer- 
cionists  in  Ireland.  What  the  purpose  or  motive  of  the 
book  was  has  remained  a  mystery.  He  addressed  the 
following  letter  to  Mr.  Sheridan: 

"12  Southwell  Gardens,  Cromwell  Road,  S.W., 

"April  6,   1889. 

"Dear  Sir, — I  do  not  know  how  fully  or  accurately  the 
proceedings  taking  place  now  before  what  is  called  the 
'Parnell  Commission'  may  be  reported  in  America,  and  I 
should  be  much  surprised  to  find  that  they  are  reported 
either  accurately  or  fully  there.  But  if  your  recollection 
of  a  very  interesting  conversation  which  I  had  with  you 
in  my  office  in  New  York,  on  an  occasion  of  much  importance 
to  yourself,  in  1883,  is  as  vivid  as  is  mine,  you  will  quite 
understand,  I  am  sure,  the  impulse  which  prompts  me  now 
to  invite  your  serious  attention  to  the  elaborate  efforts  which 

*  New  York  Herald,  January  12,   1890. 
559 


THE   FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

are  now  making  here  to  convert  parliamentary  Parnellism 
from  an  Irish  and  revolutionary  into  a  British  and  Radical 
organization.  Wm.  Henry  Hurlbert." 

Mr.  Hurlbert 's  anxious  concern  for  the  interest  of  a  rev- 
olutionary organization  did  not  apparently  awaken  a  re- 
sponsive feeling  in  Mr.  Sheridan's  mind.  There  was  no  reply 
sent  to  the  letter. 


CHAPTER  XLVI 
THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

Edward  Caulfield  Houston,  the  employer  of  Pigott  in 
the  "search"  for  letters  which  Pigott  had  forged,  was  bom 
in  Dublin,  and  was  about  twenty-seven  years  of  age  when  he 
appeared  as  a  witness  before  the  commission.  He  was  said 
to  be  the  son  of  a  prison  warder.  His  record  was  quite  in 
keeping  with  the  part  he  had  played  as  honest  broker  in  the 
dealings  with  Pigott.  He  had  been  employed  in  the  early 
eighties  on  the  staff  of  the  Daily  Express,  the  then  pro- 
landlord  organ  in  Dublin.  In  this  post  he  assisted  the  Dublin 
correspondent  of  the  London  Times,  the  late  Dr.  Patton,  and 
probably  had  his  first  connection  with  the  "Thunderer"  of 
Printing-House  Square  in  this  capacity.  He  was  next  found 
as  private  secretary  to  a  prominent  landlord  who  had  pro- 
jected a  scheme  for  the  wholesale  planting  of  Scotch  and 
English  tenants  on  Irish  land.  This  land  corporation  came 
to  grief,  and  on  the  recommendation  of  Dr.  Patton  young 
Houston  obtained  the  secretaryship  of  a  new  political  or- 
ganization, called  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union.  This 
body  came  into  existence  in  1885  and  was  described  by 
Houston  in  his  evidence  as  an  "anti-Land-League  society." 
It  represented  the  landlord  and  Dublin-Castle  spirit  of  opposi- 
tion to  Mr.  Gladstone's  policy  of  justice  to  Ireland,  and 
was  financed  by  the  wealthy  land-owners,  brewers,  and  dis- 
tillers of  the  country.  Its  headquarters  were  in  Dublin,  and 
Houston,  in  want  of  a  man  who  would  be  best  qualified  to  do 
the  work  required  by  the  most  malignant  of  the  enemies  of  the 
national  movement,  searched  for  and  found  Richard  Pigott. 

The  following  correspondence  will  explain  how  this  con- 
genial colleague  in  the  mission  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Pa- 
triotic Union  was  discovered  and  employed: 

"Liberal  Central  Association,  41  and  42  Parliament  St.,  S.W., 

"October  9,   1885. 

"Sir, — In  reply  to  your  letter  of  the  8th,  I  beg  to  say  that 
I  shall  be  glad  to  see  the  pamphlet  or  a  proof  of  it  before  I  am 
able  to  promise  you  any  assistance. 
36  561 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"Pray  believe  that  in  asking  this  I  am  not  imputing  any 
doubt  as  to  the  character  of  the  pamphlet,  but  there  are  two 
or  three  points  connected  with  Irish  legislation  to  which  I 
should  be  sorry  to  commit  myself  in  ignorance. 
"I  am,  sir,  yours  obediently, 

"(Signed)  Richard  Grosvenor. 

"  Richard  Pigott,  Esq.,  20  Corrig  Avemie,  Kingstown,  Dublin." 

"  Liberal  Central  Association,  41  and  42  Parliament  St.,  S.W., 

"  October  13,   1885. 

"  Sir, — I  am  obliged  for  your  letter  of  the  loth,  in  which  you 
give  a  very  tempting  account  of  the  contents  of  3'our  pro- 
posed pamphlet.  You  must  forgive  me  for  saying  that,  as 
you  are  an  entire  stranger  to  me,  I  am  unwilling  to  spend 
money  (not  my  own)  in  an  undertaking  of  which  I  have  no 
opportunity  of  estimating  the  value,  and  I  suppose  that 
you  could  hardly  give  me  a  reference,  as  I  assume  that 
latterly  your  friends  have  lain  among  the  nationalists;  but 
still  I  am  willing  to  trust  you,  and  should  be  glad  to  know 
what  you  estimate  would  be  the  cost  of  printing  your  pam- 
phlet, or  could  we  come  to  terms  as  to  allowing  me  to  see 
it  and  having  it  printed  here;  or  would  it  be  more  advisable 
to  have  it  published  in  Dublin. 

"I  am,  sir,  yours  obediently, 

"(Signed)  Richard  Grosvenor. 
"  R.  Pigott,  Esq." 

"  Liberal  Central  Association,  41  and  42  Parliament  St.,  S.W., 

"October  15,  1885. 

"Sir, — I  beg  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  lettel" 
of  the  14th.     I   return   you,  enclosed.  Lord   Derby's  letter, 
and  will  write  you  further  on  the  other  subject  to-morrow. 
"I  am,  yours  faithfully, 

"(Signed)  Richard  Grosvenor. 
"  i?.  Pigott,  Esq." 

"Parliament  Street,  S.W.,  October  19,   1885. 
"  Pigott,  Corrig  Avenue,  Kingstown,  Ireland  : 

"H.,  of  Dublin,  will  see  you.  Grosvenor." 

"College  Green  [Ireland],  October  30,   1885. 
"  Pigott,  20  Corrig  Avenue,  Kingstown  : 

"Shall  not  be  able  to  see  you  to-day.         H.  [Houston]." 

In  November,  1885,  immediately  after. his  interviews  with 
Houston,  Pigott  published  a  pamphlet  called  "Parnellism," 

562 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

which  was  a  rehash  of  the  articles  he  had  written  for  various 
London  papers  since  1882.  It  is  probable  that  the  money 
for  this  publication  came  from  the  chief  whip  of  the  English 
Liberal  party,  through  Houston.  But  be  this  as  it  may, 
this  latter  person,  in  his  own  evidence  before  the  commission, 
told  how  he  had  entered  into  an  agreement  with  Pigott,  after 
the  publishing  of  the  pamphlet,  at  the  rate  of  a  pound  per 
day  and  expenses  "to  find  documents,"  and  do  such  other 
work  of  that  kind  as  would  serve  the  end  of  the  Irish  Loyal 
and  Patriotic  Union,  which  was,  in  Pigott's  ow^n  account  of 
his  engagement,  "to  hunt  down  the  Parnellites." 

No  man  connected  with  the  press  or  politics  of  Dublin 
could  be  ignorant  of  the  true  character  of  Pigott.  Houston 
knew  well  who  the  man  was,  in  all  his  reputation,  to  whom  he 
gave  the  tempting  salary  for  the  search  of  material  which 
might  injure  or  ruin  political  opponents.  How  the  forged  let- 
ters were  in  time  produced,  purchased  by  Houston,  and  pub- 
lished in  The  Times,  will  be  presently  related.  But  this  son 
of  a  Dublin  warder  had  other  allies  besides  Pigott's  Liberal 
patrons  in  1885  and  The  Times  in  1887-88.  He  had,  likewise, 
the  assistance  of  the  secret -service  department  of  the  home 
office,  then  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Anderson,  a  former 
employe  of  Dublin  Castle.  This  official  accepted  the  "in- 
vitation" of  Beach,  or  Le  Caron,  to  give  evidence  for  The 
Times,  and  during  the  examination  of  the  famous  spy  it  was 
Houston,  and  not  the  lawyers  employed  by  The  Times,  who 
was  in  charge  of  the  secret  documents  which  Beach  had  sent 
from  time  to  time  to  the  department  of  which  he  was  a  paid 
secret  agent.  There  was  no  attempt  to  deny  this  collabora- 
tion; it  was  open  and  above-board.  But  our  side  alleged, 
and  Sir  Charles  Russell  declared  for  Mr.  Parnell,  that  he 
could  prove  by  the  books  and  papers  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and 
Patriotic  Union,  if  brought  into  court,  that  money  out  of  the 
secret  -  service  fund  voted  by  Parliament  had  been  con- 
tributed to  Houston  and  company  towards  defraying  the 
costs  incurred  in  Pigott's  expensive  fees  and  journeys,  and  in 
kindred  work  in  the  task  of  destroying  the  Parnellites  and 
defaming  the  whole  character  and  purpose  of  the  Irish 
movement.  Information  which  reached  us  from  more  than 
one  well-informed  source  affirmed  that  three  members  of  the 
cabinet  of  Lord  Salisbury  during  the  years  1886-88  w^ere 
parties  to  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union  plot;  that 
monej^s  were  contributed  by  them,  in  checks,  towards  the 
fund  for  the  purchase  of  the  forged  letters ;  that  the  publica- 
tion of  the  letters  in  The  Times  and  the  draughting  of  the  bill 
which  created  the  special  commission,  with  its  loaded-dice 

563 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

provisions  and  character,  were  the  direct  work  of  that  con- 
spiracy. On  the  facts  placed  before  him  Sir  Charles  Russell 
declared  he  could  have  proved  all  this,  and  more  to  the  same 
effect,  if  the  tribunal  thus  fashioned  by  his  leagued  enemies 
to  ruin  Mr.  Parnell  would  give  him  the  power  to  summon 
witnesses  and  to  obtain  access  to  papers  and  to  books  in 
which  this  proof  was  to  be  found.  And  it  was  the  refusal  of 
the  commission  to  grant  this  power  which  caused  the  great 
advocate  to  advise  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  traversers  to 
withdraw  from  all  further  part  in  the  one-sided  investigation, 
at  a  certain  stage  in  its  proceedings. 

Richard  Pigott  was  of  obscure  origin.  His  father  was  a 
native  of  the  County  Meath.  Pigott,  senior,  made  his  way 
to  Dublin,  where  he  was  for  some  time  employed  as  a  clerk 
in  the  office  of  The  Tablet,  a  publication  then  edited  by  the  late 
Frederick  Lucas.  George  Pigott,  the  father  of  Richard,  next 
obtained  a  position  on  the  staff  of  a  newspaper  called  The 
Monitor,  pubhshed  in  Lower  Abbey  Street,  DubHn,  upon 
premises  subsequently  occupied  by  The  Nation. 

It  was  after  the  foundation  of  The  Nation,  in  1842,  that 
Richard  Pigott  made  his  debut  in  the  humble  role  of  an 
office  boy.  After  some  years  he  transferred  his  service  to  a 
journal  published  in  Belfast  by  Mr.  Denis  Holland,  The 
Ulster  man.  Here  he  learned  a  good  deal  of  the  business 
branch  of  a  newspaper  office,  and  when  Mr.  Holland  after- 
wards changed  the  name  of  his  newspaper  to  Tlie  IrisJi- 
man,  and  transferred  the  publication  office  to  Dublin,  he  placed 
Richard  Pigott  as  manager  in  charge  of  the  commercial 
department. 

The  Irishman  does  not  appear  to  have  been  a  financial 
success  in  the  hands  of  its  conductors  at  this  period,  and 
Mr.  Holland  disposed  of  it  to  the  late  Mr.  P.  J.  Smyth,  a 
well-known  Irish  patriot  and  politician,  who  was  for  some 
years  one  of  the  Irish  representatives  at  Westminster,  where 
he  displayed  remarkable  oratorical  abilities.  In  Mr.  Smyth's 
hands  The  Irishman  was  also  financially  a  failure,  and  about 
1865  he  transferred  its  ownership  to  Richard  Pigott  for  a 
merely  nominal  figure. 

The  leaders  of  the  Fenian  organization,  which  was  then  a 
powerful  movement  in  Ireland,  started  an  organ  of  their  own, 
in  1863,  called  The  Irish  People.  A  couple  of  years  later  the 
staff  was  arrested  and  the  paper  was  suppressed. 

This  afforded  Pigott  an  opening,  which  he  shrewdly  availed 
himself  of  by  advocating  the  cause  of  Fenianism.  The  result 
was  that  the  sale  of  his  paper  went  up  at  a  bound  to  about 
fifty  thousand  a  week — a  large  sale  in  those  days.     Many  of 

564 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

the  contributions  to  the  paper  were  ably  and  vigorously- 
written  in  defence  of  the  Fenian  prisoners  and  of  the  Irish 
revolutionary  movement,  and  the  consequence  was  that 
Pigott  became,  as  the  owner  of  such  an  organ,  a  very  promi- 
nent personality  in  the  press  politics  of  the  time  in  Ireland. 
The  income  which  he  derived  from  The  Irishman  about  this 
period  has  been  estimated  at  ;^2ooo  a  year. 

Pigott 's  position  as  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  reputed 
organ  of  the  physical  -  force  party,  gave  him  exceptional 
opportunities  of  learning  whatever  "secrets"  belonged  to 
revolutionary  bodies.  Though  never  an  enrolled  Fenian, 
it  was  generally  believed  he  was  either  a  member  of  the 
"Supreme  Council,"  or,  at  least,  one  of  the  leading  lights  of 
the  secret  organization.  He  encouraged  this  belief  when 
speaking  or  writing  to  members,  or  to  subordinate  officers, 
in  order  to  be  made  the  repository  of  a  confidence  which  he 
could  turn  to  account  as  opportunity  might  offer. 

Pigott  was  perfectly  impartial  in  his  scheming  propensities. 
He  found  revolutionists  and  constitutionalists  sometimes 
trusting  and  then  using  him,  and  he  made  them  pay  for  the 
attention  he  bestowed  upon  them.  When  the  late  Mr.  Isaac 
Butt  founded  the  Home -Rule  movement,  Pigott  subjected 
him  and  many  of  his  colleagues  to  a  systematic  blackmailing. 
He  threatened  them  with  the  active  opposition  of  the  Fenian 
organization,  declaring  that  if  he  were  not  relieved  from  his 
pecuniary  difficulties  he  would  be  compelled  to  make  terms 
with  others.  The  sum  of  ;^iooo  was  immediately  guaran- 
teed him  by  Mr.  Butt,  Mr.  Mitchell  Henry,  and  a  few  other 
prominent  Irish  members  of  Parliament,  who  were  con- 
sequently lauded  in  the  columns  of  The  Irishman,  until  its 
proprietor's  next  financial  embarrassment  compelled  him  to 
put  the  screw  on  again.  In  Mr.  Butt  he  always  found  a 
squeezable  friend  in  need.  The  father  of  the  Home  -  Rule 
League,  great  lawyer  though  he  was,  fell  an  easy  victim 
through  his  good -nature  to  Pigott's  plans,  and  frequently 
when  Mr.  Butt,  who  was  himself  always  poor,  had  not  many 
pounds  to  spare,  he  would  share  them  with  this  uncon- 
scionable rogue,  who  knew  so  well  how  to  play  upon  the 
innate  goodness  and  generosity  of  the  last  of  Ireland's  popu- 
lar tribunes.  While  pretending  to  uphold  Mr.  Butt's  consti- 
tutional policy,  Pigott  encouraged  honest,  but  hot-headed, 
Fenians  to  organize  opposition  to  the  Home- Rule  move- 
ment, and  he  was  largely  responsible  for  the  open  attack 
which  was  made  upon  Mr.  Butt's  Limerick  meeting  in  1876, 
an  act  which  caused  many  who  had  previously  believed 
in  Fenianism   to  become   its   active   opponents    afterwards, 

565 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Pigott's  last  performance  of  this  kind,  before  attempting  to 
exploit  the  Land  League,  was  to  induce  the  late  Lord  Francis 
Conyngham  to  go  guarantee  for  him  for  ;^6oo  in  one  of  the 
Dublin  banks. 

From  the  very  inception  of  the  Land  League  Pigott  became 
its  underhand  enemy.  I  never  spoke  to  him  but  once  in  his 
life,  and  that  was  in  the  office  of  The  Irishman,  in  February, 
1878,  when,  with  Messrs.  McCarthy,  Chambers,  and  J.  P. 
O'Brien,  we  called  to  thank  him  for  his  paper's  support  of  the 
efforts  which  Butt,  O'Connor  Power,  and  other  Irish  members 
of  Parliament  had  been  making  to  obtain  our  release.  We 
had  already  called  for  a  similar  purpose  upon  the  editors  of 
the  Freeman's  Journal  and  The  Nation.  I  had,  however, 
once  written  to  Pigott.  It  was  from  Dartmoor  Prison.  The 
note  so  written  has  now  a  history.  After  many  years'  im- 
prisonment a  friendly  warder  was  found.  I  had  matured  a 
long-cherished  plan  of  escape,  in  which  at  that  time  lay  the 
only  hope  of  ever  regaining  liberty,  as  declining  health 
precluded  the  possibility  of  my  being  able  to  work  out  the 
whole  of  my  sentence  of  fifteen  years.  A  little  money  was 
wanted,  and  the  idea  of  turning  "prison  poet,"  with  the 
view  of  earning,  rather  than  asking  for,  the  money,  suggested 
itself.  The  verses  were  sent  surreptitiously  to  The  IrisJinian, 
with  a  note  explaining  that  the  writer  needed  a  few  pounds  for 
a  particular  purpose.  The  few  pounds  never  came;  but  the 
note,  according  to  Pigott's  confession  to  Mr.  Labouchere,  was 
the  inspiration  of  the  letter  which  Pigott  afterwards  forged 
for  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union,  and  which  Mr.  Soames 
swore  was  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Davitt ! 

The  virtual  collapse  of  the  Home -Rule  League,  with  the 
death  of  Mr.  Butt,  took  from  Pigott  one  means  of  raising 
the  needful  for  himself  and  his  declining  papers.  He  was 
practically  bankrupt  in  money  and  in  influence  when  the 
Land  League  came  into  existence  in  1879.  The  circulation 
of  The  Irishman  had  gone  down  almost  to  zero,  and  Pigott's 
character  and  reputation  had  followed  suit.  All  Dublin 
knew  of  his  scheming,  borrowing  and  blackmailing  prac- 
tices. His  credit,  pecuniary  and  political,  was  gone,  and  it 
was  only  a  question  of  a  short  time  until  his  papers  would 
disappear  too. 

He  attacked  the  Land  League  in  his  paper  The  Flag  of 
Ireland,  and  encouraged  many  well-known  Fenians  to  support 
him.  All  this  was  done  for  a  purpose.  Pigott  was  playing 
the  old  game  of  intimidation  as  a  means  of  raising  the  wind. 
I  regret  to  have  to  say  he  did  not  altogether  play  in  vain. 

Mr.  Parnell  became  alarmed.     So  did  a  few  more  of  the 

566 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

prominent  Land-Leaguers,  and  when,  a  few  months  subse- 
quently, Pigott  made  a  demand  for  money  from  the  treas- 
urer, Mr.  Egan,  a  sum  of  ;;^25o  was  paid  with  the  consent  of 
Mr.  Parnell,  notwithstanding  an  undertaking  which  had  been 
given  to  Mr.  Thomas  Brennan  and  to  myself  that  the  threats 
or  demands  of  the  proprietor  of  The  Irishman  would  be 
unheeded. 

The  way  in  which  Pigott  .succeeded  in  obtaining  this  re- 
lief was  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the  man.  During  the 
months  of  August  and  September  of  1880  he  modified  the 
tone  of  his  papers  towards  the  Land-League  agitation.  Mr. 
Parnell  was  occasionally  lauded.  Mr.  Egan  came  in  for  ju- 
dicious praise  also,  and  something  good  for  the  country  was 
predicted  as  a  result  of  the  uprising  of  the  people  against 
landlordism.  In  October  Pigott  sent  for  Mr.  Egan,  and,  in 
apparent  anxiety,  showed  him  a  "special  order"  which  he 
declared  had  been  served  upon  him  by  the  executive  of  the 
Irish  Republican  Brotherhood.  It  was  a  printed  document 
— printed  in  the  office  of  The  Irishman,  as  the  original  copy, 
in  Pigott 's  own  handwriting,  has  fallen  into  my  hands,  and 
places  this  fact  beyond  all  dispute.     It  read  as  follows: 

"I.  R.  B. 

"  Special  Order,  No.   i   (New  Series). 

"  I.  The  Irishman  newspaper  and  its  auxiliary.  The  Flag 
of  Ireland,  and  the  writings  of  these  journals,  should  be  in 
full  accord  with  the  aspirations  of  those  whom  they  claim 
to  represent — the  men  who  are  laboring  for  the  restoration 
of  Ireland's  national  independence. 

"2.  For  a  number  of  years  the  proprietor  and  conductor 
of  those  journals  has  outraged  the  feelings  of  those  in  whose 
name  said  journals  lived,  moved,  and  had  their  being,  by 
supporting  every  adventurer  who  appeared  on  the  stage  of 
Irish  politics,  from  Butt  to  Parnell. 

"3.  Recent  writings  of  these  journals  in  question,  in  prop- 
ping up  a  socialistic  movement  headed  by  Land-League  agi- 
tators, are  calculated  to  mislead  the  public,  and  to  bring  the 
name  of  nationality  into  disrepute,  because  the  inference  will 
be  drawn  that  an  alliance  has  been  formed  with  the  national 
party  and  the  designing  knaves  who  are  aided  by  those  jour- 
nals, and  endeavoring  to  trade  on  their  name. 

"  4.  Now  it  is  hereby  ordered  that  an  end  be  put  to  such 
treasonable  proceedings,  and  that  Mr.  Richard  Pigott,  as  pro- 
prietor and  editor  of  The  Irishman  and  The  Flag  of  Ireland, 
be  commanded  to  resume  its  advocacy  to  the  national  cause, 
and  to  eschew  all  moral  -  force  doctrines  from  the  columns 

567 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

of  said  journals,  or  change  the  names  of  the  papers  for  others, 
to  be  approved  of  by  the  executive  authority  who  issue  this 
order. 

"5.  That  this  order  be  enforced  by  the  general  in  command 
of  the  district  in  which  the  aforesaid  journals  are  published, 
and  due  notice  be  given  to  the  proprietor  of  the  journals  re- 
ferred to,  and  all  whom  it  may  concern.  That  this  command 
herein  named  shall  be  complied  with  on  and  after  the  ist 
day  of  November  next,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and 
eighty. 

"  6.  The  penalty  of  refusal  is  the  forfeiture  of  the  life  of  the 
said  Richard  Pigott." 

It  is  inconceivable  that  a  man  who  was  so  well  informed  of 
Pigott 's  past  exploits  as  Mr.  Egan  could  have  been  deceived 
as  to  the  real  authorship  and  purport  of  this  document.  He 
doubtless  saw  through  the  whole  of  it,  and  was  influenced 
solely  in  making  the  grant  of  money  to  Pigott  by  a  desire 
to  stop  him  from  inciting  the  Fenians  to  attack  the  Land 
League.  Pigott  agreed,  in  consideration  of  the  ;(^2  5o,  not 
to  allow  his  papers  to  be  made  the  medium  of  opposition 
to  the  league,  but,  needless  to  add,  the  agreement  was  not 
carried  out.  Pigott  had  found  his  way,  as  he  thought,  to  the 
exchequer  of  the  movement,  and  as  his  necessities  were  a 
constant  exercise  to  his  talent  for  roguery,  his  demands  for 
money  became  constant. 

Meanwhile  the  Land  League  was  growing  in  influence  and 
power.  The  organization  began  to  embrace  the  whole 
country,  while  an  auxiliary  league  was  being  formed  in 
America  and  Canada,  from  which  large  remittances  were 
made  every  week  to  sustain  the  fight  against  landlordism. 
In  the  language  of  Sir  Stafford  Northcote,  the  Land  League 
had  become  "the  de  facto  government  of  Ireland"  at  the 
beginning  of  1881.  Its  enemies,  naturally  enough,  were 
alarmed  at  the  extraordinary  spread  of  the  agitation,  but 
especially  at  the  growth  of  its  financial  resources.  The 
landlord  press  in  Ireland,  and  the  hostile  English  press, 
began  the  game  of  assailing  the  administration  of  the  funds 
of  the  league.  The  agitators  were  declared  to  be  misappro- 
priating moneys  sent  for  the  relief  of  evicted  tenants;  members 
of  Parliament  were  charged  with  helping  themselves  liberally 
out  of  the  league  treasury,  and  so  on;  the  object  of  these 
calumnious  statements  being  to  sow  distrust  in  the  public 
mind  as' to  the  honesty  of  purpose  of  the  leaders  of  the  league. 

Pigott  was  not  slow  to  avail  himself  of  the  means  which 
this  line  of  attack  offered  to  his  blackmailing  practices.     He 

568 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

wrote  to  Mr.  Egan,  informing  him  that  "two  strangers," 
whom  he  suspected  of  being  "emissaries  of  DubHn  Castle," 
had  called  upon  him,  and  had  offered  him  a  sum  of  ;£5oo  if 
he  would  publish  a  certain  document  in  The  Irishman  which 
was  to  be  an  expose  of  the  squandering  of  the  moneys  of  the 
league.  It  was  from  this  correspondence  between  Pigott  and 
Mr.  Egan  we  may  date  the  origin  of  the  conspiracy  which 
eventuated  in  the  publication  of  "  Parnellism  and  Crime." 
It  was,  likewise,  as  if  in  retributive  compensation,  from  the 
letters  written  by  Pigott  on  this  occasion  and  shortly  after- 
wards, when  The  Irishman  was  sold  to  Messrs.  Parnell  and 
Egan,  that  the  authorship  of  the  forged  letters  was  first  dis- 
covered by  Mr.  Patrick  Egan. 

In  a  letter  dated  February  27,  1881,  Pigott  told  the  follow- 
ing story: 

' '  I  received  an  anonymous  letter  saying  that  two  gentlemen 
would  call  upon  me  and  make  a  proposition,  which,  if  I 
accept,  will  turn  out  greatly  to  my  advantage.  They  came 
last  Monday  evening.  The  interview  lasted  a  couple  of  hours, 
and,  to  make  a  long  story  short,  they  asked  me  to  publish 
a  statement  in  The  Irishman,  which  they  showed  me,  and 
stated  that  I  might  name  my  own  price  for  doing  so.  .  .  . 
The  thing  purports  to  be  a  true  statement  of  the  expenditure 
of  the  league  funds,  and  is,  I  think,  an  outrageous  libel  from 
beginning  to  end.  It,  however,  makes  very  circumstantial 
charges,  mentions  names,  gives  dates,  etc.  .  .  .  My  own 
opinion  is  that  the  whole  affair  is  a  tissue  of  falsehoods;  but 
it  is  so  artfully  done,  and  so  apparently  truthful,  that  its 
publication  would,  I  think,  be  likely  to  do  much  harm." 

How  well  the  description  of  this  plot  of  1881,  given  by 
the  man  who  was  practically  the  author  of  the  "  Parnellism 
and  Crime  "  articles  of  1887,  tallies  with  the  plan  and  purpose 
of  the  Houston-Pigott  fabrications  which  produced  the  Par- 
nell Commission! 

Pigott  went  on  to  say,  in  the  same  letter:  "But  I  have 
also  ascertained  certain  things  which  make  me  conclude 
that  the  moving  spirits  of  tlie  affair  are  Castle  people";  the 
writer  winding  up  with  a  request  that  Mr.  Egan  should  forward 
him  ;^3oo  to  relieve  him  from  pecuniary  difficulties,  which 
otherwise  might  tempt  him  to  accept  the  money  of  the  "two 
mysterious  emissaries"  from  Dublin  Castle.  Mr.  Egan,  who 
was  at  this  time  in  Paris,  wrote  a  brief  acknowledgment  of 
Pigott 's  communication,  to  which  the  latter  replied  on  March 
gth,  in  a  further  letter,  from  which  the  following  are  abstracts: 

"The  publication  of  the  statement  would  be  very  damaging 
to  the  league,  even  though  it  may  be  proved  to  be  mainly 

569 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

built  up  of  fabrication.  .  .  .  My  reasons  for  thinking  that  the 
Castle  people  (the  Irish  government)  are  the  prime  movers 
is  that  articles  have  appeared  in  the  Express  with  much  the 
same  tendency.  .  .  .  Now  you  will  see  from  the  enclosed  note 
that  if  I  publish  this  dociiment  I  will  get  ^^500,  and  will 
not  be  required  to  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  any  of  the 
statements  it  contains.  To  come  to  the  point,  I  am  in 
desperate  straits.  I  must  have  money  somehow,  or  throw 
up  the  sponge  at  once.  I  cannot  afford  to  let  so  lucky  a 
chance  pass  of  saving  myself  literally  from  ruin.  No  matter 
what  the  consequences  are,  I  must  and  will  take  this  offer 
unless  you  come  to  my  assistance." 

The  "note"  to  which  reference  is  made  in  this  letter,  and 
which  Pigott  asserts  was  sent  to  him  by  the  Castle  agents, 
was  as  follows: 

"5-  3-  '81. 
"Your  decision  is  still  anxiously  awaited.  You  are  not  re- 
quired to  authenticate  any  of  the  statements  made.  You 
may  even  throw  doubt  upon  them,  and  invite  contradiction. 
You  are  only  asked  to  print  this  document.  Will  wait 
another  week  for  your  answer,  and  if  you  agree  to  publish, 
;^5oo  will  be  lodged  to  your  credit  in  any  bank  you  please, 
in  Dublin  or  elsewhere." 

To  this  letter  Mr.  Egan  replied  on  March  11,  1881,  as 
follows : 

"Sir, — As  I  understand  your  letter,  which  reached  me  to- 
day, it  is  a  threat  that  unless  I  forward  you  money  by  Monday 
next  you  will  close  with  the  government,  and,  in  consideration 
of  a  sum  of  ;^5oo,  publish  for  them  certain  documents  which 
you  believe  to  be  false  against  the  league.  Be  it  so.  Under 
any  circumstances  I  have  no  power  to  so  apply  any  of  the 
funds  of  the  league;  but  even  if  I  had  the  power,  I  would  not, 
under  any  circumstances,  act  upon  it.  Whenever  any  such 
accusations  are  made  we  will  know  how  to  defend  ourselves." 

No  sooner  had  Pigott  disposed  of  his  papers,  in  the  ill- 
advised  purchase  of  them  by  Messrs.  Parnell  and  Egan  in 
August,  1 88 1,  than  he  began  to  put  into  execution  the 
scheme  of  defamation  which  had  been  "suggested"  to  him 
in  the  February  previous.  He  became  the  inspiration  or  the 
author  of  most  of  the  attacks  made  upon  the  Land  League 
for  its  falsely  alleged  identity  with  outrage  and  malversa- 
tion of  funds  which  appeared  in  leading  landlord  and  Tory 
organs  in  Dublin  and  London  from  1881  to  the  publication 

570 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

of  "  Pamellism  and  Crime."  And  it  is  only  right  to  say  that, 
years  previous  to  the  printing  of  these  hbels  in  The  Times, 
articles  similar  in  character  were  contributed  by  Pigott  to 
such  papers  as  the  Dublin  Daily  Express,  the  (London) 
Standard,  St.  James's  Gazette,  Evening  News,  Morning  Post, 
The  Globe,  society  journals  like  Vanity  Fair,  and  other  organs 
of  anti-Irish  opinion.  From  December,  i88t,  down  to  the 
time  in  1885  when  Houston  employed  him  to  write  an  en- 
larged edition  of  the  pamphlet  "  Parnellism,"  Pigott  kept  up  a 
ceaseless  attack  upon  the  league  and  the  Irish  leaders  in  the 
columns  of  the  above  papers. 

The  following  extracts  from  a  diary  of  Pigott's,  found  after 
his  suicide,  will  indicate  the  kind  of  work  which  he  performed 
for  the  St.  James's  Gazette: 
1883. 
March    19.  Sent  notes. 

31.  One-column  article. 
1884. 
March    17.  Sent  notes. 

25.  Sent  notes,  Davitt  and  Harrington. 
"         26.   Impartial  reporting. 
"        31.  Parnell  and  ;^4o,ooo. 
April      13.  Arrests  alleged  dynamiters  in  London. 

"        22.  Notes  on  dynamite. 
May         I.  On  Stephens  and  franchise. 
"  2.  Notes  on  Gladstone. 

"  5.  Article  on  Davitt 's  return. 

"        27.  Leader,  "  Invincibles  and  Vigilants." 
June         2.  Notes,  "O'Brien's  Fine"  (3). 

23.   Barbavilla  murder  (4). 
August  16.  Notes,  "Boston  Conference." 

29.  Leader,  "A  Celebrity  at  Home." 
"        30.  Notes,  "Justice  in  Ireland." 
Nov.       20.  Leader  and  notes. 

25.  Leader,  "Joe  Poole." 
"        27.  Leader,  "Earl  Spencer." 
"        30.  Attack  on  Hussey. 


The  diary  further  records  the  following  among  the  many 
contributions  which  he  made  to  the  London  Evening  News 
(now  the  Evening  News  and  Post): 


March  16.  Sent  leader,  "Irish  Patriots  and  their  Parties. 
"       23.  Sent  leader,   "Parnellism." 
27.  Sent  leader,   "Irish  Rivals." 
April      I.  Leader  on  "Dynamiters  and  Assassination." 

571 


" 

28. 

" 

30- 

May 

4- 

9- 

" 

IS- 

June 

6. 

Nov. 

23- 

THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

April      4.  Leader  on  "  Invincibles." 

13.  Article,  "Late  Arrests,  Dynamiters  in  London." 
16.  Leader,  "  Parnellites  at  Loggerheads." 
"       20.  Article,  "Incidents  in  Ireland." 

Irish  Republicans. 

Notes,  "Gladstone  for  Mayo." 

Notes,  "Gladstone  and  Home  Rule." 

Notes,  "League  Conventions." 

Notes,  Parnellites. 

Two  leaders. 

Leader  and  notes. 

The  St.  James's  Gazette  remitted  him  a  total  of  ;^i32  2s.  6d. 
for  ten  months'  contributions  alone. 

It  was  while  thus  employed  as  "dynamite  revelationist " 
for  the  leading  London  journals  that  Pigott  was  called  upon 
by  Houston,  as  already  related,  and  engaged  as  salaried 
agent  of  the  anti  -  Land  -  League  combination.  The  recom- 
pense was  tempting  and  the  work  congenial  to  the  man  who 
had  already  recommended  his  wares  to  Liberal  and  Tory 
enemies  of  the  Parnell  movement  impartially.  After  re- 
issuing his  pamphlet,  he  started  out  in  his  quest  for  "facts" 
more  damaging  still  than  those  which  he  had  already  prof- 
itably retailed  to  the  political  and  newspaper  caterers  for 
calumnious  matter  against  the  hapless  Irish  cause.  And,  as 
heretofore,  and  like  every  other  unscrupulous  mercenary 
and  spy  in  the  pay  of  Pamell's  enemies,  Pigott  bent  his  steps 
towards  —  Kasey,  of  Paris,  and  Eugene  Davis.  This  was 
the  general  emporium  for  "plots,"  "secrets,"  "revolutionary 
designs,"  and  "treasonable"  documents,  and  it  was  to  this 
source  the  new  agent  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union 
turned  his  face  in  order  to  find  the  alleged  proofs  that  John 
Devoy,  of  New  York,  as  affirmed  in  the  pamphlet  "  Par- 
nellism  "  was  "the  chief  originator  of  the  Invincibles." 

Davis  resided  at  Lausanne  in  Switzerland,  and  thither 
Pigott  went.  He  had  repeated  interviews  with  his  friend, 
and  returned  to  Paris.  As  a  result  of  his  talks  with  Davis, 
he  met  some  agents  of  the  Clan-na-Gael  in  Paris,  who  chanced 
to  be  in  the  city,  and  learned  from  them  that  a  black  bag, 
which  had  belonged  to  Frank  Byrne,  who  had  been  im- 
plicated in  the  "Invincible"  conspiracy,  had  been  left  behind 
when  he  departed  for  America  in  1883.  In  this  bag  a  bundle 
of  letters  was  found — letters  of  Mr.  Parnell,  of  Mr.  Patrick 
Egan,  and  others  —  all  directly  implicating  these  in  the 
Phoenix  Park  murders  and  in  other  Invincible  designs  of  a 
treasonable    and    murderous    character.     The    agents    were 

572 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

good  enough  to  allow  Pigott  to  copy  some  of  the  documents, 
and  Houston  was  in  due  course  made  acquainted  with  the 
damnatory  nature  of  the  evidence  therein  contained  against 
the  leader  and  treasurer  and  organization  of  the  Land  League. 

It  transpired,  however,  that  the  letters  could  not  be  de- 
livered up  except  on  an  order  from  a  certain  person  in  New 
York  named  John  Breslin;  and  Pigott  suggested  to  Houston 
that  he  (Pigott)  should  cross  the  Atlantic  for  the  open  sesame 
authority  of  Mr.  Breslin.  An  assent  was  given  to  this  pro- 
posal, and  Pigott,  under  an  assumed  name,  sailed  for  New 
York  from  Liverpool  per  the  Aiirania  on  May  i,  1886. 

Breaking  away  for  a  moment  from  Pigott's  yarn  to  Houston, 
it  transpired,  on  inquiries  which  I  made  in  New  York  sub- 
sequently, that  Pigott  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  a  gang 
of  sharpers  while  he  was  pretending  to  seek  a  man  to  whom 
he  would  have  been  afraid  to  speak,  the  late  Mr.  John  J. 
Breslin,  who  had  rescued  the  Fenian  military  prisoners  from 
West  Australia  in  the  middle  seventies.  The  following  let- 
ter will  explain  the  kind  of  "conspirators"  Houston's  emis- 
sary associated  with  in  the  great  Manhattan  city: 

"  Mayor's  Office,  New  York, 
"May  20,  1886, 

''Richard  Pigott,  Esq.,  of  Kingstown,  Dublin: 

"Dear  Sir, — On  behalf  of  the  mayor  I  desire  to  reply 
to  your  letter  of  the  19th  inst.,  and  am  requested  by  him  to 
say  that  the  matter  has  been  referred  to  the  police  depart- 
ment for  immediate  attention.  Should  the  detective  force 
be  able  to  trace  the  confidence  men,  you  will  be  notified. 
"Yours  respectfully, 

"(Signed)  Wm.  Le  Snoued,  Secretary." 

It  may  also  be  added  here  that  five  days  after  Pigott  sailed 
back  for  Europe,  the  first  sensational  article  revealing  cer- 
tain Clan-na-Gael  "secrets"  and  dissensions,  which  were  sub- 
sequently used  in  the  preparation  of  the  "  Parnellism  and 
Crime"  literature  for  the  London  Times,  appeared  in  the 
New  York  Times.  These  articles  I  have  found  carefully 
placed  in  Pigott's  scrap-books,  along  with  copies  of  his  con- 
tributions to  The  Times  and  other  London  papers  on  similar 
subjects. 

On  Pigott's  return  to  Paris,  "Murphy  and  Brown,"  the 
ubiquitous  agents  of  the  "Clan,"  appeared  again  in  that  city, 
and  were  opportunely  able  to  discuss  the  business  side  of  the 
Parnell  and  Egan  letters  with  the  man  who  had  brought 
the  Breslin  sanction  for  their  delivery  from  New  York.   Their 

573 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

terms  were  put  before  Houston,  and  he,  in  company  with  a 
Professor  Maguire,  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  went  to  Paris 
to  hand  over  the  money  which  would  gain  them  possession 
of  the  coveted  documents.  This  was  in  July.  They  put 
up  in  the  Hotel  des  Deux  Mondes,  and  Pigott  brought  them  the 
letters,  saying  that  the  "Clan"  agents  were  down  below 
awaiting  the  payment  of  the  ;)(^5oo  which  had  been  agreed 
upon  as  the  price.  The  professor  handed  the  money  to 
Houston,  who  paid  it  to  Pigott,  who  then  rejoined  the 
"agents,"  and  disappeared. 

The  ;;^5oo  covered  the  bargain  for  the  documents,  but  up  to 
this  time  a  sum  of  over  ;^iooo  had  been  paid  by  Houston  to 
Pigott  for  expenses,  information,  and  other  work,  since  the 
November  previous.  That  would  be  at  the  rate  of  ;^i5o  per 
month.  It  was  in  every  respect  a  golden  engagement  for 
the  ex-editor  of  The  Irishman. 

In  Houston's  evidence  he  swore  that  he  had  borrowed 
the  money  for  Pigott 's  remuneration  and  expenses  in  ne- 
gotiating the  letters  from  Professor  Maguire,  Sir  Roland 
Ponsonby  Blennerhassett,  and  Mr.  Jonathan  Hogg,  of  Dublin, 
leading  lights  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union. 

In  bargaining  with  Pigott  for  the  letters,  it  was  agreed 
that  Houston  should  keep  private  the  source  whence  they 
were  obtained,  and  the  adroit  secretary  of  the  Irish  Loyal 
and  Patriotic  Union  took  the  precaution,  immediately  on  the 
passing  of  the  special  commission  bill,  to  destroy  all  his  cor- 
respondence with  Richard  Pigott. 

For  six  months  (after  July,  1886)  Houston  hawked  the 
letters  round  London.  Prominent  politicians  and  one  or 
two  editors  were  shown  them.  We  were  informed  that  they 
had  been  loaned  to  a  person  who  took  them  to  Rome,  where 
they  were  seen  by  the  cardinal  secretary  of  the  Propaganda. 
This  was  about  a  year  previous  to  the  edict  against  the 
"plan  of  campaign"  being  published  in  The  Times  before  it 
had  been  communicated  to  the  Catholic  bishops  of  Ireland. 

Finally,  Mr.  Houston  disposed  of  the  letters,  in  their  various 
batches,  to  The  Times,  obtaining  for  .them  a  sum  of  some 
;£20oo;  and  their  publication,  as  already  related,  together 
with  the  proceedings  in  the  case  of  O'Donnell  I's.  Walter,  led  to 
the  events  which  called  the  special  commission  into  existence. 

I  learned  from  one  Joseph  Casey,  of  Paris,  that  he  was 
asked  by  Pigott  to  go  with  him  to  a  cafe  close  to  the  Hotel 
des  Deux  Mondes,  on  a  day  corresponding  with  the  date 
of  Houston's  and  Maguire's  visit.  Joseph  Casey  declared 
that  he  knew  nothing  of  Pigott 's  business  with  the  two 
travellers.     No  other  person  accompanied  them. 

574 


THE    CAREER    OF    RICHARD    PIGOTT 

Shortly  before  the  opening  of  the  commission  Pigott  wrote 
the  following  letter  to  this  Joseph  Casey; 

"ii  Sandycove  Avenue,  Kingstown,  October  3,  1888. 
"Dear  Mr.  Casey, — I  would  ask  you  to  let  me  know  in  the 
strictest  confidence,  and  solely  for  my  own  information,  if 
you  have  heard  anything  further  from  [Eugene]  Davis  and 
his  expected  appearance  before  the  commission.  I  may  tell 
you  in  confidence  that  I  have  reason  to  believe  he  is  in  a 
very  dangerous  position  just  now,  and  that  the  danger  may 
extend  to  some  of  his  most  intimate  friends. 

"Yours  faithfully, 

"Richard  Pigott." 

At  this  time  Eugene  Davis  was  assisting  Mr.  Parnell  and 
myself  to  unravel  the  "Parnellism  and  Crime"  plot  in  which 
he  had  played,  as  Pigott's,  Hayes's,  and  Major  Yellow's  boon 
companion  in  Paris,  in  drunken  intercourse,  a  part  of  which 
he  had  cause  to  be  thoroughly  ashamed.  This  knowledge  had 
reached  Pigott,  and  is  certain  to  have  had  something  to  do 
with  his  confession  to  Parnell,  at  Mr.  Labouchere's,  three 
weeks  subsequent  to  the  writing  of  the  above  letter.  In  his 
talks  with  Houston,  Pigott  had  made  Davis  the  pivot  of  the 
"compromising  letters."  His  alleged  revelations  at  Lausanne 
gave  the  key  and  inspiration  to  the  "search  "  which  ultimately 
"discovered"  them.  The  appearance  of  Davis  as  a  witness 
for  Parnell  would  therefore  explode  the  whole  fabrication. 


CHAPTER  XLVII 
PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION     AND     SUICIDE 

The  advent  of  Pigott  on  the  witness-stand  was  the  event  of 
the  commission.  For  fifty-three  sittings  of  the  court  we  had 
waited  for  him,  knowing  he  was  the  forger,  and  the  foiis  et 
origo  of  the  whole  dastardly  plot;  facts  equally  well  known 
to  our  accusers,  and  giving  them,  therefore,  fifty-four  reasons 
why  they  should  keep  him  back,  by  hook  or  by  crook,  as 
long  as  possible.  On  stepping  into  the  box,  Mr.  Parnell  re- 
marked, quite  audibly,  "The  rat  caught  in  the  trap  at 
last!" 

Pigott 's  appearance  would  not  suggest  the  character  of  an 
unmitigated  scoundrel.  Rather  the  contrary;  for  his  bald 
head,  white  beard  and  mustache,  respectable  attire,  eye- 
glass conspicuously  displayed,  and  an  age  of  fifty-four  years, 
would  be  more  in  keeping  with  the  bearing  and  presentment 
of  a  secretary  of  some  benevolent  institution  or  of  a  retired, 
wealthy  trader.  A  closer  inspection  of  the  face  and  eyes 
revealed,  however,  those  latent  qualities  and  dominant 
passions  which  go  to  the  make-up  of  the  human  puzzles 
in  educated  depravity  who  are  led  by  some  aberration  of 
their  moral  nature  to  devote  ten  times  more  talent  and  in- 
telligent energy  in  committing  crime  than  would  suffice  to 
win  an  honored  position  among  their  fellow-men  if  directed 
to  the  easier  task  of  making  an  honest  livelihood.  The 
small,  protruding  eyes,  fleshy  nose,  and  flabby  mouth;  the 
thin,  caressing  voice,  and  the  sly  and  shifty  expression  of  the 
face,  were  keys  to  the  character  and  life  which  were  about  to 
be  dissected  under  the  merciless  hand  of  the  man  who  sat 
watching  him  from  the  counsel's  bench  as  a  hawk  would 
watch  a  doomed  prey.  Russell  took  no  note  of  Pigott 's 
direct  evidence.  He  had  heard  the  story  of  the  hunt  for, 
and  the  sale  of,  the  letters  in  Houston's  testimony,  and  he 
wanted  nothing  but  the  end  of  the  tissue  of  perjured  state- 
ments that  would  put  the  miserable  instrument  of  a  base 
plot  at  his  mercy.  The  witness  concluded  at  last.  Sir  Richard 
Webster  sat  down,  and  a  hush  fell  upon  the  court. 

576 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

Russell  was  on  his  feet  in  an  instant  with  a  large  sheet  of 
paper  and  a  quill  pen  in  his  hand : 

"Mr.  Pigott,  take  this  pen  and  paper,  and  write  me  down 
a  few  words,"  was  spoken  in  tones  of  command,  and  with 
hand  stretched  towards  the  witness,  which  told  the  audience 
and  the  man  on  whom  all  eyes  were  fixed  what  was  coming. 
Pigott  took  the  paper  and  pen  mechanically,  and  waited. 

"Write  me  down  'likelihood,'  'livelihood,'  '  proselytism,' 
and  your  own  name,  and  'Patrick  Egan'";  Russell  pausing 
after  each  word,  to  give  time  to  the  witness  to  do  what  he 
was  told;  "and  "  (as  if  a  mere  after-thought)  "  the  word  'hesi- 
tancy.' "  Not  a  sound  was  heard  in  the  stilled  court  while  this 
dramatic  scene  was  being  enacted.  The  words  were  written 
as  ordered,  and  the  paper  was  returned  to  Russell.  He 
glanced  eagerly  at  the  performance,  and  just  a  faint  glitter 
in  the  eyes  denoted  a  look  of  triumph  as  he  saw  that  the 
last  word  was  spelled  "hesitency,"  as  in  one  of  the  forged 
letters. 

Then  followed  a  few  questions  relating  to  a  correspondence 
which  Pigott  had  with  Parnell  and  Egan  over  the  ill-advised 
purchase  of  The  Irishman  newspaper,  in  1881.  The  witness 
was  cautious  and  non-committal  in  his  replies,  becoming  a 
little  more  self-possessed,  and  nerving  himself  for  the  ordeal 
through  which  he  had  to  pass.  Suddenly,  however,  all  this 
manner  changed  when  he  was  asked: 

"Had  you  a  private  correspondence  with  Archbishop  Walsh 
in  1887?" 

A  look  of  terror  came  over  the  face,  the  hand  shot  up  ner- 
vously to  the  beard,  as  a  shaky  voice  replied: 

"Yes,  but  it  was  a  correspondence  under  the  seal  of  the 
confessional!" 

Judge  Day,  who  was  a  Catholic,  burst  into  laughter  at  this 
answer,  while  Russell,  with  a  look  of  ferocious  contempt, 
made  a  scornful  gesture  which  plainly  said,  "Don't  tell  that 
lie  to  an  Irish  Catholic  like  me." 

Then  a  drawer  in  front  of  Russell  flew  open,  and  out  came 
a  packet  of  papers.  They  were  copies  of  letters  written  by 
Dr.  Walsh  to  Pigott  in  1887,  in  reply  to  communications 
which  the  wretched  man  had  made,  in  which  he  spoke  of  a 
plot  to  ruin  Parnell;  of  alleged  incriminatory  letters  to  be 
published  (four  days  before  the  appearance  of  the  first 
forged  letter  in  The  Times),  and  asking  the  archbishop's  ad- 
vice how  he  (Pigott)  could  warn  the  Irish  leaders  of  the 
machinations  of  their  enemies!  Russell  had  not  confided 
even  to  Parnell  the  fact  that  Dr.  Walsh  had  sent  him  these 
proofs  of  Pigott 's  intimate  knowledge  of  the  Houston  plot, 
37  577 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

and  the  line  of  examination  which  they  disclosed  was  as 
great  a  surprise  to  us  all  as  it  was  a  thunderbolt  in  the  camp 
of  the  forger  and  his  backers.  The  production  of  these  letters 
knocked  Pigott  to  pieces.  He  went  from  one  transparently 
perjured  statement  to  another,  in  a  helpless,  floundering  at- 
tempt to  make  some  stand  against  his  remorseless  assailant, 
who  metaphorically  flayed  him  as  a  butcher  would  strip  the 
carcass  of  a  slaughtered  calf.  He  could  not  say;  he  had 
forgotten;  he  was  not  sure;  his  memory  was  bad;  his  letters 
were  marked  private  and  confidential:  "the  archbishop  has 
deceived  me";  he  must  have  meant  something  else;  he  could 
not  be  referring  to  The  Times  letters;  he  did  not  know,  and 
so  on,  in  like  manner,  until  finally  he  got  on  the  ground  that 
what  he  alluded  to  in  his  letters  to  the  archbishop  must  have 
been  something  "far  more  serious  than  The  Times  letters." 

"Very  well.  What  was  it?"  came  from  the  terrible  voice 
which  held  its  prey  under  the  spell  of  a  resistless  power.  He 
could  not  remember,  he  had  forgotten,  he — 

"Is  it  hermetically  sealed  up  in  your  bosom?" 

"No,"  came  from  the  almost  paralyzed  victim,  "for  it  has 
flown  out  of  my  bosom  completely,"  at  which  reply  the 
whole  court,  judges  and  audience  alike,  roared  in  contemptu- 
ous laughter.  And  the  first  day's  performance  of  Richard 
Pigott  in  the  great  inquisition  came  to  a  close. 

Pigott  wrote  to  his  housekeeper  that  night  and  told  her, 
"Our  worthy  archbishop  has  ruined  me  and  my  children." 
Why  he  ever  mustered  up  sufficient  courage  to  face  Russell 
the  next  day  has  puzzled  those  who  knew  Pigott  intimately. 
The  explanation  was  found  in  Russell's  masterly  manage- 
ment of  the  witness  and  of  the  facts  at  his  disposal.  He  had 
not  yet  taken  him  over  the  ground  of  the  forged  letters,  and 
until  Pigott  had  again,  and  in  cross-examination,  sworn  to 
the  genuineness  of  the  forgery,  so  as  to  give  that  testimony 
on  oath,  that  would  affirm  once  more  "the  innocence"  of  The 
Times  in  having  been  deceived  by  Houston's  agent,  he  was 
compelled  to  remain.  Pigott  had  not  enough  money  with 
which  to  fly  on  Thursday  night,  February  21st,  so  he  had 
no  alternative  but  to  face  the  ordeal  again  on  Friday  morning. 

Utterly  broken  as  he  was  after  his  first  day's  experience, 
he  put  on  a  bold  front  for  a  short  time  and  attempted  to 
retrieve  the  disastrous  effect  which  the  disclosures  in  Dr. 
Walsh's  letters  had  upon  his  testimony.  Russell  never 
hurried  nor  harried  him.  He  gave  him  full  time  and  free 
scope  for  the  employment  of  every  evasive  expedient,  watch- 
ing and  waiting  for  the  inevitable  opening  in  the  wriggling 
evidence  into  which  would  dart  the  thrust  of  an  unerring 

578 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

lance.  He  led  him  from  the  archbishop's  letters  to  those 
of  Mr.  Patrick  Egan's  of  the  year  1881.  This  entire  cor- 
respondence had  been  published  by  Mr.  Egan  at  the  time, 
but  Pigott  appeared  to  have  forgotten  the  fact.  The  letters 
were  an  attempt  on  Pigott's  part  to  obtain  money  under 
false  pretences  from  the  Land  League.  He  represented  that 
Dublin  Castle  had  sent  agents  to  him,  to  offer  him  money 
for  the  publication  in  The  Irishman  and  The  Flag  of  Ireland 
of  attacks  upon  the  Land  League,  and  of  disclosures  that 
would  do  much  harm  to  the  league  and  Parnell.  Mr.  Egan 
saw  through  the  whole  subterfuge  and  refused  to  advance 
a  shilling,  telling  his  correspondent  bluntly  that  he  might 
close  with  "  the  mysterious  visitors,"  for  aught  he  cared. 
The  Land  League  had  nothing  to  fear.  In  one  of  the  letters 
sent  to  Mr.  Egan,  Pigott  enclosed  a  slip  of  paper  which,  ac- 
cording to  his  account,  the  Castle  emissaries  had  handed  to 
him  as  an  ultimatum.  Egan  not  only  carefully  kept  the  whole 
correspondence,  but  this  slip  of  paper,  too,  which  in  handwrit- 
ing and  in  the  use  of  certain  phrases  bore  a  striking  resem- 
blance to  the  penmanship  and  wording  of  one  of  the  letters 
published  in  The  Times  in  the  year  1887.  Russell  toyed  for  a 
few  minutes  v/ith  a  slip  of  paper  which  he  held  in  his  hand; 
then,  with  a  stern  gesture,  he  handed  it  to  Pigott,  saying: 

"Do  you  know  that  handwriting?" 

It  was  the  identical  slip  Pigott  had  sent  to  Egan  in  1881! 

"No,"  was  the  reply,  but  the  face  grew  paler  and  the 
voice  was  a  contradiction  of  the  perjured  lie.  Once  again 
the  witness  was  mentally  collapsing  under  the  merciless  fire 
of  Russell's  questions. 

Next  he  was  asked  to  look  at  two  letters:  one  was  dated 
"Paris,  June  18,  1881,"  and  read  as  follows: 

"Dear  Sir, — Your  two  letters  of  12th  and  15th  inst. 
are  duly  to  hand,  and  I  am  also  in  receipt  of  communications 
from  Mr.  Parnell,  informing  me  that  he  has  acted  upon  my 
suggestion  and  accepted  the  offer  made  in  vour  first  letter. 

"P.  Egan." 

This  was  a  genuine  letter,  and  related  to  the  negotiation 
for  the  sale  of  Pigott's  papers  in  that  year. 

The  next  was  the  forged  letter  which  appeared  in  The 
Times  as  one  of  the  batch  published  in  "  Parnellism  and 
Crime,"  1887: 

June  18,  1881. 

"Dear  Sir, — Your  two  letters  of  the  12th  and  15th 
are  duly  to  hand,  and  I  am  also  in  receipt  of  communications 

579 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

from  Parnell,  informing  me  that  he  has  acted  upon  my 
suggestions  and  accepted  the  offer  made  by  B.  You  had 
better  at  once  proceed  to  Dundalk,  so  that  there  may  be 
no  lost  time.  Yours  faithfully, 

"P.  Egan." 

"What  do  you  say  about  those  letters,  Mr.  Pigott?"  asked 
Russell,  in  a  caressing  kind  of  way. 

"Very  remarkable,  indeed,"  was  the  mechanical  reply  of 
the  now  thoroughly  muddled  witness. 

But  Russell,  who  was  revelling  in  his  splendid  work,  began 
to  play  with  his  victim  as  a  cat  might  play  with  a  mouse, 
resorted  to  his  snuff-box,  as  if  in  search  of  some  new  secret, 
and,  leaning  forward,  put  Pigott  this  innocent  question: 

"  If  you  wanted  to  forge  a  letter,  Mr.  Pigott,  how  would  you 
proceed  to  do  it?"  And  here  followed  this  series  of  questions 
and  replies: 

Q.  "Would  it  be  any  help  to  you  to  have  before  you  a 
letter  of  the  man  concerned?" — -4.   "I  suppose  so." 

Q.  "How  would  you  use  it?" — A.  "Take  a  copy,  of 
course." 

Q.  "  How  would  you  proceed  to  do  so?" — .4.  "  I  can't  say; 
I  don't  pretend  to  any  experience  of  that  kind." 

0.  "  But  let  us  know  how  you  would  set  about  it?" — A.  "  I 
decline  to  put  myself  in  that  position  at  all." 

Q.  "Yes,  but  speaking  theoretically?" — .4.  "I  don't  see 
any  good  in  discussing  the  theory." 

Q.  "  Let  me  suggest,  now.  Would  you,  for  instance,  put 
delicate  tissue-paper  over  the  letter? — would  you,  in  fact, 
trace  it?" — A.  "  I  suppose  so.     How  would  you  do  it?" 

Q.  "No;  I'm  asking  you.  Supposing  you  put  delicate 
tissue-paper  over  the  genuine  letter,  that  would  enable  you 
to  reproduce  its  character,  would  it  not?" — -4.  "Yes,  that  is 
the  way." 

Q.  "  How  do  you  know?" — .4 .  "  Well,  I  suppose  it  would  be 
the  most  easy  way." 

Q.  "  How  do  you  know?  Have  you  tried?" — .4.  "No,  but 
I  suppose  so." 

Q.  "Is  Mr.  Parn ell's  signature  a  difficult  signature  to 
imitate?" — .4.  "I  do  not  know." 

Q.  "But  what  do  you  think?" — .4.  "It  is  a  peculiar 
signature." 

Q.  "You  mean  it  is  a  strongly  marked  one?  Well,  do  you 
think  it  would  be  easy?" — .4.  "I  am  not  competent  to  give 
an  opinion.     What  is  your  opinion?" 

Q.  "I  am  very  anxious  to  have  yours.     Would  you  think 

580 


PIGOTT'S    COxNFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

it  a  difficult  or  an  easy  signature  to  imitate?" — ^4.   "Con- 
sidering its  peculiarities  I  should  say  difficult." 

Q.  "More  difficult  than  a  free,  flowing  signature?" — ^4.  "I 
think  so." 

The  forged  letter  which  induced  Russell  to  ask  Pigott  to 
write  the  word  "  hesitancy  "  was  supposed  to  have  been  written 
in  Kilmainham  Prison,  and  was  as  follows: 

"9,  I,  '82. 

"  Dear  E , — What  are  those  fellows  waiting  for?     This 

inaction  is  inexcusable ;  our  best  men  are  in  prison,  and  nothing 
is  being  done. 

"Let  there  be  an  end  of  this  hesitency.  Prompt  action  is 
called  for.  You  undertook  to  make  it  hot  for  old  Forster 
&  Co.     Let  us  have  some  evidence  of  your  power  to  do  so. 

"  My  health  is  good,  thanks.       Yours  very  truly, 

"Chas.  S.  Parnell." 

Here  is  how  Russell  put  Pigott  through  a  spelling-lesson, 
the  point  in  the  questioning  being  the  possession  by  Russell  of 
a  genuine  letter  of  Pigott's,  written  in  1881,  with  the  word 
"hesitancy"  spelled  as  in  the  forged  letter  and  on  the  sheet 
of  paper  written  upon  by  Pigott  the  previous  day : 

Q.  "Among  the  words  you  wrote  down  yesterday  at  my 
request  is  the  word  'hesitancy.'  Is  that  a  word  you  are 
accustomed  to  use?" — A.  "I  often  have  used  it." 

Q.  "Well,  you  spelled  it  as  it  is  not  ordinarily  spelled." — 
.4.  "Yes,  I  fancy  I  made  a  mistake  in  spelling  it." 

Q.  "What  was  the  mistake?" — .4.  "I  used  an  'a'  in- 
stead of  an  'e' — no,  I  mean  I — well,  I'm  not  sure  what  the 
mistake  was." 

Q.  "I'll  tell  you  what  was  wrong.  You  spelled  it  with  an 
'e'  instead  of  an  'a.'  H-e-s-i-t-e-n-c-y  is  not  the  recognized 
spelling,  I  think.  Now,  have  you  noticed  that  the  writer 
of  the  body  of  the  letter  of  January  9,  1882,  makes  the  same 
mistake?" — .4.  "Yes,  it  has  often  been  pointed  out  to  me. 
In  fact,  I  think  I  had,  owing  to  this  having  been  pointed 
out  to  me,  got  the  mistake  thoroughly  into  my  head.  But 
everybody  spells  the  word  wrong." 

The  continued  exposure  of  the  witness  after  this  was  a 
process  of  slaying  the  slain.  He  was  plunging  deeper  than 
ever  in  a  maze  of  perjury,  pursued  from  point  to  point,  from 
lie  to  lie,  with  relentless  persistency  until  the  whole  per- 
formance became  almost  painful  in  the  exhibitions  of  tort- 
uous and  hopeless  efforts  on  Pigott's  part  to  make  the 
semblance  of  a  stand  on  some  plausible  pretext  that  he 
could  not  be  the  forger.     His  letters  to  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster, 

581 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

during  "Buckshot's"  chief  secretaryship,  revealed  even  a 
deeper  spirit  of  knavery  in  the  witness  than  in  the  expose 
of  the  Egan  letters.  He  combined  the  informer,  sycophant, 
hypocrite,  and  blackmailer  in  his  self-revealed  character. 
It  was  with  a  sentiment  of  loathing,  but  in  a  spirit  of  con- 
scious victory  over  this  creature  and  his  employers,  that 
Russell  flung  him,  as  it  were,  reeking  with  perjured  falsehoods 
and  the  slime  of  exposed  infamy,  at  The  Times  side,  in  re- 
suming his  seat  after  the  greatest  and  most  triumphant 
piece  of  cross-examination  ever  witnessed  in  a  court  of  law. 

There  were  many  tactical  blunders  committed  on  both 
sides  during  the  prolonged  investigation,  but  Mr.  Parnell's 
consenting  to  meet  Pigott  in  Mr.  Labouchere's  house,  and 
the  following  day  in  Mr.  Lewis's  office,  was  the  greatest. 
Had  TJic  'Times,  Houston  &  Co.,  played  the  card  thus  thought- 
lessly put  in  their  hands,  the  results  would  have  been 
disastrous  to  our  side.  Up  to  that  time  (October  25,  1888), 
Pigott  was  under  subpoena  from  Lewis  only.  He  was  a 
Parnell,  not  a  Times,  witness,  in  the  sense  that  one  side  had 
served  him  with  a  summons  to  attend,  while  the  other  had 
not.  He  was  daily  and  nightly  followed  by  private  detectives 
in  the  employment  of  both  sides,  and  all  his  movements 
were  watched  and  recorded. 

On  the  morning  after  the  interview,  Parnell  came  early  to 
my  hotel,  and  was  much  elated. 

"He  has  confessed!"  he  exclaimed  on  entering  the  room. 

"To  whom?" 

"At  Labouchere's,  last  night.     I  was  present — " 

"Good  Heavens!  You  don't  mean  to  say  that  you  gave 
yourself  away  like  that  to  the  enemy?" 

"How  could  I  give  myself  away?" 

"Unless  The  Times  people  are  more  stupid  than  we  believe 
them  to  be  this  is  what  will  happen:  They  know  as  well  as 
we  do  that  Pigott  is  the  forger.  He  will  report  all  kinds  of 
statements  to  them  about  the  interview,  and  The  Times 
will  give  him  ;^50oo  to  go  to  some  distant  place  of  conceal- 
ment. When  the  time  for  his  appearance  in  the  witness- 
box  arrives,  their  private  detectives  will  swear  he  was  last 
seen  entering  Labouchere's  house,  where  you  followed  him, 
and  leaving  it  after  a  long  stay  there  in  your  company.  The 
obvious  inference  will  be  that  you  bribed  him  to  vanish,  and 
long  before  the  truth  can  assert  itself  the  mass  of  the  public 
will  have  made  up  their  minds  against  you." 

Mr.  Parnell's  good  spirits  fell  some  degrees  at  this  prospect, 
and  he  resolved  he  would  risk  no  more  interviews  with 
Pigott,  and  he  did  not. 

582 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

It  transpired  afterwards  that  this  interview  was  first  sug- 
gested by  Sinclair,  the  detective,  to  Pigott,  at  the  latter's 
home  in  Kingstown.  According  to  a  letter  to  Houston,  which 
was  read  in  court  after  Pigott 's  flight,  the  chief  organizer 
of  the  anti  -  Parnell  conspiracy  and  Mr.  Soames,  The  Times 
attorney,  approved  of  Sinclair's  suggestion  and  were  privy  to 
the  presence  of  Pigott  at  the  meeting  in  Grosvenor  Gardens. 

An  erroneous  impression  about  this  meeting  has  served  the 
ends  of  many  newspaper  stories  since  the  event  occurred. 
Writers  have  drawn  a  graphic  picture  of  the  wretched  forger 
making  his  way  to  Mr.  Labouchere's  more  recent  residence, 
in  Palace  Yard,  Westminster,  meeting  the  Irish  leader  there, 
then  "vanishing  into  space,"  to  be  heard  of  no  more  until 
a  shot  from  a  revolver  in  Madrid  adds  a  suicide's  fate  to  the 
final  chapter  of  a  life  of  unique  deception.  Dates  and  houses 
are  alike  very  much  mixed  up  in  this  popular  version  of  the 
actual  facts. 

The  interview  in  question  took  place,  as  already  related,  on 
October  25,  1888,  a  few  days  after  the  opening  of  the  com- 
mission. Mr.  Labouchere  resided  at  that  time  in  Grosvenor 
Gardens,  near  Victoria  Railway  Station,  London.  It  was  four 
months  afterwards,  on  Saturday,  February  23d,  in  the 
same  house,  that  Pigott,  broken  and  terrified  after  the 
previous  day's  cross-examination  by  Russell,  turned  up  to 
see  Mr.  Labouchere,  and  eager  to  make  a  full  and  signed 
confession  of  the  forgeries.  Neither  Mr.  Parnell  nor  George 
Lewis  was  present.     George  Augustus  Sala  was,*  he  having 

'  "At  length  Mr.  Pigott  stood  up  and  came  forward  into  the  Hght, 
by  the  side  of  Mr.  Labouchere's  writing-table.  He  did  not  change 
color;  he  did  not  blench;  but  when — out  of  the  fulness  of  his  heart, 
no  doubt — his  motith  spake,  it  was  in  a  low,  half-musing  tone,  more 
at  first  as  though  he  were  talking  to  himself  than  to  any  auditors. 
By  degrees,  however,  his  voice  rose,  his  diction  became  more  fluent. 
It  is  only  necessary  that  in  this  place  I  should  say  that  in  substance 
Pigott  confessed  that  he  had  forged  the  letters  alleged  to  have  been 
written  by  Mr.  Parnell;  and  he  minutely  described  the  manner  in 
which  he,  and  he  alone,  had  executed  the  forgeries  in  question. 
Whether  the  man  with  the  bald  head  and  the  eye-glass  in  the  library 
at  Grosvenor  Gardens  was  telling  the  truth  or  uttering  another  batch 
of  infernal  lies  it  is  not  for  me  to  determine.  No  pressure  was  put 
upon  him;  no  leading  questions  were  asked  him;  and  he  went  on 
cjuietly  and  continuously  to  the  end  of  a  story  which  I  should  have 
thought  amazing  had  I  not  had  occasion  to  hear  many  more  tales 
even  more  astounding.  He  was  not  voluble,  but  he  was  collected, 
clear,  and  coherent;  nor,  although  he  repeatedly  confessed  to  forgery, 
fraud,  deception,  and  misrepresentation,  did  he  seem  overcome  with 
anything  approaching  active  shame.  His  little  peccadilloes  were 
plainly  owned,  bvit  he  appeared  to  treat  them  more  as  incidental 
v^eaknesses  than  as  extraordinary  acts  of  wickedness." — Lije  and  Ad- 
ventures.    G.  A.  Sala. 

583 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IX    IRELAND 

been  sent  for  by  Labouchere  to  be  a  witness  to  the  confession 
which  Pigott  had  dictated,  a  copy  of  which  was  then  taken 
to  Lewis's  office,  but  immediately  returned  to  Pigott  on  Mr. 
Parnell's  orders. 

Nor  did  Pigott  disappear  at  once  after  this  final  visit  to 
Grosvenor  Gardens.  Shannon,  the  Dublin  lawyer,  who  had 
visited  the  murderer  Delaney  in  Maryborough  Prison — the 
Invincible  who  came  thence  to  give  evidence  for  The  Times, 
and  who  swore  to  the  authenticity  of  eight  of  Pigott 's 
forged  letters — this  Mr.  Shannon  saw  Pigott,  and  spent  some 
time  with  him  in  Anderton's  Hotel,  Fleet  Street,  both  on 
that  Saturday  night,  February  23d.  and  on  the  day  following, 
taking  down  a  statement  —  a  half  -  confession  —  from  him 
on  this  day,  and  getting  it  sworn  before  a  notary  as  an 
affidavit  on  the  Monday.  Two  members  of  the  Royal  Irish 
Constabulary  were  in  the  hotel  on  Shannon's  service  guarding 
Pigott,  and  these  agents  and  their  emplo^^er  were  the  persons 
who  were  in  Pigott 's  company  on  the  three  days  following 
the  visit  to  Mr.  Labouchere's,  before  the  miserable  forger 
fled  to  Paris  on  his  way  to  Spain. 

Why  was  he  induced,  or  allowed,  to  escape? 

On  our  side  we  had  anticipated  a  move  of  this  kind  ever 
since  the  ill-advised  interview  in  October.  Those  who  knew 
Pigott  intimately  assured  us  he  would  never  have  the  courage 
or  audacity  to  enter  the  witness-box  and  swear  to  the  genuine- 
ness of  letters  to  the  forgery  of  which  he  had  confessed  to 
Mr.  Parnell  and  his  lawyer. 

He  was  closely  watched  in  London  and  in  Kingstown,  while 
I  had  made  arrangements  for  his  arrest  in  Paris  in  the  event 
of  our  surveillance  of  his  movements  in  London  being  at 
fault.     This  warrant  for  this  arrest  was  obtained  in  this  way: 

I  had  discovered  that  the  unfortunate  wretch  had  been 
dealing  for  several  years  with  Paris  booksellers  in  rare  books, 
of  which  he  was  an  expert  judge.  Suspecting  from  his  record 
that  his  relations  with  these  houses  would  not  be  all  that 
business  integrity  might  require,  I  interviewed  a  few  of  these 
dealers  and  found  my  surmise  only  too  well  grounded.  I 
therefore  induced  M.  Theophile  Belin,*  of  the  Quai  Voltaire, 

I  "MEMORANDUM 
"  Theophile  Belin,  Libraire,  Paris,  le  13  mars,  1889 

"  29,  Quai  Voltaire.  Monsieur  Davitt,  Londres. 

"  J'ai  I'honneur  de  vous  rappeler  que  je  suis  toujours  a  voire  dis- 
position si  vous  avez  besoin  de  moi  pour  I'aflfaire  Pigott. 

"  De  mon  cote  je  prends  la  liberie  de  vous  demander  si  je  ne  puis 
esperer  avoir  quelque  chose  de  la  succession  de  cet  homme  pour 
me  rembourser  au  moins  d'une  partie  de  ce  qu'il  me  doit? 

"  Re9evez,  monsieur,  mes  salutations  empress^es." 

584 


PlGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

to  swear  information  against  his  customer  for  issuing  checks 
on  banks  in  which  he  had  no  credit,  and  to  obtain  a  warrant 
for  his  apprehension  should  he  be  found  anywhere  in  France. 

On  the  evening  of  February  2 2d,  immediately  after  Pigott 
had  shattered  The  Times  case  under  the  terrible  fire  of  Russell's 
cross-examination,  I  crossed  to  Paris,  expecting  the  forger 
would  try  and  bolt  that  night  and  make  for  that  city.  Mr. 
Parnell  and  George  Lewis  were  expected  to  have  him  watch- 
ed, as  usual,  and  he  was  shadowed  until  Monday  afternoon. 
Meanwhile  all  arrangements  were  made  in  Paris  in  the  event 
of  his  turning  up  there,  and  I  recrossed  to  London  on  the 
Monday  night,  there  being  no  trace  of  him  in  the  former 
city  up  to  the  hour  at  which  I  left.  My  movements,  un- 
fortunately, were  known  to  Kasey,  who  had  been  an  associate 
of  Pigott,  and  it  is  more  than  probable  that  this  person  kept 
him  informed  of  what  was  being  done  in  Paris. 

Pigott  left  Anderton's  Hotel,  Fleet  Street,  a  little  after 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  on  Monday,  having  been  in 
Shannon's  company,  and  that  of  a  clerk  in  Mr.  Soames's 
office,  in  the  morning.  He  must  have  crossed  to  France  that 
night  and  passed  me  on  my  return  to  London. 

It  was  not  until  near  the  hour  of  noon  on  Tuesday,  October 
26th,  when  he  failed  to  appear  in  the  commission  court  when 
called  upon,  that  we  were  aware  of  his  having  bolted.  I 
wired  at  once  to  Paris,  and  detectives  were  placed  at  the 
Gare  du  Nord,  but  the  fugitive  was  by  that  time  nearing 
the  Spanish  frontier  and  our  Paris  plans  had  come  to  nothing. 

Who  supplied  him  with  the  money  with  which  to  fly?  He 
had  none,  except  his  ordinary  expenses  as  a  witness,  up  to 
the  day  of  his  first  appearance  in  the  court.  He  received 
nothing  from  Mr.  Labouchere.  He  was,  however,  in  corre- 
spondence with  Houston  on  Friday  and  Saturday,  before  his 
disappearance,  and  was  in  the  company  of  Shannon  and 
Charsley,  Mr.  Soames's  clerk,  on  these  days,  and  upon  Mon- 
day, as  related  above.  On  Monday  he  met  Shannon  in  the 
lodgings  of  Charsley,  and,  according  to  Shannon's  testimony, 
importuned  him  for  money.  Shannon  swore  that  he  gave 
him  none.     Mr.  Charsley  was  not  sworn. 

That  he  received  money  from  some  source  before  starting 
from  London  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt.  He  required 
it  for  his  hotel  bill  and  his  tickets  and  expenses  to  where  he 
had  made  up  his  mind  to  fly  to.  And  it  appears  that  he 
had  thought  of  his  children  up  to  the  last,  for  he  sent  two 
small  Bank  of  England  notes  to  his  housekeeper  on  the 
Sunday  or  Monday  before  his  flight.  The  question  in  this 
connection  naturally  arises:    If  he  had  failed  to  obtain  any 

585 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

money  from  Shannon  before  leaving  London,  why  should  he 
wire,  under  palpable  risks,  from  his  place  of  refuge,  to  the  same 
person  for  assistance  afterwards? 

Public  curiosity  was  intensely  excited  over  his  possible  place 
of  refuge.  The  letter  posted  in  Paris  to  Shannon,  which  was 
handed  over  to  the  court  unopened,  turned  out  to  be  the  copy 
of  his  confession  at  Mr.  Labouchere's,  which  he  had  sent  to 
Mr.  Lewis,  and  which  was  by  him  returned,  as  related  above. 
This  was  a  clew  that  he  had  taken  the  French  capital  as  a 
route  to  a  safer  place,  and  Madrid  was  therefore  conjectured 
to  be  his  present  destination. 

Meanwhile  Mr.  Parnell  had  compelled  the  law  to  help  him 
to  bring  the  forger  to  the  witness-stand,  from  which  some  of 
the  law's  agents  in  the  pay  of  The  Times  had  enabled  him  to 
escape.  On  failing  to  appear  on  Tuesday,  February  26th, 
Sir  Charles  Russell  immediately  demanded  that  a  warrant 
be  made  out  for  his  apprehension.  The  Times  side  made  no 
objection.  The  blow  which  they  had  so  unscrupulously  put 
off,  with  the  connivance  of  the  court,  for  fifty-four  sessions  of 
the  commission  had  fallen  upon  their  case  of  constructive 
infamy  at  last,  and  they  looked  like  the  detected  plotters 
which  Pigott's  perjured  story  and  flight  had  shown  them  to 
be.  They  had,  however,  been  saved,  by  some  agency,  from 
a  fuller  and  more  damaging  exposure  in  the  disappearance  of 
the  author  of  the  forged  letters,  and  for  this  they  were  doubt- 
less grateful.  On  Mr.  Parnell's  side  there  was  a  feeling  of 
dismay  and  of  bitter  disappointment  at  the  failure  of  the 
chief  agent  of  the  Houston  conspiracy  to  resume  his  testi- 
mony. We  knew  there  were  other  plotters  of  far  greater 
importance  behind  Houston,  and  these  were  the  men  we  were 
most  anxious  to  get  at.  A  complete  confession  from  Pigott 
in  the  witness  -  box  would  have  given  helpful  clews,  if  not 
reliable  facts,  towards  their  discovery,  and  it  was  a  cruel 
stroke  of  an  unkindly  fate  to  have  thus  thwarted  our  hopes 
when  so  near  success,  after  the  long  agony  endured  over  the 
"  Parnellism  and  Crime"  fabrications. 

Mr.  Parnell,  accompanied  by  some  of  his  friends  and  Mr. 
George  Lewis,  proceeded  at  once  to  Bow  Street  to  swear 
information  against  Pigott  as  a  fugitive  from  justice.  By 
this  time  the  news  of  the  forger's  flight  and  the  consequent 
exposure  of  The  Times  case  had  got  out  through  special  edi- 
tions of  the  evening  papers.  Parnell's  appearance  in  the 
Strand  was  the  signal  for  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm.  A 
large  crowd  had  assembled,  and  he  was  followed  down  the 
street  by  a  mass  of  cheering  people,  mostly  English.  Cab- 
men,  'bus  drivers,   all  kinds   and  conditions  of  men  in  the 

586 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

crowded  thoroughfare,  as  if  moved  by  a  spontaneous  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  for  a  greatly  wronged  man,  hailed  him  with 
friendly  cries,  and  manifested  their  pleasure  at  the  discom- 
fiture of  his  unmanly  foes.  It  was  a  small  taste  of  the  sweets 
of  a  tardy  justice  after  the  unmerited  stigmas  of  the  previous 
two  years.  The  cheering  crowd  followed  him  to  the  doors 
of  Bow  vStreet  police  court.  Inside,  the  requisite  formalities 
were  gone  through,  and  at  last  Scotland  Yard  and  other  de- 
partments of  English  police  administration  would  be  com- 
pelled to  aid  in  the  detection  of  real  iniquity  instead  of  lend- 
ing their  agents  and  influence  to  The  Times  in  bolstering  up 
a  case  of  manufactured  political  crime. 

That  evening  there  was  yet  another  historic  scene  in  the 
House  of  Commons  in  connection  with  the  Irish  leader  and 
his  cause.  The  confession  and  flight  of  Pigott  had  produced 
its  maximum  effect  in  that  assembly,  and  those  comparatively 
few  Englishmen  who  had  manfully  repelled  the  atrocious 
insinuations  of  The  Times  letters  a  year  previously  were  now 
justified  in  their  confidence.  Mr.  Parnell's  entrance  was 
hailed  with  a  great  outburst  of  cheering  from  his  own  party 
and  from  the  few  other  members  referred  to.  There  was, 
likewise,  a  kind  of  subdued  greeting  from  the  ranks  of  his 
baffled  opponents — the  sort  of  involuntary  applause  which 
might  be  called  forth  in  the  arena  of  the  Roman  Colosseum 
when  the  audience,  after  bending  back  their  thumbs  to  de- 
note their  desire  to  have  the  wounded  gladiator  despatched, 
would  see  the  fallen  combatant  spring  to  his  feet  in  one  last 
supreme  effort  and  recover  his  right  to  live  by  the  over- 
throw of  his  would-be  slayer.  It  was  a  feeling  exactly  de- 
scribed by  Sir  Richard  Webster  in  delivering  a  reluctant 
apology  for  the  unparalleled  wrong  done  by  The  Times  to 
Mr.  Parnell  and  others  in  the  publication  of  the  forged  letters : 
"After  the  evidence  which  has  been  given,  we  are  not  entitled 
to  say  that  they  are  genuine."  ^  Nothing  more  thoroughly 
English  in  spirit  (in  the  matter  of  an  Irish  wrong)  could  better 
illustrate  the  boasted  Anglo-Saxon  love  of  "fair  play"  than 
this  incident  in  the  history  of  this  centre  of  England's  pride 
of  pov/er.  A  man  who  stood  for  Ireland  and  her  cause  was 
foully  and  atrociously  wronged  in  the  interest  of  English  rule; 
this  very  chamber  having  deliberately  voted  the  commission 
of  political  opponents  by  which  it  was  hoped  the  Irish  leader 
would  be  forever  politically  destroyed.  He,  however,  es- 
capes this  i^lot  and  peril  by  the  confession  of  the  man  who  was 
paid  by  the  allies  of  the  government  to   destroy  him,  and 

*  Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  vi.,  p.   33. 
587 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  words  quoted  above  were  the  true  expression  of  England's 
sense  of  what  "fair  play"  means  when  an  Irish  leader  has 
been  saved  by  chance  or  good  -  fortune  from  a  deliberately 
planned  scheme  of  political  assassination. 

The  following  day  Pigott's  confession,  addressed  to  Shan- 
non, was  read  by  the  clerk  of  the  commission.  It  was  in 
these  words: 

"  Saturday,  February  23,  1889. 

"I,  Richard  Pigott,  am  desirous  of  making  a  statement 
before  H.  Labouchere  and  G.  A.  Sala,  and  I  make  this,  of 
my  own  free  will  and  without  any  monetary  inducement, 
in  the  house  of  the  former. 

"My  object  is  to  correct  inaccuracies  in  the  report  of  my 
evidence  in  The  Times,  and  also  to  make  a  full  disclosure  of 
the  circumstances  connected  with  the  publication  of  the  fac- 
simile letter  in  The  Times,  and  the  other  letters  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell,  Mr.  Egan,  Mr.  Davitt,  and  Mr.  O'Kelly  produced  by  The 
Times  in  evidence. 

"Corrections. — I  stated  that  after  I  disposed  of  my  news- 
papers in  the  year  1881  I  continued  in  touch  with  the  Irish 
Republican  Brotherhood.  That  is  not  so.  I  also  stated  of  my 
own  knowledge  that  Egan  and  others  continued  to  be  mem- 
bers of  the  Irish  Republican  Brotherhood  after  the  resignation 
of  the  positions  held  by  them  on  the  supreme  council  of  that 
organization. 

"In  my  account  of  my  interview  with  Davis,  at  Lausanne, 
I  stated  that  I  made  rough  notes  in  his  presence  of  the  con- 
versations that  took  place  between  us,  which  were  embodied 
in  the  statement  read  in  court.  That  is  not  correct.  I  made 
no  notes.  The  statement  was  written  by  me  on  the  following 
day  from  my  recollection  only.  Davis  made  no  statement 
on  his  own  authority.  We  merely  gossiped.  I  am  now  of 
opinion  that  he  made  no  reference  whatever  to  a  letter  of 
Mr.  Parnell's  which  I  stated  was  left  in  Paris  with  other  docu- 
ments by  a  fugitive  Invincible.  I  gave  the  statement  to  Houston 
as  the  heads  of  a  pamphlet  which  I  said  Davis  would  write  at 
a  future  time.  He  did  promise  to  write  a  pamphlet  against  the 
Land  League,  but  not  founded  on  the  contents  of  the  statement. 
I  agreed  to  pay  him  £100  for  the  pamphlet  when  written. 

"  Letters. — The  circumstances  connected  with  the  obtaining 
of  the  letters,  as  I  gave  in  evidence,  is  not  true.  No  one, 
save  myself,  was  concerned  in  the  transaction.  I  told  Hous- 
ton that  I  had  discovered  the  letters  in  Paris,  but  I  grieve  to 
have  to  confess  that  I  simply  myself  fabricated  them,  using 
genuine  letters  of  Messrs.  Parnell  and  Egan  in  copying  cer- 
tain v^rords,  phrases,  and  general  character  of  the  handwriting. 

588 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

I  traced  some  words  and  phrases  by  putting  the  genuine  letter 
against  the  window  and  placing  the  sheet  on  which  I  wrote 
over  it.  These  genuine  letters  were  the  letters  from  Mr. 
Parnell,  copies  of  which  have  been  read  in  court,  and  four  or 
five  letters  of  Mr.  Egan's,  which  were  also  read  in  court.  I 
destroyed  these  letters  after  using  them.  Some  of  the  signa- 
tures I  traced  in  this  manner,  and  some  I  wrote.  I  then 
wrote  to  Houston  telling  him  to  come  to  Paris  for  the  docu- 
ments. I  told  him  that  they  had  been  placed  in  a  black 
bag  with  some  old  accounts,  scraps  of  paper,  and  old  news- 
papers. On  his  arrival  I  produced  to  him  the  letters,  ac- 
counts, and  scraps  of  paper.  After  a  very  brief  inspection 
he  handed  me  a  check  on  Cook  for  ;;^5oo,  the  price  that  I  told 
him  I  had  agreed  to  pay  for  them.  At  the  same  time  he  gave 
me  £io^  in  bank-notes  as  my  own  commission.  The  accounts 
put  in  were  leaves  torn  from  an  old  account-book  of  my  own, 
which  contained  details  of  the  expenditure  of  Fenian  money 
intrusted  to  me  from  time  to  time,  which  is  mainly  in  the 
handwriting  of  David  Murphy,  my  cashier.  The  scraps  I 
found  in  the  bottom  of  an  old  writing-desk.  I  do  not  recollect 
in  whose  writing  they  are. 

"The  second  batch  of  letters  were  also  written  by  me.  Mr. 
Parnell 's  signature  was  imitated  from  that  published  in  The 
Times  facsimile  letter.  I  do  not  now  remember  where  I  got 
the  Egan  letter  from  which  I  copied  the  signature. 

"I  had  no  specimen  of  Campbell's  handwriting  beyond 
the  two  letters  of  Mr.  Parnell's  to  me,  which  I  presumed 
might  be  in  Mr.  Campbell's  handwriting.  I  wrote  to  Mr. 
Houston  that  this  second  batch  was  for  sale  in  Paris,  having 
been  brought  there  from  America.  He  wrote  asking  to  see 
them.  I  forwarded  them  accordingly,  and  after  keeping 
them  three  or  four  days  he  sent  me  a  check  on  Cook  for  the 
price  demanded  for  them,  £550.  The  third  batch  consisted 
of  a  letter  imitated  by  me  from  a  letter  written  in  pencil  to 
me  by  Mr.  Davitt  when  he  was  in  prison,  and  of  another 
letter  copied  by  me  from  a  letter  of  a  very  early  date  which 
I  received  from  James  O' Kelly  when  he  was  writing  on  my 
newspapers,  and  of  a  third  letter  ascribed  to  Egan,  the  writing 
of  which  and  some  of  the  words  I  copied  from  an  old  bill 
of  exchange  in  Mr.  Egan's  handwriting.  This  third  letter 
is  what  has  been  called  the  'bakery  letter.'  Two  hundred 
pounds  was  the  price  paid  to  me  by  Mr.  Houston  for  these 
three  letters.     It  was  paid  in  bank-notes. 

"I  have  stated  that  for  the  first  batch  I  received  ;^io5  for 
myself,  for  the  second  batch  I  got  ;;^5o,  for  the  third  batch 
I  was  supposed  to  have  received  nothing. 

589 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"I  did  not  see  Breslin  in  America.  This  was  part  of  the 
deception. 

"  It  was  mutually  agreed  between  Houston  and  me  that  my 
name  was  not  to  be  given  up  and  that  I  should  not  mention 
his  name.  I  did  not  learn  until  October,  when  I  was  taken 
by  Houston  to  Mr.  Soames  to  make  a  statement,  that  Houston 
had  mentioned  my  name  to  Mr.  MacDonald.  I  had  an  angry 
correspondence  with  Mr.  Houston  and  also  with  Mr.  Soames 
in  consequence  of  what  I  considered  to  be  a  breach  of  faith. 

"With  respect  to  my  interviews  with  Messrs.  Parnell, 
Lewis,  and  Labouchere,  my  sworn  statement  is  in  the  main 
correct.  I  am  now,  however,  of  opinion  that  the  offer  to 
me  by  Mr.  Labouchere  of  ;<^iooo  was  not  for  giving  evidence, 
but  for  any  documents  in  Mr.  Egan's  or  Mr.  Parnell's  hand- 
writing that  I  might  happen  to  have.  My  statement  only  re- 
ferred to  the  first  interviews  with  these  gentlemen.  I  had 
a  further  interview  with  Mr.  Labouchere,  on  which  occa- 
sion I  made  him  acquainted  with  further  circumstances  not 
previously  mentioned  by  me  at  the  preceding  interviews. 

"I  stated  that  I  had  destroyed  all  Mr.  Houston's  letters  to 
me.     This  was  not  correct.     I  have  some  of  them. 

"I  declare  that  this  statement  is  taken  down  by  Mr. 
Labouchere  at  my  dictation  in  the  presence  of  Mr.  Sala. 

"Richard  Pigott. 

"Witness,  George  Augustus  Sala."' 

This  letter  was  likewise  read: 

"  lo  AND  II  Ely  Place,  Holborn,  London,  E.G., 

"February  25,  1889. 

"Sir, — Mr.  Labouchere  has  informed  us  that  on  Saturday 
you  called  at  his  house  and  expressed  a  desire  to  make  a 
statement  in  writing,  and  he  has  handed  to  us  the  confession 
you  made,  that  you  are  the  forger  of  the  whole  of  the  letters 
given  in  evidence  by  The  Times,  purporting  to  be  written 
respectively  by  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Egan,  Mr.  Davitt,  and  Mr. 
O'Kelly,  and  that  in  addition  you  committed  perjury  in  sup- 
port of  the  case  of  The  Times. 

"Mr.  Parnell  has  instructed  us  to  inform  you  that  he 
declines  to  hold  any  communication  directly  or  indirectly 
with  you,  and  he  further  instructs  us  to  return  you  the 
written  confession,  which  we  enclose  and  which  for  safety 
sake  we  send  by  hand. 

"We  are,  sir,  yours  obedientlv, 

"  Richard  Pigott,  Esq."^  " ^^''''^  ^  ^^^^^^ 

*  Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  31,  32,  33.  '^ Ibid. 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

There  was  this  further  letter  to  Shannon  in  the  envelope: 

"  Hotel  des  Deux  Mondes,  22,  Avenue  de  l'Opera, 
"  Tuesday,  February  26th. 

"Dear  Sir, — Just  before  I  left,  enclosed  was  handed  to  me. 
It  had  been  left  while  I  was  out.     Will  write  again  soon. 
"Yours  truly,  R.  Pigott."^ 

The  final  act  in  the  extraordinary  drama  of  Pigott's  life 
was  now  near  at  hand.  It  was  to  be  a  fitting  though  a 
sensational  ending  to  the  most  complete  career  of  systematic 
criminality  in  the  records  of  modern  political  history.  He 
remained  in  the  Hotel  des  Deux  Mondes,  Paris,  for  a  couple 
of  hours  only,  in  the  early  morning  of  Tuesday,  February 
26th,  and  then  departed  direct  for  Madrid.  He  arrived  there 
on  Thursday  morning,  three  days  after  his  flight  from  London. 
He  put  up  at  the  Hotel  des  Ambassadeurs,  under  the  name 
of  "  Roland  Ponsonby,"  and  he  appears  to  have  immediately 
wired  to  Shannon  for  money  and  to  have  given  his  address. 
This  message  was  sent  by  telegraph  and  could  not  be  con- 
cealed at  the  London  end.  The  wire  was  communicated 
to  the  police,  whereupon  an  official  order  was  at  once  de- 
spatched to  the  British  minister  at  Madrid  to  have  "  Roland 
Ponsonby  "  arrested  by  the  Spanish  authorities  on  an  extra- 
dition warrant. 

Pigott  was  engaged  on  Thursday  and  Friday  in  seeing  the 
sights  of  the  Spanish  capital  under  the  guidance  of  an 
interpreter.  On  Friday  afternoon,  upon  returning  from  a 
visit  to  some  picture-galleries,  he  was  called  upon  at  the  hotel 
by  a  visitor.  His  interpreter  informed  him  that  the  visitor 
was  a  Spanish  inspector  of  police,  and  that  he  had  come  to 
arrest  him.  "Very  well,"  replied  Pigott,  and  he  asked 
permission  to  get  his  hat.  He  retired  to  his  room,  opened  his 
bag,  took  out  a  revolver,  and,  without  a  second's  hesitation, 
placed  the  muzzle  to  his  mouth  and  blew  out  his  brains. 

The  tragic  ending  of  Pigott's  life  had  a  passing  and  sensa- 
tional interest  for  the  ordinary  public  but  an  intensely 
absorbing  one  for  the  protagonists  in  the  fight  within  the 
royal  courts  of  justice.  Did  he  leave  any  private  letters  or 
papers  that  would  throw  additional  light  on  the  anti-Parnell 
conspiracy  ?  The  question  suggested  the  promptest  possible 
visit  to  his  home  at  Kingstown,  and  within  twenty-four  hours 
of  the  news  of  his  death  I  called  on  his  housekeeper,  a  very 
respectable  and  intelligent  middle-aged  woman.     I  saw  at 

^Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  31,  32,  33. 
59^ 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IX    IRELAND 

once  that  I  had  come  too  late.  Visitors  from  DubHn  had  been 
able  to  arrive  sooner  than  a  traveller  from  London,  and  it 
was  matter  for  little  surprise  to  learn  that  the  ubiquitous 
detective,  Sinclair,  had  been  the  first  on  the  scene.  He  had 
been  authorized,  in  a  letter  written  by  Pigott  early  the 
previous  week,  to  call  for  a  certain  batch  of  papers,  and  the 
authority  thus  given  was  availed  of  to  ransack  the  house  for 
the  mass  of  letters,  diaries,  and  documents  which  Pigott  had 
left  behind  even  after  taking  away  with  him  a  portmanteau 
laden  with  papers  when  leaving  his  home  for  the  last  time 
previous  to  his  examination.  The  housekeeper  was  most 
friendly  and  obliging,  and  she  regretted  I  had  not  called 
before  Sinclair  and  "the  sham  bailiffs"  who  had  visited 
the  place  the  previous  evening.  They  carried  bundles  of 
material  away,  but  the  letters  from  Houston  were  not,  as  she 
believed,  among  the  contents  of  the  box  she  had  burned, 
as  related  in  one  of  the  following  letters.  The  Houston 
correspondence  was  either  taken  away  by  Pigott  when  last 
leaving  home,  or  was  seized  by  Sinclair,  presumably  acting 
for  Houston,  on  the  previous  evening. 

Much  was  left,  however,  even  after  the  haul  made  by  "the 
sham  bailiffs,"  and  among  the  parcels  were  found  several 
diaries,  note-books,  bundles  of  letters  relating  to  his  contri- 
butions to  London  papers,  unused  manuscript,  and  other 
matter  dealing  with  The  Times  charges.  A  dozen  volumes  of 
carefully  selected  newspaper  cuttings,  neatly  and  systemati- 
cally compiled,  were  placed  at  my  disposal,  and  in  these  were 
found  copies  of  all  his  special  articles  to  The  Times,  Standard, 
Globe,  St.  James's  Gazette,  Evening  News,  Vanity  Fair,  and 
other  London  papers  and  magazines,  from  the  year  1882 
down  to  the  opening  of  the  special  commission  in  October, 
1888.  Also  the  material  from  the  New  York  Times,  Irish 
World,  and  United  Ireland,  out  of  which  he  had  briefed  the 
writers  of  the  "  Parnellism  and  Crime"  articles  that  had  been 
the  outcome  of  the  conspiracy  against  Mr.  Parnell  and  the 
Land  League.  The  letters,  diaries,  correspondence,  and 
scrap-books  thus  found,  together  with  the  confessions  made 
to  us  by  men  who  had  been  employed  by  The  Times,  Houston, 
and  the  secret -service  department  of  the  Home  Office,  sup- 
plied Parnell  with  the  material  for  his  counter-case  against 
The  Times  and  the  government.  This  case  would  have  been 
proved  to  the  hilt  had  the  judges  of  the  commission  granted 
Sir  Charles  Russell's  application  to  have  the  books  and  cor- 
respondence of  the  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union  brought  into 
court  for  examination,  as  the  papers  and  books  of  the  Irish 
National  League  had  been  produced  by  Mr.  Pamell's  side. 

59? 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

This  demand  was  refused.  The  act  creating  the  commission 
did  not  provide  for  any  such  counter  case,  and  this,  perhaps, 
thoughtful  omission  by  the  framers  of  that  measure,  some  of 
whom  were  in  the  Houston  conspiracy,  saved  the  Unionist 
government  of  the  day  from  an  exposure  of  actual  complicity 
in  the  plot  for  Pamell's  ruin. 

Correspondence  relating  to  Pigott's  last  days  in  London, 
and  the  information  supplied  by  his  housekeeper,  will  be  of 
some  interest  to  the  reader  who  has  followed  my  story  so  far. 

"  Anderton's  Hotel,  Fleet  Street,  London,  E.G., 
''February  8,    1889. 

"Dear  Mary, — Herein  P.O.  order  for  £t,. 

"I  got  your  wire  and  letter  yesterday  all  right. 

"There  is  no  chance  now  that  I  will  be  examined  until  next 
week,  and  meantime  I  have  to  wait  on  here  doing  nothing, 
and  wretchedly  unhappy  about  one  thing  or  the  other.  How- 
ever, I  must  go  through  it  all. 

"Please  write  to  me  when  you  get  the  box.  I  hope  Jack 
is  all  right  by  this  time,  and  that  Dick  is  well. 

"Love  to  all. 

"Faithfully  yours, 

"  (Signed)  Rd.  Pigott." 

This  and  the  following  three  letters  were  received  by  me 
during  the  week  ending  March  3,  1889.     They  bore  no  date. 

"  MuRPHYSTOWN,  Sandyford,  County  Dublin. 
"Sir, — In  answer  to  your  letter  received  this  morning  I  as- 
sure you,  before  God,  no  man  has  ever  called  or  got  box,  bag,  or 
paper  from  me.  None  has  left  the  house,  only  what  you  have 
seen,  with  the  exception  of  what  the  sham  bailiffs  took  the 
night  they  came  in.  I  fear  they  took  more  than  I  gave  them 
credit  for,  but  I  cannot  say  until  the  time  comes  when  I  may 
see  his  effects.  I  enclose  a  scrap  torn  off  one  of  Mr.  P.'s  let- 
ters with  the  numbers  of  notes.  You  may  not  be  able  to 
understand  it,  but  I  will  tell  you  as  I  told  Mr.  V.  B.  Dillon 
before.  He  said,  '  I  may  send  that  man  Sinclair  to  you  on 
Monday  with  a  letter  for  the  box  as  it  stands,  if  not  make  a 
bonfire  of  it  as  it  stands.  I  am  sorry  to  say  it  contains  books 
and  pictures  not  fit  for  you  to  see.'  I  wrote  back  saying  if 
he  gave  me  leave  to  burn  the  box  and  its  contents,  I  would 
not  pry  into  its  secrets.  He  sent  me  a  telegram  on  the  fol- 
lowing morning  to  do  so.  If  you  still  doubt  me,  I  am  ready 
to  swear  to  it,  and  no  fear  that  I  shall  perjure  myself.  My 
belief  is  half  of  his  papers  did  not  come  back;  in  fact,  the 
38  5Q3 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

cabman  was  hardly  able  to  carry  out  his  portmanteau  the 
night  he  went  away.  I  wondered  what  could  be  in  it,  for  his 
personal  luggage  was  never  much.  He  also  had  a  large  bag, 
and  that  box,  but  no  black  bag,  and  a  child  of  ten  years  old 
could  lift  the  box  he  sent  back. 

"Apologizing  for  writing  all  this  preamble,  I  remain, 
"Your  obedient  servant, 

"(Signed)  Anne  Byrne." 

"  MuRPHYSTOWN,  Sandyford,  County  Dublin. 
"Dear  Sir, — Your  letter,  received  in  due  time,  afforded 
me  great  pleasure,  as  it  has  given  me  an  opportunity  of  apolo- 
gizing to  you  for  the  intemperate  manner  in  which  I  answered 
your  former  letter.  Unfortunately,  the  day  before  I  received 
your  letter  I  had  been  treated  to  a  lot  of  talk  about  what  I 
had  done,  or  rather  what  they  said  I  had  done.  No  one  can 
regret  the  destruction  of  those  things,  under  the  present  cir- 
cumstances, more  than  I  do.  God  knows  I  thought  I  was 
doing  everything  for  the  best.  My  whole  thought  was  to 
try  and  save  that  unfortunate  man  from  further  sin  or  trouble. 
Little  did  I  think  his  crimes  were  so  heavy;  to  me  he  was  ever 
the  kindest  of  men,  and,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  one  of  the  most 
unfortunate — indeed  it  was  pity  for  him  kept  me  with  him  so 
long.  Even  now  I  cannot  be  as  hard  on  him  as  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Before  Houston  came  to  him  he  used  to  write  a  good 
deal  for  the  St.  James's  Gazette  and  a  paper  called  the  Morning 
News  [of  Paris].  Of  course,  when  he  went  to  do  Houston's 
work  he  lost  all  this,  and  then  him  and  his  family  must 
starve  or  find  material  for  his  employers.  Poor  old  man! 
this  day  twelvemonths  he  appeared  very  happy  with  his 
children.     Again  apologizing  to  you, 

"I  am,  your  obedient  servant, 

"A.  Byrne." 

"  Murphystown,  Sandyford,  County  Dublin. 
"Dear  Sir, — I  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  will  do 
no  harm  to  let  you  know  part  of  the  contents  of  Mr.  Pigott's 
first  letter  to  me  after  his  cross-examination.  After  com- 
mencing his  letter  in  the  usual  way,  I  cannot  call  to  mind 
the  first  two  or  three  words,  but  in  it  he  said  'Our  wor- 
thy archbishop  has  ruined  me  and  my  poor  children  be- 
yond recall.  Every  friend  I  had  in  the  world  has  deserted 
me;  even  Father  Maher  has  sent  on  some  letters  he  had  of 
mine  to  those  ruffians  here.  Things  look  so  bad  at  present 
that  I  think  The  Times  will  throw  up  tlie  case,  and  prosecute 
me  for  perjury  or  something  as  bad.'     This  is  not  all,  but  the 

594 


PIGOTT'S    CONFESSION    AND    SUICIDE 

rest  could  not  interest  you.  I  always  thought  by  that  letter 
that  The  Times  people  abused  and  threatened  him  after  leav- 
ing the  witness-stand  that  day;  at  all  events  they  ceased  to 
think  him  an  object  worth  watching,  although  they  had  not 
come  to  that  conclusion  before. 

"My  friends  the  detectives  have  not  paid  me  a  visit  since. 

"Yours  respectfully, 

"Anne  Byrne." 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 
PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

The  central  figure  in  the  whole  drama  was  Mr.  Pamell. 
The  inquisition  was  popularly  called  "The  Pamell  Com- 
mission," and  both  inside  and  outside  the  court  the  public 
curiosity  was  concerned  most  in  the  appearance  and  bearing 
of  the  man  for  whose  political  destruction  the  inquiry  was 
insidiously  planned. 

The  Irish  leader,  Le  Caron,  and  Houston  were  the  three 
"best  witnesses";  best  for  the  court,  the  examining  counsel, 
and  the  press,  in  the  clearness  of  the  evidence,  and  the  self- 
possession  exhibited  under  cross-examination.  Though  under 
fire  for  several  days,  Mr.  Parnell  never  lost  his  temper  or 
self-control,  nor  failed  to  make  himself  understood  in  every 
rejoinder  to  friendly  and  to  hostile  questions  alike.  Nor 
did  he  for  a  single  instant  relax  the  dignified  manner  in 
which  he  bore  himself  throughout  the  ordeal  of  a  public 
"confession"  which  covered  his  whole  political  career.  There 
was  no  hesitation  or  ambiguity  in  his  answers,  nor  apparent 
reluctance  to  speak  when  or  where  an  opinion  differing  from 
a  colleague,  or  likely  to  awaken  the  prejudice  of  the  court, 
might  be  a  natural  reply  to  some  pointed  question. 

On  one  occasion  only  throughout  his  long  examination  did 
he  lose  a  grip  of  the  business  before  him.  He  was  induced, 
either  by  lapse  of  memory,  or  the  manner  in  which  the 
query  was  addressed  to  him,  to  declare,  to  the  utter  dismay 
of  Sir  Charles  Russell,  that  he  had  once  "deliberately  misled 
the  House  of  Commons,"  in  some  statement  touching  the 
existence  of  Ribbonism  in  Ireland.  It  was  Sir  Richard 
Webster's  only  triumph  with  the  witness,  and  the  most  was 
made  of  what  was  an  obvious  outcome  of  mental  confusion. 
But  it  greatly  upset  Parnell  during  the  evening.  He  was 
induced  to  look  up  the  speech  in  which  this  self-alleged 
dereliction  had  occurred,  when  it  was  found  that  he  had 
ridiculously  accused  himself  in  his  evidence  of  something 
he  had  never  done.  Sir  James  Hannen  promptly  accepted 
the  explanation  which  was  at  once  made  from  the  witness- 

596 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

stand  the  following  morning.  But  the  Unionist  papers  that 
had  so  carefully  captioned  their  report  of  the  previous  day's 
proceedings  with  startling  headings :  "Mr.  Pamell  deliberate- 
ly misleads  Parliament,"  seemed  to  lose  all  special  interest 
in  the  correction  which  followed  only  a  day  later. 

Mr.  Pamell  was  not  a  regular  attendant  in  Probate  Court 
No.  I,  and  this  was  very  annoying  to  Sir  Charles  Russell. 
In  fact,  the  two  most  prominent  men  of  the  commission  got 
on  better  together  in  court  than  when  in  closer  contact  in 
the  business  of  the  case  outside.  The  great  lawyer  had 
a  temper  which  was  scarcely  angelic,  and  the  cool  and 
seemingly  impassive  Parnell,  with  his  air  of  lordly  indif- 
ference to  what  was  transpiring  before  the  judges,  greatly 
irritated  the  man  who  had  the  whole  weight  of  the  defence 
upon  his  shoulders.  "It  is  bad  policy,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
and  is  sure  to  prejudice  his  case  with  the  judges,"  Sir  Charles 
would  remark;  "not  to  mention  the  studied  disrespect  which 
he  shows  to  those  who  have  the  responsibilities  of  this  weighty 
business  thrown  upon  them."  This  would  be  repeated  to 
Parnell,  but  with  no  better  attendance  resulting.  "Tell  him 
straight  from  me,"  said  Russell,  on  the  eve  of  an  important 
phase  of  the  trial,  "if  he  does  not  turn  up  in  good  time  to- 
morrow I  shall  throw  up  my  brief."  This  message  was  duly 
delivered,  and  it  appeared  to  please  rather  than  to  otherwise 
concern  the  imperturbed  Parnell.  "Oh!  Russell  is  a  bully, 
you  know,  and  you  have  to  tame  him  a  little." 

On  the  occasion  of  this  reply  (when  he,  however,  promised 
to  attend  more  regularly)  I  was  curious  to  know  what  he 
had  in  a  paper  parcel,  from  the  end  of  which  I  saw  what 
looked  like  a  weapon  protruding,  when  placed  on  the  table 
of  my  room  in  the  Arundel  Hotel. 

"This  is  a  new  soldering-iron  I  bought  this  evening.  I 
broke  my  old  one  yesterday.  The  other  parcel  contains  six 
pounds  of  lead.  I  have  been  trying  some  experiments  during 
the  past  few  weeks." 

The  commission  was  by  this  time  in  the  second  month  of 
its  labors. 

The  following  morning  Russell's  first  question  on  entering 
the  court  was,  "Is  he  coming?"  "Yes.  He  will  be  here 
presently,"  was  replied,  and  shortly  afterwards  the  desired 
visitor  sauntered  in,  and  took  his  usual  seat.  There  was  an 
important  witness  giving  evidence,  but  Parnell 's  attention 
was  given  exclusively  to  a  small  brown-paper  parcel  which 
he  extracted  from  his  coat -pocket.  He  began  to  untie 
this,  and,  after  divesting  the  contents  of  four  or  five  shells  of 
paper,  he  turned  out  a  small  piece  of  gold,  about  quadruple 

597 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  size  of  a  pin's  head,  on  a  sheet  of  white  paper,  and  said 
to  me:  "After  fourteen  years'  search  for  gold  at  Avondale, 
this  much  has  at  last  been  found.  I  got  it  out  of  a  parcel 
of  stone  sent  to  me  two  days  ago  by  my  agent."  Then  he 
carefully  wrapped  it  up  in  a  piece  of  tissue-paper,  put  it  into 
his  cigar-case,  and  turned  a  leisurely  attention  to  what  was 
going  on  around  him. 

On  another,  and  later,  occasion  he  exhibited  a  feeling 
which  no  one  who  knew  him,  relative  or  friend,  would  expect 
from  one  so  self-centred  and  coldly  insensible  to  average 
human  influences.  Russell  was  making  his  opening  speech, 
and  forecasting  the  counter  case  with  which  the  defence 
would  make  answer  to  the  charges  and  allegations  of  7  he 
Times.  He  was  dealing  in  a  fine,  sympathetic  tone  with  the 
early  life  of  suffering  and  trial  of  one  of  the  accused,  and 
the  rich,  expressive  voice  was  charged  with  deep  emotion  as 
he  described,  in  carefully  chosen  phrases,  the  hardships  and 
privations  of  the  struggling  poor  in  the  West  of  Ireland. 
The  speaker  had  touched  a  deep  chord  of  human  feeling  in 
the  whole  audience,  by  both  voice  and  words,  and  I  suddenly 
noticed  that  Mr.  Parnell,  who  was  sitting  next  to  me,  was  bent 
forward,  the  forehead  resting  in  the  palm  of  his  left  hand, 
with  the  elbow  on  the  table  before  us.  He  slowly  took  his 
handkerchief  from  his  pocket  with  the  right  hand,  and  in  a 
furtive  way  wiped  his  eyes.  Turning  to  me  he  said:  "I 
don't  remember  ever  crying  before,  not  even  when  I  was  a 
child,  but  I  really  could  not  help  it." 

On  relating  this  incident  to  Sir  Charles  the  same  evening, 
as  a  testimony  to  the  success  of  that  portion  of  his  great 
speech,  the  mighty  advocate  thought  more  of  Parnell's  pre- 
vious misconduct  in  keeping  away  from  the  court  than  of 
the  power  of  his  own  eloquence,  as  he  muttered: 

"I'm  glad  something  can  move  him!" 

The  confession  and  suicide  of  the  chief  factor  in  the  plot 
against  Parnell,  shattering  as  they  did  the  whole  fabric  of 
accusation,  did  not  bring  the  labors  of  Sir  James  Hannen  to 
an  end.  The  confession,  or  an  equivalent,  at  any  rate,  was 
anticipated  by  those  of  the  forger's  employers  to  whom  he 
had  declared,  months  before,  that  he  could  not  prove  the  letters 
to  be  genuine.  The  expose  was  looked  upon  by  them  as  an 
incident  of  the  campaign  against  the  Irish  leader,  and  Tlie 
Times  and  its  backers  proceeded  with  the  work  of  flinging 
more  mud  at  the  man  and  the  movement  they  were  resolved 
if  possible  to  destroy.  So  the  congenial  task  went  on  from 
day  to  day  until  a  case  which  opened  in  the  evidence  of 
Captain  O'Shea,  near  the  end  of  October,  1888,  was  brought 

598 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

to  a  close  in  the  examination  of  his  boon-companion,  the 
friend  and  associate  of  Pigott,  Hayes,  Kasey,  and  company — 
George  Mulqueeny — in  the  sixty-fourth  sitting  of  the  com- 
mission, on  March  13,  1889.  Hundreds  of  witnesses  had 
testified,  miles  of  speeches,  editorial  articles,  pamphlets, 
resolutions,  blue-books,  and  official  returns  had  been  read — 
all  as  portions  of  the  indictment  which  had  Pigott 's  exploded 
infamies  as  inspiration,  cause,  and  effect. 

Sir  Charles  Russell  opened  the  case  for  the  defence  on  April 
2d.  In  a  speech  which  occupied  five  hours  and  a  half  each 
day  of  seven  days,  the  charges,  forgeries,  and  perjuries  of  The 
Times  witnesses,  and  the  statements,  deductions,  and  argu- 
ments of  Sir  Richard  Webster,  were  gone  over  in  a  masterly 
review  of  the  whole  field  of  evidence  and  accusation.  It  was 
a  convincing  and  crushing  counter  indictment  of  The  Times 
and  its  backers  that  left  nothing  unsaid  that  could  well 
bring  home  to  the  authors  of  a  plot  so  base  the  shame  and 
the  moral  penalty  of  its  guilt  and  exposure. 

He  discussed  the  entire  Irish  question,  in  his  analysis  of 
the  allegations  that  the  Land  League  had  fomented  disturb- 
ance and  promoted  crime  for  political  ends.  Evidence  al- 
most without  end  was  quoted  to  refute  this  calumny.  The 
records  and  reputations  of  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  chief  followers 
were  then  gone  over  and  defended,  in  sketches  of  what  they 
had  done  for  their  country,  the  laws  they  had  helped  to  pass, 
the  reforms  which  they  had  won  for  Ireland,  and  the  esteem 
in  which  they  were  held  by  the  people  for  whose  welfare  they 
had  labored  with  some  success,  while  facing  obloquy,  hard- 
ships, and  imprisonment  for  themselves. 

Froude  and  Lecky  and  other  eminent  writers  were  drawn 
upon  for  historic  testimony,  while  the  admissions  of  one- 
time coercionist  rulers  of  Ireland,  converted  by  extended 
experience  of  the  country  and  a  closer  contact  with  the 
Irish  people  into  advocat-es  of  concession,  were  adduced. 
Nothing,  in  fact,  which  resplendent  ability,  animated  and  in- 
formed by  more  than  a  great  lawyer's  skilled  advocacy,  could 
urge,  with  the  force  of  brilliant  speaking-power,  was  omitted. 
It  was  an  illustrious  Irishman  who  was  pleading  with  an  elo- 
quence born  of  full  confidence  in  the  justice  of  his  case  and 
of  the  conviction  that  it  was  Ireland,  and  not  Mr.  Parnell, 
that  was  assailed  by  unscrupulous  enemies.  The  speech  had 
all  the  qualities  of  a  great  utterance  on  an  equally  great  issue; 
facts  deftly  handled,  authorities  clearly  marshalled  in  sup- 
port; the  fullest  possible  knowledge  of  the  subjects,  topics, 
and  questions  reviewed ;  along  with  all  the  necessary  accesso- 
ries of  an  historic  deliverance — a  fine  voice,  a  thorough  com- 

599 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

mand  of  the  best  English,  a  superb  style,  and  a  manifest 
earnestness  which  added  force  to  the  convincing  power  of  an 
unequalled  forensic  performance. 

The  concluding  sentences  touched  a  personal  note,  but 
likewise  a  high  spirit  of  political  conviction : 

"  I  have  spoken  not  merely  as  an  advocate.  I  have  spoken 
for  the  land  of  my  birth;  but  I  feel,  I  profoundly  feel,  that  I 
have  been  speaking  to,  for,  and  in  the  best  interests  of  Eng- 
land, of  the  country  where  my  years  of  laborious  life  have 
been  passed,  and  where  I  have  received  kindness,  considera- 
tion, and  regard,  which  I  should  be  glad  to  make  some  at- 
tempt to  repay.  My  lords,  my  colleagues  and  myself  have 
had  a  responsible  duty,  we  have  had  to  defend  not  merely  the 
leaders  of  the  nation  but  the  nation  of  Ireland  itself.  We 
have  had  to  defend  the  leaders  of  the  nation  whom  it  was 
sought  to  crush,  to  defend  the  nation  whose  hopes  it  was 
sought  to  cast  down,  to  dash  to  the  ground.  This  inquiry, 
intended  as  a  curse,  has  proved  a  blessing.  Designed,  prom- 
inently designed,  to  ruin  one  man,  it  has  been  his  vindication. 
In  opening  this  case  I  said  that  we  represented  the  accused. 
My  lords,  I  claim  leave  to  say  that  to-day  the  positions  are 
reversed — we  are  the  accusers — the  accused  are  there  [point- 
ing to  the  representatives  of  The  Times].  My  lords,  I  hope 
this  inquiry  at  its  present  stage  and  in  its  future  development 
will  serve  more  even  than  as  a  vindication  —  that  it  will  re- 
move painful  misconceptions  as  to  the  character,  the  actions, 
the  motives,  the  aims  of  the  Irish  people  and  of  the  leaders 
of  the  Irish  people;  that  it  will  set  earnest  minds — and,  thank 
God,  there  are  many  earnest  and  honest  minds  in  this  land — 
thinking  for  themselves  on  the  question;  that  it  will  remove 
grievous  misconceptions  and  hasten  the  day  of  true  union,  of 
real  reconciliation  between  the  people  of  Ireland  and  the  peo- 
ple of  Great  Britain,  and  that  there  will  be  dispelled,  and  dis- 
pelled forever,  the  cloud,  the  weighty  cloud,  that  has  rested 
on  the  history  of  a  noble  race  and  dimmed  the  glory  of  a 
mighty  empire."  * 

The  witnesses  who  were  examined  for  Mr.  Parnell  and  the 
,  league  represented  every  class  of  reputable  citizen  in  Ireland, 
I  including  all  those  of  Mr.  Parnell's  party  who  were  specifically 
charged  with  any  serious  oflfence.  All  the  books  of  the  Na- 
tional League,  covering  the  period  from  October,  1882,  down 
to  the  commission,  were  produced  by  Mr.  Harrington,  and 
examined  both  for  the  judges  and  The  Tiiiics.  The  Land- 
League  books  had  been  destroyed,  or  had  gone  astray,  after 


./7 


'  special  Commission  Report,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  662,  663. 
600 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

the  suppression  of  that  organization  in  1881 ;  seven  years  be- 
fore The  Times  required  them  to  be  brought  into  court.  The 
absence  of  these  books  appeared  to  impress  the  judges  ad- 
versely to  the  case  for  the  league  in  the  matter  of  accounting 
for  the  expenditure  of  its  funds.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  many  informers  who  were  examined  in  behalf  of  our  ac- 
cusers, some  of  whom  had  been  employed  in  Land-League 
offices  in  1881,  failed  to  make  good  a  single  allegation  about 
money  being  paid  for  any  illegal  purpose. 

The  judges  having  declined  to  give  orders  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  books  and  papers  belonging  to  the  Loyal  and 
Patriotic  Union,  on  the  demand  of  Sir  Charles  Russell,  as 
necessar}?^  to  prove  the  counter  charge  of  Mr.  Parnell  that 
there  was  a  conspiracy  to  effect  his  ruin  behind  The  Times  and 
Houston — a  consultation  was  held,  and  it  was  decided,  on 
Russell's  advice,  to  withdraw  from  further  attendance  before 
the  commission.  By  this  time  all  real  public  interest  in  the 
proceedings  had  ceased.  Mr.  Parnell's  own  evidence,  and  the 
favorable  impression  he  had  made,  practically  ended  the  in- 
quiry, and  the  judges'  report  iipon  the  whole  case  was  awaited. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  decision  to  withdraw  was  a 
sensible  one;  though  it  was  not  calculated  to  make  a  too 
favorable  imjjression  upon  the  three  men  whose  duty  it  would 
be  to  sum  up  the  evidence  and  pass  a  verdict  upon  it. 

It  was  arranged,  on  Sir  Charles  Russell's  suggestion,  and 
cordially  approved  of  by  Mr.  Parnell,  that  Mr.  Sexton,  Mr.  Big- 
gar,  and  Mr.  Davitt  should  attend  at  the  final  sittings  of  the 
commission  and  address  the  court:  Mr.  Sexton  to  speak  for 
the  Irish  Parliamentary  Party ;  Mr.  Biggar  for  himself,  as  co- 
treasurer  of  the  Land  League  with  Mr.  Egan ;  and  Mr.  Davitt 
in  belialf  of  the  Land  League  and  its  American  auxiliaries. 

When,  four  months  subsequently,  the  judges  resumed  their 
suspended  sessions,  Mr.  Biggar,  in  his  best  manner,  ad- 
dressed them.  He  offered  a  very  unflattering  estimate  of  the 
manner  in  which  Sir  Richard  Webster  had  conducted  the 
case  for  The  Times.  He  spoke  twenty  minutes,  and  in  his 
dry,  cynical  manner  consoled  the  court  by  informing  it  that 
"my  friend,  Mr.  Davitt,  will  follow  me  with  a  few  obser- 
vations"; which  "few  observations"  occupied  the  time  of 
the  commission  for  the  five  days  ending  on  October  31, 
1889. 

As  this  commission  sat  to  try  the  Land  League,  and  as  the 
future  course  of  this  .story  will  not  require  the  infliction  of  any 
more  of  the  a.uthor's  speeches  upon  the  patient  reader,  he 
may,  perhaps,  be  pardoned  if  he  reproduces  here  a  few  of  the 
final  sentences  of  his  defence  of  the  great  Irish  organization 

601 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

which  had  been  on  its  trial  before  this  tribunal  of  its  English 
enemies  for  a  year. 

"  My  lords,  I  now  bring  my  observations  to  a  close.  What- 
ever legal  points  are  to  occupy  your  lordships'  study  and  care 
in  this  long  and  arduous  investigation,  it  will  appear  to  the 
public,  who  will  study  the  report  or  the  decision  of  this 
tribunal,  that  two  institutions  stood  indicted  before  it.  One 
has  had  a  life  of  centuries,  the  other  an  existence  of  but  a 
few  brief  years.  They  are  charged,  respectively,  by  the 
accused  and  the  accusers,  with  the  responsibility  for  the 
agrarian  crimes  of  the  period  covered  by  the  inquiry.  One  is 
Irish  landlordism,  the  other  is  the  Irish  Land  League.  The 
Times  alleges  that  the  younger  institution  is  the  culprit.  The 
Land  League,  through  me,  its  reputed  founder,  repels  the 
accusation,  and  counter  charges  landlordism  with  being  the 
instigation  and  the  cause  not  alone  of  the  agrarian  violence 
and  crime  from  1879  to  1887,  but  of  all  such  crimes  as  are 
on  record,  from  the  times  spoken  of  by  Spenser  and  Davies,  in 
the  days  of  Elizabeth,  down  to  the  date  of  this  commission. 

"To  prove  this  real  and  hoary-headed  culprit  guilty,  I  have 
not  employed  or  purchased  the  venal  talent  of  a  forger  nor 
offered  the  tempting  price  of  liberty  for  incriminatory  evi- 
dence to  unhappy  convicts  in  penal  cells.  Neither  have  I 
brought  convicted  assassins  or  professional  perjurers,  like 
the  Delaneys  and  Le  Carons,  before  your  lordships.  I  have 
not  sought  assistance  such  as  this  with  which  to  sustain  my 
case.  Nor  have  I  been  aided  by  the  Colemans,  Buckleys, 
and  Igos  as  confederates,  or  had  to  scour  the  purlieus  of 
American  cities  for  men  who  would  sell  evidence  that  might 
repair  the  case  which  Richard  Pigott's  confession  destroyed  and 
which  his  self-inflicted  death  has  sealed  with  tragic  emphasis. 

"I  will  not  go  to  such  sources  nor  resort  to  such  means  for 
testimony  against  Irish  landlordism.  I  relied  not  upon  the 
swearing  of  spies  or  informers,  but  upon  unbiased  facts  left 
as  legacies  to  truth  by  men  who  are  held  in  reverence  by 
England  for  service  rendered  to  their  country,  to  justice,  to 
humanity.  I  have  reproduced  the  words  which  these  men 
have  placed  on  record  against  crime-begetting  Irish  land- 
lordism. Among  those  quoted  as  authorities,  but  not  of 
them — one  with  them  in  their  verdicts,  though  not  to  be  class- 
ed otherwise  with  honored  names — I  have  placed  The  Times 
newspaper,  which  is  the  Land  League's  accuser.  I  have  made 
it  speak  its  own  condemnation  and  compelled  it  historically 
to  exculpate  the  league.  The  face  of  what  the  first  editorial 
ever  written  in  The  Times  likened  to  the  pagan  deity,  Janus — 
the  face  which  circumstances  have  sometimes  forced  to  look 

602 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

towards  truth  by  power  akin  to  that  v/hich  compels  matter  to 
look  towards  the  sun — I  have  made  to  confront  and  shame 
by  contrast  the  other  face  of  fraud  and  falsehood  which,  like 
an  evil  genius,  has  led  England  to  regard  with  hate  and 
distrust  every  effort  of  the  Irish  people  for  right  and  justice. 
I  have  made  The  Times  of  1847  and  of  1880  give  the  lie  direct 
to  The  Times  of  this  commission,  and  have  caused  it  to  become 
my  strongest  historic  accuser  of  the  evil  system  which  it 
now  condemns  by  its  very  advocacy.  To  this  testimony  I  have 
added  the  sworn  evidence  of  the  persons  whom  it  charges 
with  the  deeds  of  its  client — the  evidence  of  the  living  actors 
in  the  Land-League  movement,  and  of  others  who  represent 
every  class  into  which  Ireland's  population  is  divided — 
bishops,  priests,  members  of  Parliament,  municipal  rep- 
resentatives, journalists,  merchants,  traders,  laborers,  me- 
chanics— who  one  and  all  say,  with  The  Times  Red-Book  of 
1880,  that  evictions  and  threats  of  eviction  are  the  chief 
source  of  all  agrarian  crime  in  Ireland. 

"  But  there  is  another  and  a  higher  interest  involved  in  the 
drama  of  this  commission  now  rapidly  drawing  to  a  close,  an 
interest  far  surpassing  in  importance,  and  the  possible  con- 
sequence of  your  lordships'  judgment,  anything  else  com- 
prised in  this  investigation.  It  stands  between  The  Times 
and  landlordism  on  the  one  hand,  the  persons  here  charged 
and  the  Land  League  on  the  other.  In  by-gone  ages  his- 
torians, with  some  prophetic  instinct,  called  it  'The  Isle  of 
Destiny.'  And  destiny  seems  to  have  reserved  it  for  a  career 
of  trial,  of  suffering,  and  of  sorrow.  That  same  destiny  has 
linked  this  country  close  to  England.  Politically,  it  has 
remained  there  for  seven  hundred  years  and  more.  During 
that  period  no  race  ever  placed  upon  this  earth  has  ex- 
perienced more  injustice  or  more  criminal  neglect  at  the 
hands  of  their  rulers  than  we  have.  This  even  English 
history  will  not  and  dare  not  deny.  This  land,  so  tried  and 
treated,  has,  nevertheless,  struggled,  generation  after  genera- 
tion, now  with  one  means,  now  with  another,  to  widen  the 
sphere  of  its  contracted  religious,  social,  and  political  liberties — 
liberties  so  contracted  by  the  deliberate  policy  of  its  English 
governing  power;  and  ever  and  always  were  these  struggles 
made  against  the  prejudice  and  might,  and  often  the  cruelties, 
of  this  same  power,  backed  by  the  support  or  the  indifference 
of  the  British  nation.  But,  despite  all  this,  the  cause  so 
fought  and  upheld  has  ever  and  always  succeeded,  sooner  or 
later,  in  vindicating  its  underlying  principles  of  truth  and 
justice,  and  in  winning  from  the  power  which  failed  to  crush 
them  an  after  justification  of  their  righteous  demands. 

603 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

"A  people  so  persevering  in  their  fight  for  the  most  price- 
less and  most  cherished  of  human  and  civil  rights,  so  opposed 
but  so  invariably  vindicated,  might  surely,  in  these  days 
of  progress  and  of  enlightenment,  excite  in  the  breasts  of 
Englishmen  other  feelings  than  those  of  jealousy,  hate,  and 
fear.  To  many,  thank  God,  it  has  appealed  successfully,  at 
last,  to  what  is  good  and  what  is  best  in  English  nature. 
It  has  spoken  to  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  has  turned  the  love 
of  justice  in  the  popular  mind  towards  Ireland,  and  has 
asked  the  British  people,  in  the  interests  of  peace,  to  put 
force  and  mistrust  away  with  every  other  abandoned  weapon 
in  Ireland's  past  misrule,  and  to  place  in  their  stead  the 
soothing  and  healing  remedies  of  confidence  and  friendship 
based  upon  reason  and  equality. 

"  The  verdict  of  this  court,  the  story  that  will  be  told  in  the 
report  of  this  commission,  may  or  may  not  carry  the  appeal 
which  Ireland's  struggles  and  misfortunes  have  addressed 
to  the  conscience  and  fairness  of  the  English  nation  much 
farther  than  it  has  already  travelled  in  the  British  mind. 
But  one  thing,  at  least,  the  history  of  this  commission  will  have 
to  tell  to  future  generations.  It  will  narrate  how  this  prog- 
ress of  conciliation  between  ruled  and  rulers  was  sought  to 
be  arrested;  how  a  people  asking  for  justice  were  answered 
by  ferocious  animosity;  how  men  who  had  suffered  i:n- 
prisonment,  degradation,  and  calumny  in  their  country's 
service  were  foully  attacked  by  the  weapons  of  moral  assassina- 
tion, and  how  every  dastard  means  known  in  the  records  of 
unscrupulous  warfare  were  purchased  and  employed  to  cripple 
or  destroy  the  elected  representatives  of  the  Irish  nation. 

"  This  story  will  picture  this  once-powerful  organ  of  English 
public  opinion  earning  again  the  title  of  'literary  assassin' 
which  Richard  Cobden  gave  it  near  thirty  years  ago.  It 
will  stand  again  in  this  light  when  its  writers  are  seen  plotting 
with  Houston,  planning  with  Pigott,  and  bargaining  with 
Delaney  how  best  to  reawaken  in  the  English  mind  the  old 
hate  and  jealousy  and  fear  of  a  people  who  were  to  be 
depicted  in  its  columns  in  the  most  odious  and  repulsive 
character  that  forgers'  or  libellers'  mercenary  talent  could 
delineate  in  'Parnellism  and  Crime.'  This  story  will  exhibit 
these  men  sitting  in  the  editorial  rooms  of  Printing-House 
Square  with  professions  of  loyalty  on  their  lips  and  poison 
in  their  pens ;  with  '  honesty '  loudly  proclaimed  in  articles 
which  salaried  falsehood  had  written;  with  simulated  re- 
gard for  truth,  making  'shame  ashamed'  of  their  concocted 
fabrications.  And  these  men,  with  the  salaries  of  the  rich 
in  their  pockets  and  the  smiles  of  London  society  as  their 

604 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

reward,  carrying  on  a  deliberately  planned  system  of  in- 
famous allegation  against  political  opponents  who  were  but 
striving  to  redeem  the  sad  fortunes  of  their  country,  in  efforts 
to  bring  to  an  end  a  strife  of  centuries'  duration  between 
neighboring  nations  and  people."* 


JUDGES'    REPORT 

"We  have  now  pursued  our  inquiry  over  a  sufficiently 
extended  period  to  enable  us  to  report  upon  the  several 
charges  and  allegations  which  have  been  made  against  the 
respondents,  and  we  have  indicated  in  the  course  of -this 
statement  our  findings  upon  these  charges  and  allegations, 
but  it  will  be  convenient  to  repeat,  seriatim,  the  conclusions 
we  have  arrived  at  upon  the  issues  which  have  been  raised 
for  our  consideration. 

"i.  We  find  that  the  respondent  members  of  Parliament 
collectively  were  not  members  of  a  conspiracy  having  for  its 
object  to  establish  the  absolute  independence  of  Ireland,  but 
we  find  that  some  of  them,  together  with  Mr.  Davitt,  estab- 
lished and  joined  in  the  Land-League  organization  with  the 
intention  by  its  means  to  bring  about  the  absolute  indepen- 
dence of  Ireland  as  a  separate  nation.  The  names  of  those 
respondents  are  set  out  at  page  32  of  this  report. 

"2.  We  find  that  the  respondents  did  enter  into  a  con- 
spiracy by  a  system  of  coercion  and  intimidation  to  promote 
an  agrarian  agitation  against  the  payment  of  agricultural 
rents,  for  the  purpose  of  impoverishing  and  expelling  from 
the  country  the  Irish  landlords  who  were  styled  the  '  English 
garrison.' 

"3.  We  find  that  the  charge  that  'when  on  certain  occa- 
sions they  thought  it  politic  to  denounce,  and  did  denounce, 
certain  crimes  in  public,  they  afterwards  led  their  supporters 
to  believe  such  denunciations  were  not  sincere'  is  not  estab- 
lished. We  entirely  acquit  Mr  Parnell  and  the  other  re- 
spondents of  the  charge  of  insincerity  in  their  denunciation 
of  the  Phoenix  Park  murders,  and  find  that  the  'facsimile' 
letter  on  which  this  charge  was  chiefly  based  as  against  Mr. 
Parnell  is  a  forgery. 

"4.  We  find  that  the  respondents  did  disseminate  the 
Irish  World  and  other  newspapers  tending  to  incite  to  sedition 
and  the  commission  of  other  crime. 

"5.  We  find  that  the  respondents  did  not  directly  incite 

'  Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  xi.,  pp.  24,  25,  Mr.  Davitt's  address. 

60^ 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

persons  to  the  commission  of  crime  other  than  intimidation, 
but  that  they  did  incite  to  intimidation,  and  the  consequence 
of  that  incitement  was  that  crime  and  outrage  were  com- 
mitted by  the  persons  incited.  We  find  that  it  has  not  been 
proved  that  the  respondents  made  payments  for  the  purpose 
of  inciting  persons  to  commit  crime. 

"6.  We  find  as  to  the  allegation  that  the  respondents  did 
nothing  to  prevent  crime  and  expressed  no  bona-fide  disap- 
proval, that  some  of  the  respondents,  and  in  particular  Mr. 
Davitt,  did  express  bona-fide  disapproval  of  crime. and  out- 
rage, but  that  the  respondents  did  not  denounce  the  system 
of  intimidation  which  led  to  crime  and  outrage,  but  persisted 
in  it  with  knowledge  of  its  effect. 

"7.  We  find  that  the  respondents  did  defend  persons 
charged  with  agrarian  crime,  and  supported  their  families, 
but  that  it  has  not  been  proved  that  they  subscribed  to  testi- 
monials for,  or  were  intimately  associated  with,  notorious 
criminals,  or  that  they  made  payments  to  procure  the  escape 
of  criminals  from  justice. 

"8.  We  find  as  to  the  allegation  that  the  respondents 
made  payments  to  compensate  persons  who  had  been  injured 
in  the  commission  of  crime,  that  they  did  make  such  payments. 

"9.  As  to  the  allegation  that  the  respondents  invited  the 
assistance  and  co-operation  of  and  accepted  subscriptions  of 
money  from  known  advocates  of  crime  and  the  use  of  dyna- 
mite, we  find  that  the  respondents  did  invite  the  assistance 
and  co-operation  of,  and  accepted  subscriptions  of  money 
from,  Patrick  Ford,  a  known  advocate  of  crime  and  the  use 
of  dynamite,  but  that  it  has  not  been  proved  that  the  re- 
spondents or  any  of  them  knew  that  the  Clan-na-Gael  con- 
trolled the  league  or  was  collecting  money  for  the  parlia- 
mentary fund.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  respondents 
invited  and  obtained  the  assistance  and  co-operation  of  the 
physical-force  party  in  America,  including  the  Clan-na-Gael, 
and  in  order  to  obtain  that  assistance  abstained  from  re- 
pudiating or  condemning  the  action  of  that  party. 

"There  remain  three  specific  charges  against  Mr.  Parnell — 
namely, 

"(a)  That  at  the  time  of  the  Kilmainham  negotiations 
Mr.  Parnell  knew  that  Sheridan  and  Boyton  had  been  organ- 
izing outrage,  and  therefore  wished  to  use  them  to  put  down 
outrage.     We  find  that  this  charge  has  not  been  proved. 

"(b)  That  Mr.  Parnell  was  intimate  with  the  leading  In- 
vincibles,  that  he  probably  learned  from  them  what  they  were 
about  when  he  was  released  on  parole  in  April,  1882,  and  that 
he  recognized  the  Phoenix  Park  murders  as  their  handiwork. 

606 


PARNELL'S    VINDICATION 

"We  find  that  there  is  no  foundation  for  this  charge.  We 
have  already  stated  that  the  Invincibles  were  not  a  branch 
of  the  Land  League. 

"(c)  That  Mr.  Parnell,  on  January  23,  1883,  by  an  oppor- 
tune remittance,  enabled  F.  Byrne  to  escape  from  justice  to 
France.  We  find  that  Mt.  Parnell  did  not  make  any  re- 
mittance to  enable  F.  Byrne  to  escape  from  justice. 

"We  consider  that  there  is  no  foundat  on  whatever  for  the 
charge  that  Mr.  Parnell  was  intimate  with  Invincibles,  know- 
ing them  to  be  such,  or  that  he  had  any  knowledge,  direct  or 
indirect,  of  the  conspiracy  which  resulted  in  the  Phoenix  Park 
murders,  and  we  find  the  same  with  reference  to  all  the  other 
respondents.  We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  enter  into  the 
question  whether  or  not  any  persons  other  than  those  who 
were  convicted  were  guilty  of  participation  in  those  crimes, 
because  we  are  c  early  of  opinion  that  none  of  the  respondents 
were  aware  at  the  time  that  any  persons  with  whom  they  as- 
sociated were  connected  with  these  murders. 

"The  third  charge  we  have  to  consider  is  'that  when  on  cer- 
tain occasions  the  respondents  thought  it  politic  to  denounce 
and  did  denounce  certain  crimes  in  public,  they  afterwards 
led  their  supporters  to  believe  that  such  denunciation  was 
not  sincere.' 

"This  was  chiefly  based  on  the  letter  known  throughout  the 
inquiry  as  the  'facsimile  letter.' 

"This  letter  was  one  of  a  series  obtained  from  the  witness, 
Richard  Pigott,  by  Mr.  Houston,  who  afterwards  supplied 
them  to  the  manager  of  The  Times  newspaper  upon  pay- 
ment of  sums  amounting  to  ;£2  53o.  We  do  not  propose  to 
narrate  the  circumstances  attending  on  the  obtaining  of  these 
letters.     They  will  be  found  in  the  evidence. 

"The  story  told  by  Pigott  as  to  the  manner  in  which  he  had 
obtained  these  letters  was  entirely  unworthy  of  credit,  and  be- 
fore his  cross-examination  was  concluded  he  absconded  and 
committed  suicide.  We  find  that  all  the  letters  produced 
by  Pigott  and  set  out  in  the  appendix  are  forgeries,  and  we 
entirely  acquit  Mr.  Parnell  and  the  other  respondents  of  the 
charge  of  insincerity  in  their  denunciation  of  the  Phoenix 
Park  murders. 

"The  two  special  charges  against  Mr.  Davitt  —  viz.,  (a) 
'That  he  was  a  member  of  the  Fenian  organization,  and 
convicted  as  such,  and  that  he  assisted  in  the  formation  of 
the  Land  League  with  money  which  had  been  contributed 
for  the  purpose  of  outrage  and  crime ' ;  (b)  '  That  he  was  hi 
close  and  intimate  association  with  the  party  of  violence  in 
America,   and  was  mainly  instrumental   in  bringing  about 

607 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

the  alliance  between  that  party  and  the  Parnellite  and  Home- 
Rule  party  in  America,'  are  based  on  passages  in  TJie  Times 
leading  articles  of  March  7  and  14,  1887:  'The  new  movement 
was  appropriately  started  by  Fenians  out  of  Fenian  funds ;  its 
"father"  is  Michael  Davitt,  a  convicted  Fenian.'  'That  Mr. 
Parnell's  "constitutional  organization"  was  planned  by 
Fenian  brains,  founded  on  a  Fenian  loan,  and  reared  by 
Fenian  hands.' 

"  We  have  shown  in  the  course  of  the  report  that  Mr.  Davitt 
was  a  member  of  the  Fenian  organization,  and  convicted 
as  such,  and  that  he  received  money  from  a  fund  which 
had  been  contributed  for  the  purpose  of  outrage  and  crime — 
viz.,  the  Skirmishing  Fund.  It  was  not,  however,  for  the 
formation  of  the  Land  League  itself,  but  for  the  promotion 
of  the  agitation  which  led  up  to  it.  We  have  also  shown  that 
Mr.  Davitt  returned  the  money  out  of  his  own  resources. 

"  With  regard  to  the  further  allegation  that  he  was  in  close 
and  intimate  association  with  the  party  of  violence  in  Amer- 
ica, and  mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  alliance 
between  that  party  and  the  Parnellite  and  Home  -  Rule 
party  in  America,  we  find  that  he  was  in  such  close  and 
intimate  association  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about,  and 
that  he  was  mainly  instrumental  in  bringing  about,  the  alli- 
ance referred  to. 

"All  which  we  humbly  report  to  your  Majesty. 

"Archibald  L.  Smith, 
"James  Hannen, 
"John  C.  Day. 

"  Henry  Harding  Cunynghame,  Secretary. 
"  Royal  Courts  of  Justice,  February  13,  1890." 


CHAPTER  XLIX 

SECRET-SERVICE     SPIES  — I.     "  LE    CARON" 

Le  Caron  was  the  most  theatrical  of  all  The  Times  wit- 
nesses. It  was  a  great  occasion  for  him  after  his  twenty 
years'  experience  as  a  spy  among  the  American  Clan-na-Gael, 
and  his  first  appearance  in  public  in  his  true  character  wo^^e 
all  the  interest  of  a  dramatic  episode.  He  looked  the  character 
he  had  personated  to  the  life,  and  his  examination  was  one 
of  the  few  very  interesting  incidents  in  the  long  and  tire- 
some investigation.  He  was  a  small,  wiry  man,  aged  about 
fifty,  under  the  medium  height,  slight  in  build,  a  very  alert 
and  intelligent  face,  deep -set  and  dark  eyes,  wide  and  in- 
tellectual forehead,  and  black  hair.  His  manner  was  ex- 
cellent under  cross-examination,  and  he  made  a  favorable 
impression  on  the  court  and  upon  counsel  on  both  sides  as  a 
witness. 

He  was  the  only  important  witness  we  had  not  been  warned 
about  by  our  friends  or  agents  in  America,  and  his  appearance 
on  the  stand  was  a  complete  surprise.  I  had  learned  that 
"a  colonel  or  general"  had  left  New  York  for  London,  while 
Mr.  Labouchere  was  informed  by  cable  that  "a  Chicago 
apothecary"  was  to  give  evidence  for  The  Times.  Neither 
description  suggested  the  real  person,  and  we  were  taken  some- 
what unprepared. 

His  evidence  made  up  in  volume  what  it  lacked  in  direct 
value  in  support  of  The  Times  case.  He  had  been  a  spy 
for  twenty  years  in  Braidwood.  Joliet,  and  Chicago,  and  had 
kept  the  secret  -  service  department  of  the  home  office  reg- 
ularly informed  of  such  facts  relating  to  the  Clan-na-Gael 
as  came  within  his  cognizance  as  a  subordinate  officer  of  the 
organization.  His  main  contributions  to  this  end  consisted 
of  "secret"  circulars,  the  construction  and  wording  of  which 
documents  utterly  destroyed  whatever  reputation  the  "  Clan  " 
had  previously  possessed  in  the  way  of  "conspiracy."  As  a 
prominent  lawyer  remarked  in  my  hearing,  after  all  Le  Caron 's 
"secret"  circulars  had  been  read:  "Your  'clan'  appears  to  be 
a  body  of  men,  half  of  whose  time  seems  to  have  been  occu- 
39  609 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

pied  in  concocting  ridiculous  cipher  circulars  which  could  con- 
ceal as  many  secrets  as  a  sieve  could  hold  water,  and  in 
wasting  the  other  half  of  their  time  in  securing  the  destruc- 
tion of  these  silly  documents." 

Le  Caron  was  expected  to  prove  three  main  allegations  made 
by  The  Times,  for  which  it  afterwards  transpired  he  was  to  re- 
ceive the  sum  of  ten  thousand  pounds.  First,  that  the  "clan " 
was  a  part  of  the  American  Land  League ;  secondly ,  that  there 
was  an  alliance  between  Mr.  Parnell's  party  and  the  league 
in  Ireland  with  the  "  dynamite  "  party  in  the  United  States; 
and,  thirdly,  that  I  was  the  connecting  link  between  the  sea- 
divided  combinations  and  the  proof  of  its  existence.  He 
failed  completely  to  prove  these  charges,  or  even  to  convince 
the  judges  that  they  had  any  substantial  basis  of  fact  to  rest 
upon. 

His  alleged  interview  with  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  of  the  Irish  leader's  declaration  that  he  was 
a  "revolutionist  "  and  that  "a  blow  would  be  struck"  when 
the  league  funds  should  amount  to  a  sum  of  ^100,000,  was  a 
palpable  yarn  engrafted  upon  a  probable  interview  such  as 
any  American  visitor  to  the  House  of  Commons  could  have 
with  a  prominent  member.  The  story  about  the  "im- 
portant "  document  which  Devoy  intrusted  to  him  for  Egan 
in  Paris,  on  the  occasion  of  a  visit  to  Europe,  was  a  measure 
of  the  liberal  amount  of  fiction  with  which  he  flavored  his 
facts.  We  had  no  time  during  the  period  of  his  examination 
to  investigate  such  statements  as  this,  but  I  obtained  in  due 
course  from  Mr.  Egan,  who  was  at  the  time  United  States 
minister  to  Chili,  the  "important  document"  of  which  Le 
Caron  was  the  bearer  It  consisted  of  some  ten  lines  of  an 
ordinary  introduction,  such  as  one  man  would  give  to  another, 
without  the  least  reference  to  politics,  revolutionary  affairs, 
or  other  matters.  He  was  referred  to  in  the  letter  as  a 
"good  Irishman,"  though  a  Frenchman,  and  that  was  the 
extent  of  the  treason  and  "secrets "  contained  in  a  letter  which 
had  exercised  the  great  ability  of  Sir  Richard  Webster  in 
elucidation  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the  spy's  examination. 

In  my  own  case  I  had  to  resort  to  a  stratagem  so  as  to  secure 
being  the  first  witness  as  to  my  relations  with  the  mysterious 
"clan"  conclave.  Having  cross-examined  most  of  the  pre- 
vious witnesses,  as  an  amateur  counsel,  it  was  a  natural  in- 
ference to  draw  that  I  would  also  question  Le  Caron  upon 
his  references  to  me  in  his  evidence.  I  encouraged  this 
belief  among  the  audience,  though  I  had,  on  the  advice  of 
Sir  Charles  Russell,  and  for  the  reason  stated,  decided  to 
leave  the  somewhat  formidable  spy  in  far  abler  hands.    This 

610 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

nise  succeeded  beyond  expectation.  He  made  but  two 
allusions  to  me  in  his  direct  evidence,  and  these  of  the  most 
trivial  kind — that  he  had  seen  me  in  company  with  a  Chicago 
member  of  the  "clan  "  on  one  occasion,  near  a  railway  station, 
and  that  I  had  attended  a  Land-League  meeting  in  his  (Le 
Caron's)  company,  at  Braid  wood,  on  another.  And  this 
was  the  sum  total  of  his  evidence  as  to  my  intercourse  with 
the  organization  inside  of  which  he  had  acted  as  a  spy  for  a 
score  of  years! 

Of  course  he  knew  something  more,  but  he  held  this  in 
reserve  until,  as  he  fully  expected,  I  would  take  him  in  hand, 
when  his  testimony  against  me  might  be  all  the  more  telling 
on  account  of  being  tendered  through  the  medium  of  my 
cross-examination  of  him.  His  disappointmicnt  was  manifest 
after  he  had  passed  through  the  lawyers'  hands  to  find  me 
busily  engaged  in  looking  over  papers  and  omitting  to  put 
him  a  single  question.  His  friends  in  the  press  the  following 
day  attributed  my  action  to  "fear"  of  revelations,  but  my 
point  had  been  gained  at  his  expense;  for,  as  he  had  not 
added  one  single  material  link  of  evidence  to  the  incon- 
clusive testimony  already  sworn  to,  he  was  debarred  in  his 
re-examination  from  adding  a  word  about  me  to  the  little  he 
had  already  said. 

When  my  own  examination  arrived,  I  told  the  judges 
much  more  about  my  visits  to  "clan"  camps  in  Chicago  and 
elsewhere  than  Le  Caron  had  sworn  to;  thereby  showing 
how  ignorant  he  appeared  to  be  of  my  relations  with  that 
body,  and  giving  the  court  my  own  version  of  these  where 
they  would  have  had  the  adroit  spy's  liberal  allowance  of  in- 
sinuation and  coloring  had  the  chance  for  amplification  been 
given  him.  It  transpired,  too,  that  despite  his  boasted 
knowledge  of  the  working  of  revolutionary  circles  in  America, 
he  had  not  been  able  to  warn  the  British  authorities  of  the 
rescue  of  the  Fenian  prisoners  from  Freemantle,  in  West 
Australia,  in  the  middle  seventies,  though  an  American 
vessel,  chartered  by  the  Clan-na-Gael,  and  under  the  direction 
of  the  late  John  J.  Breslin  (who  had  liberated  James  Stephens 
from  Richmond  Prison,  Dublin,  in  1865),  had  sailed  from  a 
port  in  Massachusetts  fully  equipped  for  the  object  of  the  ex- 
pedition. In  fact,  the  one  notable  achievement  of  Beach's 
career  was  his  appearance  before  The  Times  commission. 
It  was  not  a  bad  testimony  to  his  keen  business  capacity  that 
he  thus  secured  ten  thousand  pounds  by  telling  to  the  public, 
with  absolutely  no  harm  to  those  it  was  intended  to  injure, 
the  story  of  his  record  as  a  spy  in  Chicago.  Had  he  related 
the  same  experiences  through  the  medium  of  a  published 

611 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

autobiography,  it  would  not  have  added  a  hundred  pounds 
to  his  rewards  from  the  EngUsh  secret-service  department. 

One  interesting  fact  was  brought  out  during  his  evidence, 
which  rather  turned  the  laugh  against  me.  He  swore  to 
having  attended  a  meeting  with  me  at  Braidwood,  Illinois,  in 
1880,  and  that  I  had  an  attack  of  illness  while  in  that  mining 
town.  Le  Caron  being  a  Braidwood  miners'  "doctor,"  he 
professionally  prescribed  for  me,  and  prided  himself  upon 
having  sent  me  on  my  way  indebted,  unknowingly,  to  the 
medical  attention  of  an  English  spy.  Unlike  so  many  other 
persons  of  the  same  calling,  Beach,  or  Le  Caron,  was  never  once 
suspected  during  his  twenty  years'  intercourse  with  Irish-Amer- 
ican revolutionists  of  being  anything  but  what  he  represented 
himself  to  be. 

II.  — "MAJOR    YELLOW 

Major  Yellow  I  have  already  introduced  to  my  readers. 
This,  of  course,  is  not  his  real  name.  His  exploits,  as  referred 
to  in  Chapter  XXXV.,  represented  but  a  small  part  of  his  per- 
formances as  an  agent  of  the  secret  service  and  an  em- 
ploye of  The  Times  previous  to  and  during  the  commission. 
Like  Sinclair,  he  was  suflficiently  daring  to  be  frequently  in- 
discreet, and  he  also  foolishly  discharged  accomplices  without 
adequate  compensation,  and  was  very  careless  in  the  manage- 
ment of  his  official  papers.  These  blunders,  and  the  knowl- 
edge that  he  had  been  in  a  little  trouble  with  some  ladies, 
which  he  would  not  wish  should  come  out  in  cross-examina- 
tion, spoiled  him  as  an  intended  witness  for  The  Times,  and 
enabled  our  intelligence  department  to  obtain  much  useful 
and  some  startling  information  about  his  doings  while  en- 
gaged in  trying  to  bring  about  our  political  destruction. 

He  established  his  quarters  at  an  Irish  public-house  in 
Wardour  Street,  London,  in  1885,  following  his  Paris  achieve- 
ments, as  already  related.  He  was  frequently  visited  by 
Hayes,  Mulqueeny,  Pigott,  a  late  Irish  M.P.,  and  others. 
It  was  at  a  gathering  of  this  precious  company  that  a  requisi- 
tion was  prepared  and  signed  calling  upon  Mr.  Pamell,  in  the 
name  of  "the  advanced  nationalists"  of  London,  to  find  a 
Parliamentary  seat  for — Captain  O'Shea.  To  lend  additional 
weight  to  this  requisition,  it  was  taken  across  to  Paris  by  the 
subsequent  Times  witness,  Mulqueeny,  an  intimate  friend  of 
Captain  O'Shea,  for  the  signature  of  Kasey. 

During  Major  Yellow's  sojourn  in  Wardour  Street  he  read 
three  books — The  History  of  the  Carbonari,  James  Stephens's 
Autobiography,  and  The  History  of  Secret  Societies  in  Europe. 

612 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

Next  year  (1886)  he  and  others  produced  a  pamphlet 
called  The  Repeal  of  the  Union  Conspiracy;  or,  Mr.  Parnell, 
M.P.,  and  the  I.  R  B.  This  compilation  anticipated,  to  a  large 
extent, the  "  Parnellism  and  Crime"  articles  which  appeared 
in  'J'he  Times  in  1887.  It  contained  a  series  of  fabrications 
founded  upon  the  speeches  and  letters  of  Mr.  Parnell  and 
others,  the  whole  argument  being  that  the  Irish  party  and 
the  National  League  were  but  parts  of  a  treasonable  organi- 
zation engaged  in  dynamite  and  other  outrages.  It  was 
compiled  chiefly  from  the  drunken  ravings  of  Kasey  and 
other  Paris  "dynamiters,"  the  "revelations"  of  the  spy 
Hayes,  Pigott's  pamphlet,  "Parnellism  Exposed,"  and  the 
statements  of  Captain  O 'Shea's  friend,  George  Mulqueeny. 

For  this  work  a  sum  of  ;^iooo  was  received  (it  is  alleged) 
from  the  secret-service  fund,  under  the  control  of  the  Union- 
ist government  which  came  into  power  in  the  summer  of  that 
year. 

The  Major  had  interviews  with  the  three  ministers  of  the 
Unionist  government  who  were  in  touch  with  Houston,  Bag- 
enall,  and  company,  of  the  Irish  Loyal  and  Patriotic  Union, 
and  then  went  to  Kerry — as  an  arms  agent  from  the  United 
States.  He  underwent  a  prearranged  arrest,  and  was  lodged 
in  prison,  in  his  character  as  a  dealer  in  revolvers,  his  object 
being  to  get  into  the  confidence  of  moonlighters.  Sir  Red- 
vers  Duller  was  at  that  time  employed  in  Ireland,  under  Chief 
Secretary  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach.  On  learning  all  about 
Yellow's  manoeuvres,  he  warned  him  ofif  the  premises,  mak- 
ing it  clear  he  would  not  sanction  any  agent  -  provocateur 
business  in  Kerry  or  elsewhere. 

The  Major  then  transferred  his  activity  from  Kerry  to 
Belfast,  where  he  disposed  of  ;£ioo  worth  of  revolvers  to 
some  branches  of  the  Orange  organization.  This  was  followed 
by  a  sensational  article  in  a  London  paper,  purporting  to  re- 
veal the  secrets  of  a  military  organization  in  Ulster,  in  prepa- 
ration for  a  possible  advent  of  Home  Rule — "a  drilled  and 
disciplined  body  of  fifty  thousand  men."  This  formidable 
army,  like  the  Major's  many  "secret  societies,"  existed  only 
in  the  very  fertile  and  very  profitable  imagination  of  Yellow. 

Major  Yellow's  next  adventure  was  to  follow,  as  a  spy 
of  the  secret  service,  in  my  footsteps  during  a  visit  to  the 
United  States.  He  obtained  a  commission  from  the  Colt 
Revolver  Syndicate,  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  as  agent, 
and  in  this  capacity  introduced  himself  to  leading  Fenians 
and  Clan-na-Gael  men  in  various  American  cities.  In  co- 
operation with  other  English  agents  in  New  York,  he  planned 
the  kidnapping  of  Captain  McCafferty,  whom  he  alleged  to 

613 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

be  the  "No.  i"  of  the  Invincible  conspiracy,  but  the  plot 
did  not  succeed.  Having  tracked  me  during  a  portion  of  a 
lecture  tour  through  various  places,  he  returned  to  England 
early  in  1887. 

He  wrote  a  report  upon  his  experiences  and  his  alleged 
knowledge  of  the  inner  workings  of  "secret"  societies,  and 
of  the  alleged  relations  of  these  bodies  with  Mr.  Parnell's 
party,  which  was  submitted  to  the  then  home  secretary  and 
the  late  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith.  This  report  was  afterwards  sup- 
plied to  The  Times,  and  it  led  to  the  Major's  employment 
by  the  paper,  for  a  time,  during  the  subsequent  commission. 

Yellow  had  been  "too  clever  by  half"  in  one  of  his  Amer- 
ican exploits,  and  his  services  as  an  agent  of  the  secret  ser- 
vice were  dispensed  with  shortly  after  his  return. 

Had  he  appeared,  as  was  expected,  as  a  Times  witness,  the 
foregoing  particulars  of  his  career,  and  very  much  more 
that  could  not  otherwise  be  obtained,  would  have  come 
out  in  evidence:  the  names  of  the  members  of  the  govern- 
ment with  whom  he  had  interviews,  the  source  whence  the 
money  for  the  "  Black  Pamphlet  "  had  been  obtained,  along 
with  information  as  to  the  expenditure  of  a  sum  of  ;^5ooo 
which  our  intelligence  department  alleged  had  passed  through 
his  hands  out  of  secret  -  service  funds  and  from  other  gov- 
ernment sources.  But  to  our  disappointment  he  was  not 
examined. 

III.  — THE     SPY     HAYES 

The  spy  John  P.  Haj^es  was  another  of  The  Times  allies 
in  the  case,  but,  unlike  Le  Caron,  he  was  not  put  forward  as  a 
witness.  The  account  of  his  record  and  reputation  which 
follows  probably  explains  this  prudence.  We  became  ac- 
quainted with  this  man's  calling,  and  of  his  association  with 
Pigott,  Mulqueeny,  and  others  in  London  and  Paris,  and  Mr. 
Parnell  resolved  upon  a  bold  stroke  in  his  regard.  He  took 
steps  to  have  him  brought  from  Philadelphia  to  Paris. 

We  had  learned  that  he  possessed  several  letters  of  Pigott 's 
and  some  of  Major  Yellow's,  and  of  other  associates  of  those 
who  were  working  up  The  Times  case.  Our  informant  was 
Eugene  Davis,  who  had  had  the  interview  with  Pigott  at 
Lausanne,  and  whose  part  in  the  whole  business  of  infamy 
was  disreputable  enough  to  cause  him  to  try  and  atone  for  it 
to  some  extent  by  rendering  Mr.  Parnell  some  little  service 
in  hunting  down  the  gang  of  ruffians  and  spies  who  had  fore- 
gathered with  Davis  and  Kasey  in  Paris  for  so  many  years. 
He  was  induced  to  write  a  friendly  letter  to  Hayes,  hinting 

614 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

that  he  might  be  asked  to  give  evidence  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell.  Money  was  forwarded  to  him,  and  he  was  to  come  forth- 
with to  Paris;  on  reaching  which  city  he  was  to  wire  to  Davis, 
whom  he  was  led  to  believe  he  would  meet  at  a  hotel  in  the 
Rue  St.  Honore,  on  a  given  date. 

This  Hayes  was  a  hulking  scoundrel  and  reputed  despera- 
do. He  had  boasted  that  it  was  he  who  had  caused  the  dyna- 
mite explosion  at  London  Bridge  and  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, in  letters  written  to  New  York  from  London  at  the  very 
time  when  he  was  constantly  calling  at  the  House  seeking  in- 
terviews with  Mr.  Parnell — requests  which  were  never  com- 
plied with.  Mr.  Parnell  advised  Mr.  Campbell,  his  secretary, 
now  town  clerk  of  Dublin,  and  myself  to  take  revolvers  with 
us  for  the  interview,  which  the  spy  had  been  led  to  believe 
would  be  with  his  former  friend  Davis.  This  was  a  necessary 
precaution,  in  view  of  the  ruffian's  character,  and  on  the  date 
suggested  by  Davis  we  walked  into  the  reading-room  of  the 
Hotel  de  Lille  et  de  Londres,  where  we  found  our  quarry  .writing. 

He  was  a  burly -looking,  brutish-mannered  fellow  in  the 
prime  of  life,  powerful  in  build,  and  with  the  face  of  a  prize- 
fighter. He  recognized  me  at  once,  having  seen  me  at  public 
meetings  in  Philadelphia,  and  he  made  no  objection  to  a  re- 
quest to  take  us  to  his  room  where  our  message  from  Mr.  Par- 
nell could  be  delivered.  He  showed  us  the  way.  Immedi- 
ately after  entering  his  room  a  revolver  fell  by  "accident" 
from  one  of  the  visitors  on  the  floor,  and  was  picked  up  again 
without  a  word.  This  incident  revealed  another  purpose  to 
Hayes  than  the  expected  visit  from  Davis.  He  was  at  once 
told  that  every  scrap  of  writing  in  the  room  was  required  for 
Mr.  Parnell's  defence,  but  would  be  paid  for.  Without  a  word 
he  unlocked  a  box  and  placed  a  large  bundle  of  letters  in 
Mr.  Campbell's  hands,  saying,  with  a  tone  of  injured  innocence, 
that  it  was  evident  he  was  not  altogether  trusted. 

The  letters  thus  secured  were  Mr.  Parnell's  "find,"  as  the 
whole  scheme  of  bringing  the  spy  from  Philadelphia  was  his, 
and  Mr.  Campbell  departed  with  the  parcel  that  day  to  Lon- 
don. I  did  no  more  than  glance  through  them,  while  Camp- 
bell was  taking  down  a  statement  from  the  spy,  relating  his 
past  association  with  Pigott  and  others.  The  letters  com- 
prised several  of  Pigott 's  and  of  Eugene  Davis's,  all  tending 
to  show  that  Major  Yellow,  Hayes,  and  other  secret-service 
agents,  posing  as  dynamiters  and  patriots,  had  exploited  the 
man  Kasey  and  his  friends,  as  Pigott  also  had  done,  in  order 
to  obtain  money  for  material  and  information,  manufactured 
in  Paris,  that  would  show  Parnell  and  his  party  to  be  connected 
with  the  Invincibles  and  the  Clan-na-Gael. 

615 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

After  extracting  all  the  information  that  could  be  got  from 
Hayes,  I  gave  him  money,  and  informed  him  that  Mr.  Parnell 
would  probably  not  need  his  services  as  a  witness.  It  was  no 
part  of  our  plan  to  let  him  suspect  that  we  knew  his  real  char- 
acter and  calling.  The  day  after  reaching  the  commission 
again,  Sir  Richard  Webster  was  able  to  say  that  I  had  recently 
been  in  the  company  of  two  dynamiters  in  Paris! 


I  V.  —  D  E  L  A  N  E  Y 

During  the  recess  of  the  commission,  in  1889,  this  Hayes. 
in  the  company  of  Kasey,  visited  Dublin,  and  endeavored  to 
enlist  witnesses  for  The  Times  case.  He  failed  in  both  enter- 
prises. 

One  of  the  chief  witnesses  for  The  Times  was  the  convict 
Delaney.  His  account  of  his  own  antecedents  was  in  thorough 
keeping  with  the  moral  character  of  our  chief  accusers.  He 
had  undergone  five  years'  penal  servitude  for  highway  rob- 
bery, early  in  life,  on  his  own  confession.  He  then  joined  the 
Fenian  movement,  and  in  1881  became  an  Invincible.  He 
undertook  to  assassinate  the  late  Judge  Lawson,  but  revealed 
his  purpose  to  a  policeman,  was  arrested,  tried,  and  sentenced 
to  ten  years'  imprisonment.  The  Invincible  trials  occurred 
a  few  months  afterwards,  and  James  Carey  informed  upon 
Delaney  as  an  accomplice.  He  was  tried  anew,  pleaded 
guilty,  and  was  sent  to  prison  for  life. 

He  was  visited  by  Shannon,  the  Dublin  solicitor,  in  Mary- 
borough convict  prison,  during  the  sitting  of  the  special  com- 
mission, and  induced  to  give  evidence.  No  witness  created 
a  worse  impression  than  this  unmitigated  scoundrel.  He 
swore  that  he  recognized  Mr.  Patrick  Egan's  handwriting 
in  eight  of  the  letters  which  Pigott  subsequently  confessed 
to  have  forged,  and  for  services  thus  rendered  to  The  Times 
he  was  shortly  afterwards  released  from  penal  servitude.  A 
letter  of  his  to  the  late  Dr.  Carte,  of  Dublin,  an  accomplice  of 
Houston's,  which  fell  into  my  hands,  revealed  the  fact  that 
he  had  been  offered  his  liberty  on  condition  of  giving  evidence 
to  connect  Mr.  Egan,  myself,  and  others  with  the  Invincibles! 

Six  years  after  the  ending  of  the  commission  I  was  travel- 
ling in  one  of  the  British  colonies.  My  interest  in  the  question 
of  prison  reform  prompted  me  to  ask  permission  to  inspect 
the  convict  prison  in  W .  The  governor  was  a  fellow- 
countryman,  and,  after  courteously  showing  me  over  the 
establishment,  took  me  to  a  particular  cell  and  requested  me 
to  look  at  the  occupant  through  the  spv-hole. 

616 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

"Do  you  recognize  him?" 

"No." 

"Well,  he  is  doing  a  six  years'  sentence  for  stabbing  a  man 
in  a  public-house.  His  name  here  is  Clarke,  but  he  is  no 
other  than  the  Invincible  informer  Delaney,  who  gave  evi- 
dence before  The  Times  commission." 


V.  —  "  S I  N  C  L  A I  R  " 

The  most  mysterious  and  romantic  of  the  many  strange 
people  who  figured  directly  or  otherwise  in  The  Times  com- 
mission was  the  secret  agent  Sinclair.  This  is  not  his  real 
name;  it  is  only  one  of  several  assumed  names.  He  was 
a  handsome  man,  in  the  prime  of  life,  with  light  hair,  blue 
eyes,  strong,  resolute  face,  lightish  mustache,  military  bear- 
ing, and  no  beard.  He  bore  some  resemblance  to  William 
Henry  Hurlbert,  already  alluded  to;  a  fact  which  adds  an- 
other romantic  chapter  to  Sinclair's  history,  if  Hurlbert 's 
testimony  in  the  case  made  against  him  in  London  by  a  lady 
in  1892  be  true — namely, that  one  "Wilfred  Murray,"  and  not 
Hurlbert,  was  the  gallant  gay  deceiver  in  the  case  in  ques- 
tion. The  description  given  of  Wilfred  Murray  corresponds 
with  that  of  Sinclair,  who  had  been  at  one  time  in  Hurlbert 's 
service. 

Sinclair's  history  almost  beats  the  creations  of  romance 
in  its  revelations.  He  was  the  son  of  a  well  -  known  citi- 
zen in  .  He  graduated  in  one  of  the  three  great  uni- 
versities, and  practised  subsequently  as  a  lawyer  in  a  pro- 
vincial town.  In  the  later  sixties,  he  emigrated  to  one  of 
the  British  colonies,  and  carried  with  him,  to  the  premier  of 
that  country,  a  highly  comiplimentary  letter  of  introduction 
from  a  present  lord  chancellor,  two  present  peers,  and  three 
distinguished  judges,  now  dead.  He  returned  to  England 
after  a  long  absence,  and  proceeded  on  some  mission  to  New 
York.  He  was  then  an  agent  of  the  Enghsh  secret  service. 
He  convoyed  the  alleged  dynamiters,  Gallagher  and  company, 
in  1883,  to  London,  where  they  were  arrested  and  sent  to  pe- 
nal servitude  for  life.  For  this  work  Sinclair  received  a  large 
sum  of  money  through  Mr.  Jenkinson,and  departed  for  South 
Africa.  He  was  back  once  more  in  London  in  1885.  He  was 
employed  by  Mr.  Labouchere  for  service  in  aid  of  Mr.  Parnell 
in  The  Times  commission,  and  was  sent  to  America  to  see  Mr. 
Patrick  Egan.  He  returned  with  a  book  which  he  alleged 
he  had  received  from  Frank  Byrne. 

Before  starting  on  this  journey  he  had  had  an  interview 

617 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

with  Mr.  Parnell,  Mr.  Labouchere,  and  Mr.  George  Lewis,  in 
the  latter's  office,  Ely  Place,  London,  full  particulars  of  which 
he  supplied  to  Mr.  Soames,  The  Times  solicitor,  subsequently. 

On  coming  back  from  the  United  States  he  called  on 
Pigott  at  Kingstown,  and  induced  him,  as  already  related, 
to  obtain  an  interview  with  Mr.  Parnell  in  Mr.  Labouchere's 
home,  which  has  been  described.  On  the  da^'^  following 
the  suicide  of  Pigott  in  Madrid  he  visited  his  Kingstown 
residence  before  any  one  from  our  side  had  called,  and 
possessed  himself  of  some  papers. 

All  this  time  he  was  an  agent  of  the  secret  service  of  the 
Home  Office,  and  in  the  pay  of  Major  Gosselin. 

He  turned  up  next  in  Chicago,  in  the  character  of  an  in- 
spector for  an  ale  company,  and  registered  in  a  hotel  under 
the  name  of  "Stackpool."  His  secret  was  found  out,  how- 
ever, and  he  disappeared.  Letters  which  came  to  the  hotel 
after  his  departure  were  claimed  by  a  Pinkerton  detective, 
and  they  ultimately  came  into  my  hands. 

He  crossed  the  Atlantic  twice  in  the  same  ship  as  Mr. 
Chamberlain,  and  attempted  to  exploit  the  late  colonial 
secretary,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  letter  to  Mr.  Labouchere 
which  will  be  found  on  another  page.  In  this  and  in  sub- 
sequent attempts  to  turn  the  powerful  enemy  of  Home  Rule 
to  his  account  he  was  not  a  success.  He  carried  his  enter- 
prise so  far  as  to  cause  a  report  to  be  spread  that  an  attempt 
would  be  made  by  the  Clan-na-Gael  to  do  some  personal  injury 
to  the  member  for  Birmingham  during  his  stay  in  the  United 
States.  He  then  warned  Mr.  Chamberlain  of  this  "danger!" 
This  concoction  produced  a  curious  state  of  things.  So 
alarmed  were  the  then  leaders  of  the  clan  at  the  possibility  of 
some  such  insane  attempt  being  made,  that  they  paid  the 
expense  of  Pinkerton  agents  to  quietly  watch,  unknown  to 
him,  over  the  safety  of  the  great  enemy  of  the  Irish  cause  all 
the  time  he  remained  in  America! 

Sinclair's  wife  became  a  resident  of  the  city  of  Chester, 
and  was  paid  to  watch  whether  American  visitors  or  Irish 
members  were  calling  upon  Mr.  Gladstone  at  Hawarden,  in 
1 89 1.  Her  messages  to  the  secret -service  department  during 
her  husband's  absence  were  addressed  to  "Simnosity,"  Lon- 
don, Major  Gosselin's  code-name  being  "Norton." 

During  the  hearing  of  the  Hurlbert  case  in  London,  Sinclair 
turned  up  in  Santiago,  Chili,  on  a  visit  to  that  city.  He 
called  upon  Mr.  Patrick  Egan,  at  that  time  American  minis- 
ter to  the  Chilian  Republic.  He  was  on  a  secret  mission 
from  the  London  Times,  and  cabled  this  despatch  on  his 
arrival : 

618 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

"Soames,  London: 

"Munificent,  Embrute,  Pantry." 
(Meaning:     "I  have  seen  Mr.  Egan,  who  received  me  in  a 
friendly  way  and  will  willingly  see  me  again.") 

After  fruitless  efforts  to  obtain  any  information  from  Mr. 
Egan,  to  console  The  Times  for  its  losses  over  the  commission, 
Sinclair  returned  again  to  England. 

Once  more  he  obtains  a  commission  from  The  Times  in  the 
extraordinary  letter  which  will  be  found  below.  His  auda- 
cious attempts  to  carry  out  "a  more  active  and  bold  course  " 
landed  him  in  trouble.  He  was  living  in  New  York  under 
cover  of  the  name  "Wilson,"  and  represented  himself  as 
a  commission  agent.  Suspicion  was  aroused  among  men 
into  whose  confidence  he  attempted  to  worm  himself,  with 
the  result  that  he  left  his  lodgings  precipitately,  and  left  docu- 
ments behind  him  which  are  the  source  whence  most  of  the 
matter  for  this  brief  chapter  has  been  taken. ^ 

His  next  attempted  exploit  was  in  Belfast,  during  the 
election  of  1892,  when  he  proposed  a  scheme  so  violent  in 
its  nature  that  the  leading  Orangeman  before  whom  he  put 
his  plans  refused  to  sanction  any  anti-Home  Rule  proceed- 
ing of  that  kind. 

In  more  recent  years  "Sinclair"  vanished  into  space,  and 

*  The  Times  code  for  deciphering  some  of  the  following  letters  will 
explain  their  meaning: 

John Mr.   Parnell 

James John   Dillon,  M.P. 

Isabella Michael  Davitt 

George Patrick  Egan 

Edward    Mr.   Labovichere,  M.P. 

Ruby The  Clan-na-Gael 

Richard The  National  League  of  America 

Moses The  Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians 

Pearl The  Fenians 

Jane Patrick  Ford 

Bella P.  J.   Sheridan 

Sarah Thomas   Brennan 

Gladys McCarthy  (Denver) 

Ada Captain   Slattery 

Felix John  Devoy 

Clara Alexander  Sullivan 

Samuel The  Times 

Jeremiah Sinclair 

Kate Mr.   Soames 

Beatrice Major  Gosselin  (Secret-Service  De- 

(partment. 

Teresa Mr.   Gladstone 

A New  York         I  C Boston 

B Philadelphia      |  D Chicago,  etc. 

619 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

has  apparently  left  no  trail.     The  following  letters  were  found 
among  his  papers : 

"December  24,  1884. 

"Sir, — I  have  received  two  letters  from  you  from  the  Cape. 
I  could  not  write  before  because  you  had  not  given  me  any 
address.  Your  second  letter,  however,  gives  your  address. 
I  am  glad  to  hear  that  you  had  such  a  good  passage,  and  I 
hope  that  soon  you  will  succeed  in  getting  some  employment. 
I  suppose  you  received  that  money  on  your  arrival,  though 
you  do  not  mention  it  in  either  of  your  letters.  I  am  out 
of  town  just  now,  but  when  I  return  towards  the  end  of 
January  I  will  make  arrangements  for  a  further  small  re- 
mittance, as  I  promised  you  I  would  do  before  you  left  Eng- 
land. But  you  must  endeavor  to  become  independent  as 
soon  as  possible,  for  I  cannot  send  you  more  than  a  very  small 
sum. 

' '  I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  the  remembrance  of  you 
which  you  sent  me  just  as  you  were  leaving  London,  I  could 
not  acknowledge  it  before  because  I  did  not  know  how  to 
address  your  letters. 

"Yours,  E.  Jenkinson." 

"November  10,  1891. 
"Dear  Sir, — The  effect  of  what  I  told  you  was  that  there 
was  considerable  uneasiness  because  it  was  feared  there 
were  certain  documents  in  the  possession  of  John* — that 
the  rumors  had  taken  a  tangible  shape  inasmuch  as  it  was  re- 
ported that  one  of  the  documents  was  the  book  in  question 
which  had  been  sent  over  by  a  special  emissary  who  had  been 
in  communication  with  Rebecca.     Yours  truly, 

"Kate."  ^ 

"November  16,  1891. 
"Dear  Sir, — I  have  just  heard  that  Jessie^  intends  to  go 
out  on  Saturday  to  see  Maria.^     Yours  truly. 

"Kate." 

"  December  3,  1891. 
"Dear  Sir, — If  you  go  to  Dalziel's  agent  in  New  York,  I 
think  you  can  get  the  information.     It    came  through  him. 
"In  your  letters  just  received  you  mention  several  persons 

*  "John,"  Mr.  Parnell;  "Rebecca,"  Mr.  T.  Harrington. 
^  "  Kate,"  Mr.  Soanies,  solicitor  to  The  Times. 

'  "Jessie,"  E.  J.  McCue,  an  accomplice  of  Sinclair's,  playing  the 
part  of  a  patriot. 

*"  Maria,"  Mr.  Sutton,  secretary  of  the  National  Leagvie  of  America. 

620 


SECRET-SERv^ICE    SPIES 

I  do  not  know,  and  whose  identity  I  cannot  trace.  I  mention 
them:  Ada,  Gladys,  Terence,  Samuel,  Felix,  Luke,  Frederick, 
Aaron,  Abraham,  Pearl.* 

"  I  sent  you  a  cablegram  to-day  to  tell  you  to  do  as  you  sug- 
gested. Yours  truly,  Kate." 

"  Eastbourne,  January  3,  1892. 
"Dear  Sir, — I  am  not  sure  that  I  shall  be  visible  to-morrow, 
but  if  I  can  see  you  I  will  send  you  a  telegram  in  the  morning. 
I  must  confess  that  I  am  disappointed  at  the  non-result  of  the 
last  trip,  and  hope  that  a  more  active  and  bold  course  will  be 
taken  this  time.  Clearly,  to  stay  at  New  York  without  getting 
in  touch  with  any  one  of  note  is  useless,  and  is  not  what  I 
understood  you  undertook  to  do  when  you  went  out.  From 
this  visit  we  ought  to  have  some  results  in  the  shape  of  some- 
thing tangible.  I  have  but  little  doubt  a  good  deal  may  be 
done  in  obtaining  for  me  the  sort  of  information  we  have  al- 
read}'  discussed,  but  if  you  find  it  cannot  it  will  not  be  worth 
while  trying  for  the  impossible  or  incurring  further  needless 
expense.  I  shall  be  glad  to  know  what  measures  you  propose 
to  take  on  your  arrival,  and  that  these  will  be  taken  promptly. 
"Yours  truly,  Kate." 

"[Copy] 
"Hotel  Oddo,  Santiago  de  Chile,  March  13,  1892. 

"Dear  Sir, — I  arrived  in  Valparaiso  on  20th  last  month. 
I  immediately  telegraphed  to  G.,  and  asked  him  where  he 
could  see  me.  On  the  following  Thursday  I  was  informed 
by  a  gentleman  that  G.  was  somewhere  in  the  South,  and  that 
there  was  no  one  in  the  legation.  I  again  telegraphed  to  a 
gentleman  in  Santiago,  who  I  was  told  might  know  where 
he  was.  I  received  a  reply  from  him,  stating  that  G.  was  with 
all  his  family  in  the  South,  near  a  place  called  Coronel,  but  that 
it  would  be  difficult  to  get  a  telegram  to  reach  him,  as  he  could 
not  find  out  the  exact  address.  However,  on  the  29th  I  tele- 
graphed to  G.  to  Coronel,  and  on  March  3d  I  received  the 
following  reply: 

"'Your  telegram  received.  I  will  be  passing  through  Val- 
paraiso early  in  the  next  week. — Egan.' 

"On  March  5th  the  United  States  consul  at  Valparaiso 
called  on  me,  and  stated  that  the  secretary  of  legation,  who 
had  returned  (and  who  is  the  consul's  son),  had  telephoned 

•"Ada,"  Captain  Slattery;  "Gladys."  McCarthy  (Denver) ;  "Ter- 
ence," O'Gorman;  "Samuel,"  The  Times;  "Felix,"  John  Devoy; 
"Luke,"  unknown;  "Frederick,"  Moore  of  Chicago;  "Aaron,"  Dan 
O'SuUivan;  "Abraham,"  T.  B.  Grant;   "Pearl,"  the  Fenians. 

621 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

him  that  G.  had  directed  him  to  keep  me  posted  as  to  his 
movements.  On  March  7th  I  received  the  following  wire 
(wire  enclosed)  from  the  secretary: 

"'The  minister  will  be  in  Santiago  on  Saturday,  if  he  ar- 
rives before  he  will  telegraph. — McCreevy.' 

"I  wired  him  on  the  8th  to  know  if  he  was  coming  via  Val- 
paraiso or  via  Concepcion;  he  telephoned  via  Concepcion.  I 
therefore  left  for  Santiago  on  the  loth.  .  .  .     Sinclair." 

"  October  25,  1892. 
"Dear  Sir, — I  generally  see  the  papers  myself  and  am 
pretty  well  informed  as  to  what  they  contain  as  to  American 
and  home  matters.  It  is  hardly  worth  while,  therefore,  to 
trouble  yourself  to  send  me  extracts  from  them.  I  quite 
agree  with  Major  Le  Caron's  remarks  as  to  the  secret  service. 
A  miHtary  man  may  possibly  be  a  very  good  figure-head  for  a 
large  police  force,  but  he  is  certainly  not  qualified  by  training 
or  education  to  act  as  a  detective  himself  or  to  direct  others 
to  act  in  such  a  capacity.  I  do  not  think,  at  present,  at  any 
rate,  I  shall  do  anything  with  the  Devoy  matter;  but  I  should 
like  to  see  the  McDermott,  Davitt,  Labouchere  correspondence 
to  decide  about  that.  Yours  truly,  Kate." 

"  June  27,   1893. 
"Dear  Sir, — If  I  were  you  I  would  avoid  McDermott.     He 
can  have  no  real  business  with  you,  and  I  think  his  interviews 
with  Captain  Webb  must  be  to  mislead  the  latter. 

"Yours  truly,  Kate." 

"  Xovcmbcr  21,   1893. 
"Dear  Sir, — I  return  you  Mr.  Chamberlain's  letters  and 
the  copy  of  your  letter  to  him.     I  do  not  think,  however,  that 
the  letters  assist  you  much  as  a  corroboration  of  your  state- 
ment as  regards  the  interviews.        Yours  truly,       Kate." 

"March  22,  1889. 

"Dear  Mr.  Labouchere, — I  find  I  have  the  Chamberlain 
letter  which  I  now  enclose  you. 

"I  wrote  Mr.  Chamberlain,  stating  that  I  did  so  according 
to  the  arrangement  I  had  made  with  him  on  La  Boiirgognc. 
I  have,  however,  not  seen  him.  I  have  now  written  him  as 
follows : 

"  '  I  trust  you  will  excuse  me  for  not  before  replying  to  your 
letter  of  January  28th  last,  but  the  fact  is  I  was  not  in  a 
position  to  do  so,  as  I  was  without  instructions  from  the  other 
side.     If  you  now  desire  to  see  me,  I  think  I  am  in  a  position 

622 


SECRET-SERVICE    SPIES 

to  speak.  Your  late  suggestion  seems  to  have  found  favor. 
I  take  the  liberty  of  asking  you  to  keep  our  correspondence 
perfectly  quiet,  as  you  will  readily  see  I  might  easily  be  placed 
"between  two  fires."  What  did  I  tell  you  about  the  letters 
on  the  Aurania  /  I  take  it  you  now  agree  with  me.  If  you 
desire  to  make  an  appointment  with  me,  I  shall  be  most  happy 
to  keep  it,  but  under  present  circumstances  I  should  not 
like  to  go  to  the  House  of  Commons.' 

"Please  keep  this,  as  it  is  the  only  copy    I    have   of   the 
letter  to  the  right  hon.  gentleman. 

"Yours  faithfully,  Sinclair. 

"Henry  Laboucherc,  Esq.,  M.P." 

"40  Prince's  Gardens,  S.W.,  April  i,  1889. 
"Sir, — I  am  obliged  by  your  letter  of  March  29th.  I  can 
only  say  that  I  entirely  agree  with  your  opinion  that  the 
sooner  the  present  state  of  the  Irish  question  is  terminated  the 
better  it  will  be  for  Ireland.  To  this  result  I  would  at  all 
times  gladly  contribute,  but  I  do  not  see  that  at  the  present 
moment  I  have  any  influence  which  could  be  usefully  em- 
ployed to  this  end.  I  am, 

"Yours  obediently, 
"(Signed)  J.  Chamberlain." 

"  40  Prince's  Gardens,  S.W.,  September  9,  1893. 
"Sir, — I  am  directed  by  Mr.  Chamberlain  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  the  8th  inst.,  and  to  say  in  reply 
that  in  the  present  state  of  parliamentary  business  it  is  quite 
uncertain  whether  he  will  be  able  to  visit  the  United  States  or 
not.  If,  however,  he  does,  he  will  not  allow  his  arrangements 
to  be  interfered  with  in  the  slightest  degree  by  such  considera- 
tions as  those  contained  in  your  letter.  He  imagines  that 
the  Irish  in  America  are  not  such  fools  as  to  make  any  demon- 
stration which  would  seriously  injure  their  own  cause;  but,  in 
any  case,  the  responsibility  for  preventing  it  must  rest  with 
the  United  States  authorities,  and  does  not  concern  Mr.  Cham- 
berlain.    I  am,  sir.  Yours  obediently, 

"(Signed)  John  Wilson." 


CHAPTER  L 
HOPES    AND    FEARS 

Taking  into  account  the  character  of  the  commission  and 
the  manner  of  its  creation,  the  report  of  the  judges  was  a  ver- 
dict for  Parnell  almost  as  emphatic  as  the  flight  and  suicide 
of  Pigott.  It  was  to  all  political  intents  and  purposes  an 
acquittal  at  the  hands  of  a  hostile  tribunal.  The  Irish  leader 
had  virtually  conquered  his  enemies  again,  and  the  exposure 
of  their  methods  and  agents  in  the  plot  that  had  been  worked 
against  himself  and  party  made  his  victory  a  doubly  valuable 
one  in  the  struggle  for  Home  Rule  against  the  same  foes  and 
their  ministerial  allies.  Once  more  the  skies  looked  bright 
and  the  clouds  had  vanished  below  the  horizon  in  the  political 
outlook  for  and  from  Ireland. 

The  report  was  debated  in  the  House  of  Commons  on  March 
3,  1890.  The  allies  of  Walter  and  Pigott  had  a  majority  in 
Westminster.  Majorities  are  not  necessarily  bound  to  obey 
any  just  impulse  such  as  might  influence  an  individual  who 
is  an  honest-minded  opponent.  As  a  rule  they  follow  the 
direction  of  their  leaders  and  place  the  interests  of  party 
above  just  or  moral  considerations,  especially  if  the  party  hap- 
pens to  be  in  power.  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  as  leader  of  the  House, 
resisted  a  motion  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  which  asked  the  Commons 
of  England  to  put  on  record  its  condemnation  of  the  atrocious 
charges  that  had  been  made  and  disproved  against  the  Irish 
members  of  the  House.  It  was  not  an  extravagant  form  of 
reparation  to  make  to  the  members  of  a  Parliamentary  party 
and  the  authorized  spokesman  of  a  nation  who  had  been 
so  foully  maligned.  No  more  appropriate  or  more  simple 
act  of  justice  could  have  been  suggested,  seeing  that  it  was 
the  same  House  of  Commons  which  had  called  the  commission 
into  existence  and  had  forced  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  friends  to 
accept  a  trial  for  their  political  lives  at  its  hands.  But  Mr. 
Gladstone  asked  leaders  of  the  government  to  pass  judgment 
upon  their  own  acts  in  his  motion.  They  were  auxiliaries  to 
the  Houston-Walter  conspiracy.  They  had  helped  with 
money,  spies,  open  and  secret  agents,  and  in  the  public  decla- 

624 


HOPES    AND    FEARS 

rations  by  Lord  vSalisbury  and  the  attorney-general,  to  fasten 
the  forgeries  of  The  Times  as  proofs  of  guilt  upon  the  Irish 
leader.  They  were  unconvicted,  because  untried,  accom- 
plices of  detected  plotters,  and  they  obtained  from  their  party 
the  defeat  of  the  motion  which  a  great  Englishman  had 
hoped  the  British  House  of  Commons  would  willingly  place 
to  its  own  honor  and  credit  upon  the  records  of  that  assembly. 

Mr.  Gladstone's  speech  was  remarkable  for  one  noted  ad- 
mission by  the  author  of  the  great  land  act  of  1881.  "Sup- 
pose I  am  told,"  he  said,  "that  without  the  agitation  Ireland 
would  never  have  had  the  land  act  of  1881,  are  you  prepared 
to  deny  that.^  I  hear  no  challenges  upon  that  statement,  for 
I  think  it  is  generally  and  deeply  felt  that  without  the  agita- 
tion the  land  act  would  not  have  been  passed.  As  the  man 
responsible  more  than  any  other  for  the  act  of  1881 — as  the 
man  whose  duty  it  was  to  consider  the  questions  day  and 
night  during  nearly  the  whole  of  that  session — I  must  record 
my  firm  opinion  that  it  would  not  have  become  the  law  of  the 
land  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  agitation  with  which  Irish 
society  was  convulsed.""^ 

He  pleaded  in  vain  in  one  of  the  noblest  appeals  he  had 
ever  addressed  to  that  House.  So  did  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton, 
whose  speech,  next  to  that  of  the  venerable  Liberal  leader, 
was  the  greatest  oratorical  effort  of  the  debate.  Mr.  W.  H. 
Smith  and  his  majority  remained  true  in  spirit  and  in  vote 
to  the  baffled  purpose  of  the  Houston-Pigott  plot,  and  the 
House  of  Commons  was  induced  to  pass  a  vote  of  thanks  to 
the  judges  of  the  commission  and  to  place  their  report  upon 
the  records  of  Parliament. 

The  action  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  supporting  the 
policy  of  the  ministerial  allies  of  TJie  Times  and  not  the 
more  honorable  proposal  of  Mr.  Gladstone  was  not  re- 
flected in  the  attitude  of  public  opinion  upon  the  judges' 
decision.  Here  there  was  a  more  just  verdict  given.  The 
confession  of  the  forgeries  was  accepted  as  an  emphatic 
judgment  for  Parnell,  and  he  became  in  consequence  im- 
mensely popular  in  Great  Britain.  There  was  a  decided 
revulsion  of  feeling  in  his  favor;  all  the  stronger  in  its  public 
showing  on  account  of  the  general  credence  that  had  been 
given  to  the  calumnies  so  persistently  published  against 
him. 

The  city  council  of  Edinburgh  voted  him  the  freedom  of 
Scotland's  capital.  The  Eighty  Club,  embracing  the  active 
spirits  of  the  Liberal  party,  made  him  a  life  member  and  gave 

*  Morley's  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.  410, 
40  625 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

him  a  public  banquet.  He  appeared  at  a  great  meeting  in 
St.  James's  Hall,  in  company  with  Lord  Rosebery  and  Lord 
Spencer,  and  received  a  welcome  and  an  ovation  from  a 
great  London  audience  such  as  no  Irish  leader  had  ever 
before  experienced  at  English  hands.  Political  fortune  ap- 
peared to  caress  him  with  sunniest  smiles,  and  hopes  beat 
high  in  Home- Rule  hearts  that  the  leader  whose  ruin  had 
been  all  but  accomplished  by  malignant  enemies  would  soon 
occupy  the  place  and  responsibilities  of  an  Irish  prime- 
minister  in  a  legislative  assembly  in  Dublin. 

The  situation  in  Ireland  corresponded  to  this  brighter  out- 
look in  Great  Britain.  Coercion  had,  as  ever,  overreached 
its  spirit  and  purpose.  Mr.  Balfour  had  not  suppressed  any 
effective  agency  working  against  landlordism  or  Dublin- 
Castle  rule.  Quite  the  reverse.  A  policy  of  force  vindictively 
applied  in  the  imprisonment,  on  frivolous  charges,  of  a  dozen 
members  of  Parliament,  of  a  Lord  Mayor  of  Dublin,  who  was 
a  prominent  nationalist  and  a  popular  poet,  Mr.  T.  D. 
Sullivan,  of  half  a  dozen  editors  of  country  newspapers, 
for  publishing  reports  of  National-League  meetings,  could 
only  have  one  general  result  with  a  people  like  ours.  It  made 
the  power  in  whose  name  this  political  dragooning  was  done 
more  hated  than  ever,  and  the  law  by  which  it  was  enforced 
more  detested.  Hundreds  of  local  leaguers  and  campaigners 
had  been  sent  to  prison  for  short  terms,  for  their  part  in  the 
movement,  only  to  come  back  to  their  towns  and  villages 
with  the  prestige  of  "martyrs"  and  all  the  honors  that  a 
brass-band  and  a  turf  bonfire  could  confer  upon  them. 

Mr.  Balfour's  counter  campaign  against  the  league  had 
another  equally  unlooked-for  result.  English  visitors  were 
attracted  to  the  country  by  the  political  excitement  which 
the  prosecutions  of  editors,  members  of  Parliament,  and 
priests  created.  Among  these  visitors  were  many  politicians 
who  came  as  enemies  and  went  away  as  friends  of  the  cause 
against  which  all  this  coercion  was  directed.  They  saw  with 
their  own  eyes  what  they  had  hitherto  refused  to  believe: 
the  poverty  of  tenants  on  the  "campaign"  estates,  the 
wretchedness  caused  by  landlords,  of  whom  many  were 
absentees,  and  they  learned  that  it  was  in  England's  name, 
and  by  the  means  of  English-made  law,  that  evictions  and  all 
their  attendant  hardships  and  cruelties  were  inflicted.  It 
was  an  object-lesson  in  a  stupid  system  of  blind  misrule,  and 
it  exercised  a  missionary  influence  upon  hitherto  prejudiced 
minds. 

Visitors  more  friendly  to  the  Irish  cause  had  an  unexpected 
taste  of  what  laws  passed  for  the  coercion  of  Irishmen  could 

626 


HOPES    AND    FEARS 

be  made  to  mean  for  intrusive  Englishmen.  Mr.  Coneybeare, 
an  English  Radical,  and  Mr.  Wilfred  Blunt,  an  English 
aristocrat  and  husband  of  Lord  Byron's  granddaughter,  were 
sent  to  prison  by  Mr.  Balfour  for  attending  proclaimed 
meetings  and  attempting  to  make  speeches!  The  former 
committed  his  "crime"  in  County  Donegal,  and  was  im- 
prisoned in  Derry  jail.  The  latter  had  dared  to  go  to  a 
meeting  in  County  Galway,  and  found  his  way  in  conse- 
quence to  the  prison  of  Limerick. 

Mr.  John  Dillon  had  by  this  time  returned  from  his  success- 
ful Australian  tour,  and  threw  himself  with  his  customary 
earnestness  into  the  "  plan-of-campaign  "  contest,  which  was 
now  largely  centred  in  the  project  to  build  a  new  Tipperary 
in  retaliation  upon  Mr.  Smith-Barry  (now  Lord  Barrymore), 
the  leader  of  a  rival  landlord  combination  who  owned  the 
old  town  of  that  name,  with  its  flourishing  butter-market. 
The  local  leader  in  this  enterprise  was  an  uncompromising  and 
resourceful  "campaigner,"  the  Rev.  David  Humphreys,  a 
zealous  and  patriotic  priest  who  had  been  a  veteran  Land- 
League  fighter  in  the  eighties.  Enormous  sacrifices  were 
being  made  by  Tipperary  merchants  and  others  in  obedience 
to  the  enthusiasm  which  Father  Humphreys  and  his  ad- 
herents had  called  forth  in  the  fight,  in  response  to  the 
appeals  from  Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien,  who  were  directing 
the  whole  movement  at  this  period. 

Mr.  Balfour  resolved  to  strike  another  blow  at  the  heads 
of  this  combination.  He  singled  out  Mr.  Parnell's  two  fore- 
most lieutenants  for  a  third  prosecution,  and  then  prepared, 
in  accord  with  the  traditional  policy  of  English  chief  secre- 
taries, to  surrender  something  to  the  movement  which  he 
was  attempting  to  put  down. 

Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien's  last  adventure  before  their 
final  imprisonment  by  Mr.  Balfour  was  their  escape  in  a  boat 
to  France.  A  warrant  had  been  issued  for  their  appearance 
before  a  coercion  court,  and,  it  being  no  part  of  their  duty  to 
facilitate  the  working  of  a  law  which  was  but  a  criminal 
mockery  of  justice,  they  resolved  to  visit  the  United  States 
on  a  mission  in  behalf  of  the  objects  of  the  "plan,"  instead  of 
obliging  the  chief  secretary  by  going  to  prison  for  the  third 
or  fourth  time.  There  would  be  no  chance  to  leave  Ireland, 
under  these  circumstances,  in  any  ordinary  way,  so  the 
affair  was  placed  in  capable  hands.  At  a  late  hour  on  a 
dark  night  in  October,  1889,  a  small  boat  shot  out  from 
beneath  the  shadow  of  Bullock  Castle,  near  Dalkey,  and 
picked  her  course  to  a  yacht  which  was  lying  south  of  Kings- 
town.     Mr.  Clancy,  a  picturesque  personality  in  Dublin  na- 

627 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tionalist  circles,  was  in  charge  of  the  expedition,  which  was 
a  guarantee  that  no  ordinary  mishap  would  mar  the  plan  of 
escape.  Cherbourg  was  finally  reached,  when  the  following 
"log"  of  the  voyage  was  published  in  the  press: 

"Mr.  William  O'Brien,  M.P.,  who  arrived  in  Cherbourg 
yesterday  with  Mr.  John  Dillon,  M.P.,  gives  the  following 
account  of  the  voyage  from  Dalkey,  ten  miles  from  Dublin,  to 
France:  'Just  arrived  after  a  singularly  unfortunate  passage. 
Rowed  out  of  Dalkey,  Wednesday  midnight,  to  the  yacht 
lying  two  miles  off.  Not  an  enemy  in  sight.  Next  morning 
found  us  ninety  miles  away  towards  the  Welsh  coast,  with 
a  light  breeze  astern.  On  Friday  and  Saturday  fell  a  dead 
calm.  On  Sunday  morning  we  rounded  Land's  End;  the 
wind  again  died  away,  and  we  were  forced  to  lie  all  day 
in  a  brilliant  sunshine  within  two  miles  of  the  shore.  A 
Trinity  House  cutter  passed  quite  close,  and  the  crew  of  the 
Royal  Adelaide,  at  Falmouth,  actually  exchanged  greetings 
with  our  sailors.  The  Dublin  steamer  also  passed  close.  A 
heavy  fog  came  down  on  Sunday  night  and  buried  us  from 
sight ;  four  steamers  were  blowing  fog-horns  around  us  during 
the  night.  By  the  morning  we  had  cleared  the  Lizard  and 
darted  across  the  French  coast,  out  of  the  track  of  British 
shipping.  We  were  becalmed  again  on  Monday,  and  obliged 
to  beat  up  Channel  by  the  Channel  Islands.  A  brisk  gale 
sprang  up  on  Monday  night,  but  the  yacht  behaved  magnifi- 
cently. While  passing  Guernsey,  after  midnight,  we  were 
apparently  pursued  for  some  hours  closely  by  a  revenue-cutter, 
which  was  unable  to  weather  out  the  gale,  and  gave  up  the 
chase.  This  morning  we  were  running  free  before  the  wind  for 
Cherbourg,  and  landed  on  French  territory  about  eleven 
o'clock.  The  weather,  which  was  phenomenally  fine,  is  now 
squally  and  dangerous.  We  had  reached  our  last  day's 
supply  of  fresh  water  and  ship's  oil.  All  the  arrangements 
worked,  thanks  to  a  prominent  Dublin  citizen  who  superin- 
tended them,  perfectly,  and  with  unparalleled  good  luck.'"' 

Public  opinion  in  Great  Britain  began  to  tire  again  of 
Irish  coercion,  imprisonments,  and  the  rest,  especially  when, 
late  in  1889,  the  very  government  which  was  responsible 
for  this  kind  of  rule  made  it  known  through  their  organs  in 
the  press  that  a  new  land  act  was  to  be  introduced  in  the 
next  session.  A  measure  of  county  government  for  Ireland 
was  also  to  be  a  coming  Tory  concession  to  a  people  from 
whom  Lord  Salisbury  and  his  nephew  had  taken  away  free- 
dom of  the  press  and  of  public  meeting  on  account  of  their 

*  Freeman's   'Journal.   October   16,    1890. 
628 


HOPES    AND    FEARS 

insistence  upon  an  amendment  of  existing  land  laws  and  de- 
mands for  other  reforms. 

By-elections  in  Great  Britain  had  begun  to  go  steadily  in 
the  direction  of  a  reaction  against  the  policy  of  evictions,  bat- 
tering-rams, prosecutions,  and  jails.  The  time  for  an  appeal 
to  the  electors  was  also  approaching.  Political  parties  were 
again  compelled  to  take  into  account  the  factor  of  the  Irish 
vote  in  Great  Britain,  and  the  power  which  Mr.  Parnell  would 
wield  in  the  division  lobbies  at  Westminster  in  the  coming 
Parliament. 

From  the  United  States  financial  support  for  the  National 
League  continued  steady  and  substantial  from  the  date  of  the 
last  convention  at  Chicago  (August,  1886)  down  to  December, 

1889.  The  central  treasurer  of  the  National  League  of  Amer- 
ica, Rev.  Charles  O'Reilly,  accounted  for  total  subscriptions 
amounting  to  $279,800   in  his  balance-sheet  of  January  29, 

1890.  This  money,  less  expenses  and  balance  on  hand,  had 
been  sent  to  the  treasurers  of  the  league  in  Dublin  or  direct 
to  Mr.  Parnell,  as  specific  calls  or  demands  from  the  home 
organization  asked  for  remittances. 

An  Irish  Parliamentary  Fund  Association  had  been  formed 
in  New  York  in  1885  to  assist  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  then  im- 
pending elections.  The  late  Mr.  Eugene  Kelly,  banker,  was 
chairman,  and  Mr.  Miles  M.  O'Brien,  a  prominent  New  York 
citizen  and  old-time  nationalist,  was  secretary.  This  body 
remitted  to  Mr.  Parnell  a  total  sum  of  $78,000  up  to  the  year 
1889.  Considerable  portions  of  this  amount  were  collected 
through  the  mediums  of  the  New  York  Sun  and  the  New  York 
World,  and  many  American  citizens  not  of  Irish  parentage 
had  measured  their  sympathy  for  the  Irish  movement  by 
subscriptions  towards  its  success. 

During  the  period  covered  by  the  sittings  of  the  commission, 
Mr.  John  Dillon,  Sir  Thomas  Esmonde,  and  the  late  Mr.  John 
Deasy  went  to  the  Australian  colonies  on  a  mission  from  the 
Irish  party  and  the  National  League.  All  the  large  cities  and 
towns  in  Australia  were  visited.  Meetings  were  addressed  and 
financial  help  for  the  home  movement  was  obtained.  Up- 
ward of  /^4o,ooo  resulted  from  this  tour — a  truly  munificent 
showing  for  the  comparatively  small  population  of  Irish  birth 
and  parentage  in  these  distant  colonies.  In  fact,  neither  in 
America  nor  in  Great  Britain  have  the  Irish  race  contributed 
as  generousl}^  in  their  support  of  the  Irish  movement  of  the 
past  quarter  of  a  century,  in  proportion  to  numbers,  as  those 
who  have  encouraged  the  fight  for  land  and  liberty  at  home 
from  these  far-off  regions;  though  the  whole-hearted  help 
steadily  and  readily  given  from  these  nearer  countries  marks 

629 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

one  of  the  chief  triumphs  of  the  national  and  land-reform  agi- 
tation since  1879. 

Those  among  the  Irish  of  Australia  and  New  Zealand  who 
joined  the  Land  League  and  who  made  the  mission  of  the 
Messrs.  Redmond  a  success  in  1882-83  were  the  earnest  help- 
ers of  the  Dillon-Esmonde  mission  in  1888-89.  Here  and  there 
a  younger  generation  of  Irish-Australians  offered  a  new  fervor 
of  assistance.  Among  these  was  Dr.  Nicholas  O'Donnell,  of 
Melbourne,  at  present  the  heart  and  soul  of  everything  pro- 
Celtic  that  can  advance  the  good  or  can  promote  the  honor 
of  a  land  he  has  never  seen,  but  still  has  ardently  loved  and 
most  faithfully  served  in  every  way  that  can  make  for  its  hap- 
piness and  freedom. 

Shortly  before  Christmas  Mr.  Pamell  was  the  guest  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Gladstone,  at  Hawarden.  This  was  matter  of  no 
surprise  to  the  public,  extraordinary  as  was  the  change  which 
the  fact  registered  between  the  memorable  Guildhall  speech 
of  October  13,  1881,  and  this  hospitality  of  1889.  Mr.  Pamell 
related  to  me  an  interesting  incident  of  the  more  pleasant  of 
the  two  events: 

"The  old  man  took  me  round  the  grounds  to  show  the  place. 
We  were  accompanied  in  our  walks  by  Miss  Gladstone.  He 
talked  all  the  time  about  the  history  of  the  house,  and  led  us 
to  the  ruins  of  the  older  castle.  Here  he  described  the  plan 
of  the  ancient  structure,  and  launched  into  an  account  of  the 
old  family  who  had  built  and  occupied  it.  We  were  moving 
away  when  Miss  Gladstone  said: 

"  '  Why,  papa!  You  have  omitted  all  reference  to  the  most 
interesting  part  of  the  ruins.' 

"'What  is  that,  dear?' 

"'Oh,  you  forgot  to  show  Mr.  Pamell  the  dungeon!' " 

The  telling  of  this  incident  gave  Pamell  intense  pleasure. 
He  laughed  boyishly  in  the  recollection  of  it,  and  remarked: 

"The  old  man  looked  very  grave,  and  was  evidently  not 
pleased  at  having  his  memory  taken  back  to  the  time  he  put 
me  in  Kilmainham." 

Then,  in  a  subtone,  as  if  to  himself,  and  with  a  bitter  smile, 
he  added,  "  Yes,  he  shut  me  up  in  prison."  His  intense  and 
almost  diseased  pride  had  made  his  six  months'  imprisonment 
in  1881-82  an  unpardonable  act  on  the  part  of  his  subsequent 
political  ally. 

Thus  from  every  quarter  of  a  world-wide  area  of  encourage- 
ment and  help  for  the  cause  of  which  he  was  the  head,  Mr, 
Pamell  was  being  looked  to,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1889,  as 
likely  soon  to  witness  the  triumph  of  the  movement  which 
he  had  led,  with  such  conspicuoixs  success,  when  once  more  a 

630 


HOPES    AND    FEARS 

thunder-clap,  not  altogether  undreaded  among  his  followers, 
was  to  plunge  the  Irish  cause  into  darkness  and  despair. 

On  Monday  morning,  December  30th,  the  world  of  politics 
was  startled  at  the  news  that  Captain  O'Shea  had  filed  a 
petition  for  divorce  against  his  wife,  and  that  Mr.  Parnell  was 
to  be  the  corespondent  in  the  case. 


CHAPTER  LI 

A     CHAPTER     OF     INTERROGATION 

(captain  o'shea  before  the  times  commission) 

335.  Attorney-General  {handing  laitness  the  forged  Parncll 
letter  dated  May  15,  1882).  "Whose  signature  do  you  believe 
that  to  be?" — "I  believe  it  is  Mr.  Parnell's  handwriting." 

337.  "Look  at  the  two  letters  dated  June  i6th.  Whose  do 
you  believe  the  signature  to  be?"  —  "I  believe  it  to  be  Mr. 
Parnell's  signature." 

341.  "Will  you  look  at  the  signature  to  the  letter  dated 
January  9,  1882.  Whose  signature  do  you  believe  that  to 
be?" — "I  believe  it  to  be  Mr.  Parnell's." 

344.  "  In  what  business  are  you  now  engaged?" — "  I  am  not 
engaged  in  business  anywhere,  but  am  engaged  on  business 
in  Madrid." 

Cross-examined  by  Sir  Charles  Russell. 

357.  "By  whom  were  you  asked  to  give  evidence?" — "By 
Mr.  Buckle,  editor  of  The  Times,  through  Mr.  Chamberlain." 

388.  "Through  whom?  (Did  you  volunteer  to  comply?)" — 
"Mr.  Houston." 

404.  Wit>iess.  "I  looked  upon  Houston  as  Buckle  in  the 
matter." 

436.  Witness.  "I  met  Mr.  Buckle  at  dinner  in  August,  at 
the  Privatelli  Hotel." 

445.   "Who  was  the  host?" — "Sir  Roland  Blennerhassett." 

451.  "Do  you  know  the  name  of  Pigott?" — "I  know  the 
name  of  Pigott — yes." 

457.  "Did  you  learn  from  Houston  that  he.  Mr.  Houston, 
had  obtained  them  [the  forged  letters]  from  Pigott?" — "No, 
certainly  not;  but  what  I  heard  was  it  was  said  that  I  had 
entered  into  some  combination  or  conspiracy  to  get  these 
letters." 

552.  "Who  is  Mulqueeny?" — "  Mulqueeny  is  an  Irishman, 
resident  in  London,  who  assisted  me  very  much  when  I  was 
canvassing  an  East  End  constituency  for  a  friend  of  mine." 

632 


A    CHAPTER    OF    INTERROGATION 

597.  "Do  you  know  of  an  Irish  public-house  in  Wardour 
Street?" — "Yes,  I  have  been  there  once." 

602.  "How  did  you  come  to  go  there?" — "I  went  there 
because  a  number  of  advanced  nationaHsts  had  signed  a 
testimonial  to  me,  or  rather  a  declaration,  protesting  against 
my  exclusion  from  Irish  politics;  and  I  was  told  I  would  meet 
some  of  them  there  if  I  went,  and  I  went." 

611.  "Who  was  the  man  who  got  up  this  testimonial?" — 
"It  was  brought  to  me  by  Mulqueeny."* 

EVIDENCE    OF    GEORGE    MULQUEENY 

57,877.  Witness.  "I  have  received  ^i  per  day  from  The 
Times  for  every  day  the  commission  has  been  sitting." 
58,088.  "I  am  a  friend  of  Captain  O'Shea's." 
58,092.  "If  Captain  O'Shea  said  that  I  had  told  him  that  I 
had  sent  the  letter  [Frank  Byrne's  letter]  I  would  not  con- 
tradict him.  Captain  O'Shea  is,  to  my  mind,  a  thoroughly 
honorable  gentleman." 

58.133.  "To  whom  other  than  to  Captain  O'Shea  did  you 
give  this  information  [anent  the  Frank  Byrne  letter]  at  any 
time?" 

58.134.  Witness.  "I  never  gave  this  information  to  any- 
body that  I  know  of  except  Captain  O'Shea,  and  that  was 
over  a  glass  of  wine  at  his  house."  ^ 

SOME    FACTS    LEADING    UP    TO    A    SERIOUS    QUESTION 

1.  Captain  O'Shea  was  acting  for  Mr.  Chamberlain,  mainly, 
in  1882,  when  he  negotiated  the  Kilmainham  treaty  with  Mr. 
Parnell,  then  in  prison. 

2.  The  Irish  public -house  in  Wardour  Street,  London, 
which  Captain  O'Shea  visited  in  1885  was  then  a  rendezvous 
for  spies  and  casual  informers.  Major  Yellow  had  his  head- 
quarters there  for  two  months  in  that  year. 

It  was  frequented  by  Mulqueeny,  Pigott,  Hayes,  and  others 
of  a  like  character. 

It  was  in  this  place,  in  that  year,  that  Mulqueeny  got  up  the 
testimonial  for  Captain  O'Shea,  protesting  against  his  exclu- 
sion from  Irish  politics,  for  presentation  to  Mr.  Parnell,  which 
testimonial  was  taken  by  Mulqueeny  to  Paris  for  the  signa- 
ture of  Kasey. 

3.  It  was  after  this  precious  requisition  was  thus  prepared 

^Special  Commission  Report,  vol.  i.,  pp.  354-365. 
^Ihid.,  vol.  vi.,  pp.  391-401. 

633 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

that  Captain  O'Shea  forced  Mr.  Parnell  to  put  him  forward  as 
parliamentary  candidate  for  Galway  City. 

4.  Buckle,  editor  of  The  Times,  asked  Mr.  Chamberlain,  as 
related  above,  to  obtain  Captain  O'Shea's  evidence  for  the 
commission,  after  the  decision  in  the  case  of  O'Donnell  and 
Walter,  and  0\Shea  dined  with  Buckle  and  Blennerhassett, 
as  recorded,  on  the  eve  of  the  sitting  of  the  commission. 

5.  It  was  to  O'Shea  that  Mulqueeny  revealed  the  existence 
of  the  Frank  Byrne  letter. 

6.  O'Shea  was  the  first  witness  to  give  evidence  at  the  com- 
mission as  to  the  signatures  of  the  forged  letters. 

7.  He  swore  that  he  believed  these  were  in  Mr.  Parn ell's 
handwriting. 

Query:  After  the  collapse  of  the  Houston-Pigott  conspiracy, 
and  the  triumph  of  Mr.  Parnell  over  the  7'n;/t^5-Unionist  com- 
bination in  the  special  commission,  who,  or  what  agency, 
asked,  urged,  or  persuaded  the  "thoroughly  honorable  gen- 
tleman" {vide  Mulqueeny)  to  institute  the  proceedings  for 
divorce .? 


CHAPTER  LII 
SAMSON     AGONISTES 

I'HE  shadow  of  impending  disaster  fell  across  the  move- 
ment after  the  public  notice,  referred  to  on  a  previous  page,  ap- 
peared in  the  press.  Men  said  in  private  what  they  would  not 
otherwise  utter  or  write,  and  the  evils  of  yet  another  crisis  were 
anticipated  to  the  dispiriting  of  some  of  his  most  sanguine  sup- 
porters. But  none  of  his  lieutenants  would  see  him  to  seek 
an  explanation  that  might  encourage  a  hope  or  confirm  a  fear. 
They  shrank  from  approaching  him  on  a  matter  which  was,  in 
a  political  sense,  almost  as  vital  to  them  as  to  him,  and  more 
so  to  Ireland  than  to  the  whole  parliamentary  party.  This 
extraordinary  temper  reflected  the  prevalent  state  of  feeling 
in  the  ranks  of  his  chief  followers.  It  had  been  engendered 
by  his  growing  reserve  and  absence  from  the  party  in  recent 
years,  and  by  the  unwisely  excessive  laudation  of  his  personal- 
ity, which  held  him  up  as  a  man  of  a  superior  mould  to  the 
men  whom  he  led.  It  was  a  spirit  of  unreal  subserviency. 
But  it  misled  him  into  the  belief  that  it  was  genuine,  and  this 
lost  for  those  who  sang  his  praises  loudest  a  claim  to  his  confi- 
dence or  a  hold  upon  his  esteem.  Men  who  ought  to  have  sought 
explanations  at  once  from  him  were  unable  to  break  through 
the  barrier  of  aloofness  which  his  own  action  and  that  of  the 
weekly  trumpeters  of  his  fame  had  set  up  between  him  and 
the  men  who  had  so  loyally  served  and  suffered  with  him  for 
so  many  years.  And  for  months  after  this  suit  against  him 
had  first  threatened  the  cause  of  Home  Rule  with  a  great 
danger,  those  who  should  have  done  their  duty  to  that  cause, 
by  frankly  asking  Mr.  Parnell  what  he  intended  to  do  so  as 
to  avert  a  calamity,  consoled  themselves  by  saying  that  it 
would  "blow  over";  that  it  might  be  "another  plot,"  and 
that,  after  all,  if  the  worst  happened,  it  was  nobody's  affair 
but  Mr.  Parnell's. 

This  view  was  not  a  rational  one,  nor  the  one  best  calcu- 
lated to  serve  the  interests  of  a  menaced  leadership.  I 
sought  an  interview  with  him  in  this  expectant  interval,  which 
he  readily  granted.     I  had  told  him  what  I  wished  to  see  him 

635 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

for,  and   I  transcribe,  from  notes  made  at  the  time,  what 
passed. 

I  asked  him  frankly  what  danger  there  was  in  the  case,  and 
whether  he  had  anything  to  fear.  This  was  his  manner  of 
replying : 

"Before  we  talk  on  that  subject,"  he  remarked,  with  his 
usual  serene  smile,  "there  is  a  matter  I  want  to  speak  to  you 
about.  I  don't  approve  of  your  labor  organization  in  the 
South  of  Ireland;  it  will  lead  to  mischief  and  can  do  no  good. 
What  do  the  laborers  and  artisans  want  that  we  cannot  ob- 
tain for  them  by  the  efforts  of  the  National  League  as  well  if 
not  better  than  through  those  of  this  new  combination?  I 
thought  you  were  opposed  to  '  class  movements  '  ?  What  is 
trades -unionism  but  a  landlordism  of  labor?  I  would  not 
tolerate,  if  I  were  at  the  head  of  a  government,  such  bodies 
as  trades-unions.  They  are  opposed  to  individual  liberty  and 
should  be  kept  down,  as  Bismarck  keeps  them  under  in  Ger- 
many. He  is  quite  right  in  his  policy.  Whatever  has  to  be 
done  for  the  protection  of  the  working-classes  in  the  state 
should  be  the  duty  of  the  government,  and  not  the  work  of 
men  like  John  Burns  and  others  who  will  by-and-by,  unless 
prevented,  organize  the  working-classes  into  a  power  that 
may  be  too  strong  for  the  government  to  deal  with.  I  would 
not  allow  that  condition  of  things  to  grow  up  in  Ireland,  if  I 
could  prevent  it  in  time,  and  I  would  most  certainly  try  to 
do  so." 

"But—" 

"Excuse  me  a  moment.  There  is  yet  another  considera- 
tion I  want  to  insist  upon.  You  are  overlooking  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's position  and  difficulties.  Any  agitation  in  Ireland, 
except  one  making  directly  for  Home  Rule,  increases  the  ob- 
stacles he  has  to  contend  against  over  here.  It  diverts  at- 
tention from  the  main  issue  of  our  movement,  and  your  new 
labor  organization  in  Cork  will  frighten  the  capitalist  Liberals, 
and  lead  them  to  believe  that  a  Parliament  in  Dublin  might 
be  used  for  the  purpose  of  furthering  some  kind  of  Irish  social- 
ism. You  ought  to  know  that  neither  the  Irish  priests  nor 
the  farmers  would  support  such  principles.  In  any  case, 
your  laborers  and  artisans  who  have  waited  so  long  for  special 
legislation  can  put  up  with  their  present  conditions  until  we 
get  Home  Rule — " 

"When,  I  suppose,  you  would  deal  with  them  as  Bismarck 
does  in  Germany?" 

This  was  Mr.  Parnell's  manner  of  discussing  the  subject  we 
had  met  to  consider!  It  was  a  superb  piece  of  bluff,  and  was 
intended  to  warn  all  who  might  think  it  a  duty  to  meddle  in 

636 


A 


SAMSON    AGONISTES 


"his"  affairs  to  attend  to  something  else.  The  extraordinaty 
opinions  he  gave  utterance  to  were  possibly  the  momentary 
expression  of  irritation  at  being  asked  a  question  about  the 
divorce  case,  and  not  the  reflex  of  his  actual  views  on  labor 
questions  and  organizations.  They  were  diametrically  op- 
posed to  many  of  his  previous  opinions,  emphatically  so  to 
what  be  said  and  did  subsequently  when  he  actually  captured 
the  very  labor  organization  he  had  thus  repudiated,  and 
pressed  its  members  into  the  service  of  his  personal  conflict 
with  the  majority  of  his  party  and  of  the  country.  This  was, 
however,  but  an  expedient  in  the  exigencies  of  a  fierce  contest. 
The  same  opportunist  spirit  which  governed  all  his  political 
actions  would  have  led  him  in  the  event  of  his  reaching  the  head 
of  an  Irish  administration,  to  repress,  as  far  as  possible,  all 
combinations  which  should  seek  to  question  or  disturb  nation- 
al authority  as  he  had  assailed  that  of  Dublin  Castle.  In  fact, 
had  the  "classes"  of  Ireland  and  Great  Britain  really  known 
Pamell,  in  his  inward  political  convictions  and  strong  bias 
against  the  very  methods  of  agitation  he  had  been  constrained 
to  adopt  as  a  means  to  attain  his  ends  for  the  good  of  Ireland, 
they  would  have  hailed  him  as  absolutely  safe  for  their  inter- 
ests, and  as  a  conservative  ruler  of  the  country  in  1886,  in- 
stead of  approving  of  a  conspiracy  to  destroy  him  in  1887. 

He  finally  assured  me,  in  this  the  last  interview  we  were 
ever  to  have,  that  there  was  no  peril  of  any  kind  to  him  or  to 
the  movement  in  Captain  O 'Shea's  "threatened  proceed- 
ings." He  bade  me  say  to  friends  who  might  be  anxious  on 
the  matter  that  he  would  emerge  from  the  whole  trouble 
without  a  stain  on  his  name  or  reputation.  These  words 
were  afterwards  denied  by  him,  but  they  were  spoken  as 
written  above.  What  was  possibly  working  in  his  mind  at 
the  moment  was  a  firm  belief  that  the  person  who  instituted 
the  suit  would  be  induced  to  withdraw  it  from  the  courts,  and 
that  in  this  manner  Mr.  Parnell's  assurances  of  innocence 
would  be  negatively  confirmed  should  the  case  not  come  to 
trial. 

On  the  15th  and  17th  of  November  the  petition  for  divorce 
by  Captain  O'Shea  was  heard  before  a  London  jury.  It  was 
not  defended.  Neither  the  wife  nor  Mr.  Pamell  appeared 
in  court.  The  details  filled  the  press  of  Great  Britain,  Ire- 
land, and  America  for  two  days,  and  filled  the  minds  of  all 
Ireland's  friends  everywhere  with  sorrow  and  fear.  The 
facts  disclosed  in  evidence  related  a  story  of  nine  years  of,) 
secret  cohabitation  under  circumstances  which  added"  hotTiing 
but  discredit  to  Parnell's  name.  It  revealed  a  double  life  of 
wretched  deception,  unredeemed  by  a  single  romantic  feature 

637 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

which  could  offer  any  excuse  for  a  course  of  conduct  that  was 
bound  some  time  to  involve  him  in  disgrace  and  to  overwhelm 
the  cause  he  led  with  the  consequences  of  his  guilt.  There 
had  been  one,  and  only  one,  ground  on  which  a  human  if  not 
a  moral  extenuation  of  the  liaison  could  be  offered,  and  no 
attempt  was  made  on  behalf  of  the  corespondents  to  sus- 
tain it — the  connivance  of  the  husband  at  the  misconduct 
of  the  wife. 

The  question  of  what  Mr.  Parnell  would  do,  in  the  event  of 
a  verdict  being  obtained  against  him,  had  exercised  the  minds 
of  friends  and  foes  for  a  few  weeks  before  the  trial.  Again  the 
timid,  temporizing  spirit  in  his  party,  and  in  the  country  too, 
did  mischief  to  him  it  was  meant  to  serve.  "There  must  be 
no  English  dictation";  "We  will  stand  by  our  leader,"  and 
other  thoughtless  bravado  did  duty  in  the  press  and  on  the 
platform  for  common-sense  and  sane  statesmanship.  There 
was  no  issue  of  the  kind  at  stake  but  one  affecting  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  own  duty  to  his  responsibilities  and  position  as  Irish 
leader.  This  language  and  action  encouraged  him  to  pursue 
a  course  which  he  had  probably  determined  upon  all  along. 
For  he  had  evidently  made  up  his  mind  to  ignore  the  whole 
business  as  if  nothing  whatever  had  happened  that  required 
action  or  explanation  on  his  part. 

So,  on  the  very  day,  November  17th,  on  which  a  jury 
found  a  verdict  against  him,  he  published  a  summons  in  the 
press  to  his  party  to  assemble  in  Westminster  on  the  25th  to 
consider  the  parliamentary  business  of  the  autumn  session. 
"I  wish  to  lay  special  stress,"  the  circular  said,  "upon  the 
necessity  for  the  attendance  of  every  man  upon  the  opening 
day,  as  it  is  unquestionable  that  the  coming  session  will  be 
one  of  combat  from  first  to  last,  and  that  great  issues  depend 
upon  its  course."  This  was  a  deliberate  challenge  to  all  who 
might  think  he  was  bound  in  any  way  to  bend  for  a  time  be- 
neath the  storm  his  conduct  had  created. 

Two  league  meetings  were  held  in  Dublin  after  the  issue 
of  this  summons.  They  were  turned  by  thoughtless  parti- 
sans to  the  service  of  Parnell's  reckless  decision.  Nothing 
less  wise  in  themselves,  or  more  injurious  to  the  leader  they 
were  meant  to  uphold  in  a  senseless  course,  could  be  done  at 
the  time,  and  the  attempt  to  justify  a  wrong  procedure  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  "English  dictation"  and  not  Irish  folly 
that  called  for  protest,  was  a  policy  as  foolish  as  ever  suggested 
itself  to  earnest  men  faced  by  the  perils  of  a  political  crisis. 

Earlier  in  the  year  Messrs.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  T.  Harrington, 
T.  D.  SulHvan,  and  T.  P.  Gill  went  to  the  United  States  to 
join  Messrs.  John  Dillon  and  William  O'Brien  in  a  mission  to 

638 


SAMSON    AGONISTES 

collect  money  for  the  support  of  the  evicted  tenants  and  the 
national  movement  generally.  They  were  cabled  to  by  those 
of  their  colleagues  who  were  forcing  the  running  for  Mr. 
Parnell's  fatal  resolve,  and  were  induced  to  send  a  message 
to  the  Dublin  Leinster  Hall  meeting  (T.  D.  Sullivan  dissent- 
ing) laden  down  with  superlative  adjectives  of  laudation  of  a 
leader  who  was  to  be  discarded  in  the  course  of  a  few  hours, 
in  equally  eloquent  language,  from  the  same  source.  It  was 
all  well  meant,  but  lamentably  short-sighted  and  pregnant 
with  a  mischief  to  Home  Rule  which  was  destined  to  require 
many  years  of  struggle  and  suffering  to  mitigate,  and  a  gen- 
eration wholly  to  undo. 

In  the  face  of  all  this  Parnell's  course  was  clearly  deter- 
mined. Those  who  knew  him  best  and  who  felt  that  he 
would  not  take  a  just  or  truly  patriotic  view  of  his  position, 
if  doing  so  should  make  any  claim  upon  his  inordinate  pride," 
fully  expected  what  happened.  He  would  treat  the  party  as 
his  subordinates  and  self-confessed  servitors,  and  would  be 
sure  to  carry  a  section,  if  not  a  majority,  with  him  in  any 
T'esolve  to  hold  his  ground  in  defiance  of  all  consequences. 

The  party  met  on  Tuesday,  November  25th,  to  elect  a 
sessional  chairman,  as  on  the  opening  day  of  every  previous 
Parliamentary  session.  One  member,  and  only  one,  out  of 
fifty-nine  of  his  colleagues  assembled  in  committee-room  15,' 
ventured  timidly  to  ask  Mr.  Parnell  to  do  what  it  was  his  own 
obvious  and  bounden  duty  to  do,  to  retire  temporarily  from 
his  position  until  the  storm  he  alone  had  caused  by  his  con- 
duct should  blow  over.  Not  a  single  voice  was  added  to 
Mr.  Jeremiah  Jordan's  appeal,  and  the  election  was  forth- 
with concluded.  The  meeting  broke  up  after  listening  to  an 
extraordinary  speech  from  Mr.  Parnell,  and  the  unwise  act 
that  had  just  been  collectively  done  began  to  bring  home  to 
individual  minds  what  it  was  all  to  mean  to  the  fortunes  of 
the  Home-Rule  cause. 

It  transpired  that  Mr.  Gladstone  had  written  a  most  friendly 
letter  to  Mr.  Morley  on  the  subject  of  Parnell's  position,  on 
failing  to  hear  from  the  Irish  leader  what  he  intended  doing 
in  face  of  the  divorce-court  verdict.  This  letter  was  to  be 
read  to  Mr.  Parnell,  before  the  meeting  of  the  party,  and  its 
purport  was  to  be  communicated  to  the  members  of  the 
party  only  if  the  appeal  which  the  letter  addressed  to  Mr. 
Parnell's  patriotism  and  good  sense  should  not  induce  him 
to  resign,  for  a  time,  his  place  at  the  head  of  the  Home-Rule 
movement.  Mr.  Parnell  knew  this  letter  was  written,  and 
what  it  asked  him  to  do,  but  said  never  a  word  about  it  at  the 
party  meeting.     Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  was  aware  of  the  con- 

639 


,\' 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tents  of  the  letter,  but  did  not  communicate  a  word  of  them 
to  his  colleagues  until  the  election  of  Mr.  Parnell  had  been 
decided.  Mr.  Gladstone,  learning  of  the  action  of  the  party, 
and  believing  that  Mr.  McCarthy  had  informed  his  colleagues 
of  what  the  Liberal  leader  had  written,  published  his  letter  in 
the  press  to  explain  and  justify  his  own  position  ana  thereby 
told  the  public,  after  the  party  meeting,  what  had  been  in- 
tended only  for  the  Irish  members  before  their  decision  should 
be  arrived  at.  Here  the  blame  was  all  on  the  Irish  side,  and 
yet  "Mr.  Gladstone's  dictation,"  and  not  Mr.  Parnell's  de- 
liberate wrong-doing,  was  to  be  made  a  battle-cry  of  faction 
by  men  who  knew  the  facts  as  they  had  occurred,  and  who 
were  aware  of  the  injustice  that  was  being  done  to  the  Eng- 
lish statesman  who  had  tried,  honestly  and  honorably,  to 
save  the  Irish  cause  by  seeking  to  persuade  its  leader  not  to 
be  guilty  of  an  act  of  political  suicide. 

Mr.  Morley's  book  places  Mr.  Gladstone's  action  in  this 
crisis  far  above  all  suspicion  as  to  the  fairness  of  his  conduct 
towards  Mr.  Parnell.  He  shows  how  the  great  Englishman 
absolutely  refused  to  judge  Parnell  on  the  ground  of  the 
moral  wrong  involved  in  his  conduct.  That  was  no  afTair 
of  an  English  leader  or  party.  It  was  a  matter  for  the  Irish 
party  and  public  opinion  in  Ireland  to  determine  upon. 
But  Mr.  Gladstone,  as  leader  of  the  British  Home-Rule  party, 
in  alliance  with  Mr.  Parnell,  was  bound  to  take  cognizance 
of  how  the  Irish  leader's  retention  of  his  position,  in  face  of 
the  verdict  of  public  opinion  and  of  the  court  against  him, 
would  affect  the  political  situation  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
Wales  at  pending  elections.  He  could  not  ignore  what  his  own 
following  felt  and  said,  or  what  was  the  tenor  and  trend  of 
common  feeling  in  his  own  country.  It  would  be  as  reasonable 
to  ask  him  to  shut  his  eyes  at  night-time  and  to  imagine  that 
daylight  was  as  much  abroad  as  before  the  sun  went  down. 
He  saw  what  all  intelligent  minds  could  not  help  seeing,  that 
the  political  consequences  of  Mr.  Parnell's  continued  leader- 
ship of  the  Irish  party,  without  some  decent  atonement  being 
made  to  the  average  moral  sense  of  the  public  mind,  would 
spell  ruin  to  the  Home-Rule  cause  by  snapping  asunder  the 
links  of  union  which  Mr.  Parnell  had  himself  forged  in  acts 
and  in  words  as  manifest  and  as  clear  as  anything  that  had 
ever  happened  in  his  political  career. 

Mr.  Morley's  account  of  how  the  fateful  letter  was  written, 
and  in  what  spirit,  shows  how  unjust  were  the  imputations 
which  were  cast  by  Mr.  Parnell  and  his  friends  upon  the 
motive  in  which  it  originated : 

"The  Liberal  leaders  had  a  right  to  assume  that  the  case 

640 


SAMSON    AGONIST  ES 

must  be  as  obvious  to  Mr.  Parnell  as  it  was  to  everybody 
else,  and  unless  loyalty  and  good  faith  have  no  place  in 
political  alliances,  they  had  a  right  to  look  for  his  spontaneous 
action.  Was  unlimited  consideration  due  from  them  to  him, 
and  none  from  him  to  them? 

"The  result  of  the  consultation  was  the  decisive  letter 
addressed  to  me  by  Mr.  Gladstone,  its  purport  to  be  by  me 
communicated  to  Mr.  Parnell.  As  any  one  may  see,  its 
language  was  courteous  and  considerate.  Not  an  accent 
was  left  that  could  touch  the  pride  of  one  who  was  known  to 
be  as  proud  a  man  as  ever  lived.  It  did  no  more  than  state 
an  unquestionable  fact,  with  an  inevitable  inference.  It  was 
not  written  in  view  of  publication,  for  that  it  was  hoped 
would  be  unnecessary.  It  was  written  with  the  expectation 
of  finding  the  personage  concerned  in  his  usual  rational  frame 
of  mind,  and  with  the  intention  of  informing  him  of  what 
it  was  right  that  he  should  know.  The  same  evening  Mr. 
McCarthy  was  placed  in  possession  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  views,  to 
be  laid  before  Mr.  Parnell  at  the  earliest  moment."^ 

In  an  interview  with  Mr.  Parnell,  which  took  place  im- 
mediately after  his  re-election,  Mr.  Morley  spoke  to  him  as 
follows : 

"I  replied  that  he  [Mr.  Parnell]  might  know  Ireland,  but  he 
did  not  half  know  England;  that  if  he  set  British  feeling  at 
defiance  and  brazened  it  out,  it  would  be  ruin  to  Home  Rule 
at  the  elections;  that  if  he  did  not  withdraw  for  a  time  the 
storm  would  not  pass;  that  if  he  withdrew  from  the  actual 
leadership  now,  as  a  concession  to  public  feeling  in  this  coun- 
try, this  need  not  prevent  him  from  again  taking  the  helm 
when  new  circumstances  might  demand  his  presence;  that 
he  could  very  well  treat  his  election  as  a  public  vote  of  con- 
fidence by  his  party;  that  having  secured  this,  he  would 
suffer  no  loss  of  dignity  or  authority  by  a  longer  or  shorter 
period  of  retirement.  -  I  reminded  him  that  for  two  years 
he  had  been  practically  absent  from  active  leadership."" 

To  this  friendly  appeal  Mr.  Parnell  gave  a  frigid  refusal. 
He  had  determined  to  put  nothing  above  or  before  his 
personal  pride  and  feeling.  He  would  stake  all  upon  his  own 
resolve  to  remain  in  the  saddle. 

The  subsequent  action  of  the  Irish  party  was  an  instance  of 
wisdom  coming  too  late.  They  attempted  to  correct  the 
first  mistake  by  committing  another.  Two  blunders  were  to 
amend  that  of  the  initial  election,  and  for  eight  or  ten  days 
the   newspaper   readers   of   the   political   world   perused   the 

^Lifc  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.  436.  ^  ibid.,  p.  440. 

41  641 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

debates  in  "  Committee  -  room  15"  with  a  relish  which  an 
Irish  faction  fight  can  alone  provide  for  the  keen  appetite 
of  Ireland's  enemies.  It  was  a  debate  over  the  coffin  of 
Home  Rule  by  the  men  who  had  been  parties  to  the  deed 
which  Mr.  Parnell  was  permitted  to  commit,  unrestrained,  in 
their  presence. 

Many  good  things  were  well  said  during  the  discussion — 
which  could  have  been  more  appropriately  spoken  on  Novem- 
ber 25th.  Mr.  McCarthy  quoted  Grattan  in  his  fine  expres- 
sion, "No  man  can  be  lavish  with  his  honor,  or  woman  with 
her  virtue,  or  country  with  its  liberty."  Mr.  Sexton  told 
Mr.  Parnell  that,  "no  service  rendered  by  any  leader  to  any 
cause  entitled  him  to  effect  its  ruin."  Mr.  Parnell's  con- 
temptuous rejoinder  was:  "You  elected  me  unanimously. 
You  now  want  to  throw  me  over  at  Mr.  Gladstone's  dictation. 
You  all  have  said,  again  and  again,  that  I  am  indispensable 
to  the  Irish  cause.  For  these  and  other  reasons  I  shall  re- 
main." These  were  not  his  exact  words,  but  they  represent 
the  spirit  and  purpose  of  his  defiance  to  all  the  arguments 
and  influences  that  had  been  used  on  the  other  side. 

He  had  presided  over  his  own  trial  by  his  colleagues.  They 
were  treated  by  him  with  studied  contempt  during  the  whole 
proceedings,  and  never  once  did  he  admit,  by  word  or  sign  or 
action  that  he  had  done  any  wrong  or  that  the  party  had  any 
right  to  go  back  upon  its  first  decision.  At  one  time  during 
the  discussion  it  looked  as  if  the  appeals  that  had  been 
addressed  to  him  had  weakened  his  resolution.  He  asked 
for  forty-eight  hours'  time  for  reflection.-  This  was  hopefully 
given.  He  sought  the  direction  of  whatever  hidden  in- 
fluence had  completely  usurped  his  personal  power  and  will, 
and  returned  obdurate  and  unrelenting.  He  would  risk 
all  and  concede  nothing.  Neither  Ireland,  nor  Home  Rule, 
nor  his  party,  nor  his  own  political  salvation  had  weighed 
against  whatever  counsels  had  urged  him — knowingly,  no 
doubt — to  a  ruin  which  might,  thereby,  be  that  of  the  cause 
that  Pigott's  forgeries,  sworn  to  by  O'Shea,  had  failed,  through 
Pigott's  confession  and  suicide,  to  destroy.  The  die  was  cast. 
The  Irish  party  was  split  in  two,  and  with  it  the  entire  league 
movement  throughout  the  world.  The  Irish  Samson  had 
pulled  the  pillars  from  beneath  the  temple  of  a  great  cause  in 
his  own  downfall. 

No  blunder  of  his  party,  or  weakness  of  his  chief  lieu- 
tenants, or  consideration  for  man  or  woman,  offered  even 
the  shadow  of  a  rational  excuse  for  Mr.  Parnell's  action.  He 
had  been  treated  in  the  most  indulgent  manner  and  spirit 
by  his  colleagues,  even  after  the  facts  about  the  Gladstone 

642 


SAMSON    AGONISTES 

letter  had  leaked  out.  It  was  proposed  to  him,  in  their  be- 
half, that  he  could  appoint  a  committee  of  his  party — men 
of  his  own  preference  and  selection — to  conduct  its  affairs 
during  a  six  months'  absence.  He  could  offer  to  resign  his 
seat  in  Cork — an  offer  which  would  not  be  accepted.  The 
chair  of  the  party  would  be  left  vacant ;  no  one  would  occupy 
it,  if  the  offer  were  made;  no  offer  of  the  kind  would  come 
from  his  colleagues.  He  could  withdraw  from  his  position 
until  the  storm  blew  over,  marry  the  lady  for  whom,  or  from 
whom,  all  this  disaster  had  been  brought  upon  a  movement 
with  which  she  as  an  Englishwoman  had  no  friendly  concern, 
and  then  come  back  and  resume  his  old  position.  More 
generous  terms  had  never  been  ofi'ered  to  a  man  whose  own 
act  had  brought  him  face  to  face  with  the  threatened  ruin  of 
himself  and  his  party.  It  was  in  a  deliberate  refusal  to  accept 
of  this  way  of  escaping  from  a  position  of  his  own  making,  and 
not  on  the  grounds  of  his  moral  misconduct,  that  Mr.  Parnell 
made  himself  impossible  as  a  leader,  and  which  compelled 
the  men  who  had  built  up  the  Irish  movement  with  him  to 
declare  themselves  his  antagonists  in  his  efforts  to  undo  his 
and  their  work. 

The  most  noted  and  influential  of  his  lieutenants  pro- 
nounced against  him  after  all  attempts  to  reason  him  into 
a  sane  line  of  action  had  failed.  Those  who  took  his  side 
were  the  men  of  least  prestige  and  experience  in  the  party. 
These  were  likewise  in  a  marked  minority.  Division  in  Ireland 
followed  on  similar  lines.  Mr.  Parnell 's  former  clerical  and 
episcopal  supporters  went  with  the  majority.  The  minority 
in  the  country,  however,  included  a  majority  of  the  most 
active  of  local  leaders.  Friends  were  driven  asunder.  Fami- 
lies even  became  divided.  Some  town  or  village  in  a  count)^ 
would  be  found  practically  of  one  way  of  thinking,  while 
another  hamlet  or  town,  a  few  miles  away,  would  hold  to  the 
opposite  side.  This  was  what  happened  in  Ireland.  In  the 
United  States  the  whole  league  organization  toppled  over 
like  a  house  of  cards.  "Committee-room  15"  undid,  in  ten 
days,  the  work  of  as  many  missions  from  Ireland  and  the 
labors  of  ten  years  in  building  up  a  great  auxiliar}'  organiza- 
tion beyond  the  Atlantic.  The  friends  in  Great  Britain  and 
Australasia  remained  more  or  less  with  ranks  unbroken,  only 
dispirited,  and  on  the  side  of  the  majority. 

In  the  Kilkenny,  Sligo,  and  Carlow  elections,  which 
followed  the  "split,"  the  popular  verdicts  upheld  the  action 
of  the  majority,  and  condemned  that  of  the  Parnellite 
factionists.  The  people  had  been  appealed  to,  and  their 
judgment   was   emphatic.     Still,    Mr.    Parnell   resolutely    re- 

643 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

fused  to  listen  to  any  decision  against  him,  or  to  adopt  any 
alternative  course  to  one  of  dogged,  ruthless  desperation. 
Former  implacable  opponents  espoused  his  cause,  without 
opening  his  eyes  to  the  significance  of  this  sinister  sympathy, 
and  without  any  protest  from  those  who  were  conducting 
his  campaign.  Ever}^  enemy  of  Home  Rule  in  Ireland  and 
England  wished  him  success,  and  every  land-grabber  in  Ire- 
land insulted  his  former  record  by  taking  his  side.  Men  and 
bodies  formerly  against  him,  when  he  stood  for  a  united 
Ireland  and  a  mighty  race  movement,  now  ranged  themselves 
against  his  opponents,  and  lent  him  a  help  which  was  only 
offered  in  the  hope  of  thereby  destroying  the  great  organiza- 
tion of  which  he  had  been  the  trusted  leader.  And  in  this 
disastrous  course  a  great  personality  was  driven  by  the 
impulse  of  a  fatal  pride  and  the  backing  of  a  reckless  faction- 
ism  to  rush  headlong  to  ruin. 

It  would  be  a  useless  and  sorrowful  task  to  inflict  upon  the 
reader  the  story  of  the  internecine  conflict  forced  upon  his 
own  movement  by  Mr.  Parnell.  No  good  or  even  historic  end 
would  be  served  in  such  a  narrative.  It  would  tell  only  of  a 
heart-breaking  conflict  between  men  who  were  separated  by 
no  principle  of  political  faith,  and  no  aim  of  public  duty,  in  a 
country  which  had  almost  reached  the  goal  of  its  long-deferred 
national  hopes.  It  was  a  most  hateful  and  senseless  struggle, 
and  earned  for  our  cause  some  pity  and  much  contempt  from 
former  supporters  who  were  not  of  our  race.  It  rendered  the 
work  of  political  life  in  Ireland  a  pathway  strewn  with  thorns 
for  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  defend  the  land  movement  and 
the  cause  of  Home  Rule  against  the  revolt  of  Mr.  Parnell  and 
his  followers.  One  can  only  hope  that  the  recording  angel  in 
the  paradise,  or  purgatory,  reserved  for  Irish  patriots  in  the 
fabled  regions  of  Hy  -  BraziP  will  charitably  obliterate  from 
his  tablets  the  words  spoken  and  written  in  these  years  of 
humiliating  sectional  strife. 

One  factor  only  in  that  strife  calls  for  a  brief  reference. 
This  was  the  taunt  levelled  at  his  chief  lieutenants  by  their 
former  leader,  that  their  independence  had  been  sapped  by 
the  Liberal  party  of  England,  and  that  they  were,  in  conse- 
quence, faithless  to  Ireland  and  disloyal  to  him.  This  ab- 
surd charge  was  without  an  atom  of  foundation.  The  alli- 
ance with  Mr.  Gladstone  and  the  Liberal  party  was  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  own  work,  and  the  chief  triumph  of  his  political  career. 
In  that  alliance  he  secured  the  adhesion  of  the  foremost  of 
England's  statesmen  and  one  of  the  two  great  English  parties 

*  The  Elysium  of  Celtic  legends. 
644 


SAMSON    AGONISTES 

as  the  pledged  allies  of  the  Home-Rule  cause.  It  was  he, 
and  not  Mr.  Gladstone,  who  ruptured  this  alliance,  honorable 
as  it  had  been  to  both,  and  full  of  promise  to  Ireland.  To 
maintain  what  he  had  thus  created;  to  uphold  the  policy 
which  he  had  wisely  laid  down  in  1886;  to  continue  the  joint 
labors  of  Irish  and  British  Home-Rulers  in  the  cause  of  na- 
tional self-government  for  Ireland,  was  what  his  oldest  and 
ablest  supporters  determined  he  should  not  be  permitted  to 
undo  for  any  personal  issue,  and  it  was  his  opposition  to  this 
resolve  and  to  them  which  caused  and  continued  the  disas- 
trous "split"  in  1890. 

Speaking  at  a  Liberal  meeting  in  the  National  Liberal  Club, 
London,  on  July  20,  1887,  Mr.  Parnell  referred  to  this  alliance 
as  follows : 

"  It  will  always  be  associated  with  his  [Gladstone's]  memory, 
as  one  of  the  evidences  of  his  greatness,  that  he  was  not  afraid 
to  ask,  first  of  all  his  party,  then  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
then  the  whole  country  of  Great  Britain,  to  trust  the  little  sister 
country  of  Ireland.  No  lesser  man  could  have  attempted  to 
do  it,  and  I  believe,  having  placed  his  shoulder  to  the  wheel, 
he  will  carry  it  through  (and  that  before  many  months  have 
gone  by),  and  that  the  country  will  recognize  that  he  is  the 
truly  great  statesman  to  whom  they  have  to  look,  and  that 
all  others  are  pretenders,  imitators,  and  tinkerers.  ...  If 
nothing  else  had  been  done  the  Liberal  party  might  fairly 
claim  credit  for  themselves  and  be  amply  rewarded  in  the 
spectacle  which  has  been  presented  in  Ireland  during  the  last 
eighteen  months  of  the  absence  of  crime  and  wrong-doing, 
because  they  believe  their  English  brothers,  whom  they  now 
look  upon  for  the  first  time  in  seven  centuries  as  brothers, 
are  about  to  do  justice  to  them,  and  are  about  to  give  them 
the  power  of  doing  justice  to  themselves." 

At  a  banquet  given  in  his  honor  bv  the  (Liberal)  Eighty 
Club,  on  May  8,  1888,  Mr.  Parnell  said: 

"Believe  me,  such  a  reception  from  such  a  body  will  have 
a  great  effect  in  Ireland.  It  will  remind  the  Irish  people  that 
they  are  not  alone  in  their  struggle  for  the  legitimate  rights  of 
their  country ;  and  it  will  remind  them  also — which  is  of  more 
importance — that  their  responsibility  is  not  a  sole  responsibil- 
ity in  this  matter.  .  .  .  They  will  be  more  than  ever  impressed 
with  the  necessity  that  both  in  their  speech  and  in  their  action 
they  should  do  nothing  to  damage  the  position  and  the  power 
of  their  own  potent  allies  in  this  country.  They  will  recog- 
nize that  the  position  of  the  Irish  people  and  their  fight  is  no 
longer  that  of  a  forlorn  hope,  but  that  it  is  the  advance  of  a 
victorious  army,  with  allies  stronger,  overwhelmingly  stronger, 

645 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

than  themselves,  who,  by  their  own  strength  more  than  our 
strength,  are  about  to  estabHsh  for  Ireland  the  success  of  her 
cause." 

Again,  in  June,  1889,  at  a  meeting  held  in  the  Westmin- 
ster Palace  Hotel,  London,  he  reiterated  his  faith  in  the  alli- 
ance with  the  Liberal  party,  and  eulogized  the  genius  and 
services  of  Mr.  Gladstone  in  these  clear  terms: 

"I  pledged  myself  that  I  would  hold  myself  aloof  from 
all  English  party  combinations — from  all  English  parties — 
until  an  English  party  arose  which  would  concede  to  Ireland 
the  just  rights  of  the  Irish  people,  and  enable  her  to  obtain 
for  herself  those  just  rights  in  an  Irish  assembly  in  Dublin. 
That  time  has  since  come  about  when  an  English  party — 
a  great  English  party — under  the  distinguished  leadership 
of  Mr.  Gladstone,  has  conceded  to  Ireland  those  rights,  and 
has  enabled  us  to  enter  into  an  honorable  alliance — honorable 
and  hopeful  for  our  country,  honorable  for  that  great  English 
party — an  alliance  which  I  venture  to  believe  will  last,  and 
will  yield  permanent  fruit,  and  result  in  a  knitting  together 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  a  true  and  real  union.  .  .  . 
They  will  intrust  to  that  great  statesman  who  will  then  be 
called  to  power — the  only  man  of  distinguished  genius  before 
the  public — as  his  great,  final,  and  crowning  work,  the  task 
of  finding  some  method  in  which  might  be  intrusted  to  Ireland 
her  own  destinies,  while  she  also  is  privileged  to  take  a  share 
in  the  greater  interests  of  the  empire." 

On  the  occasion  of  the  presentation  of  the  freedom  of  the 
city  of  Edinburgh,  July  20,  1889,  Mr.  Parnell  said: 

"...  But  to-day  everything  is  changed.  Nobody  can  pre- 
tend for  a  single  instant,  be  he  the  most  advanced  revolution- 
ist or  whoever  he  may  be,  that  constitutional  action  during 
the  last  ten  years  has  not  been  most  abundantly  justified 
by  its  results,  and  that  Irishmen  are  not  now  justified  in  look- 
ing to  such  constitutional  means,  and  such  constitutional 
means  alone,  for  the  future  prosperity  of  their  country  and 
the  success  of  their  movement.  And  if  there  existed  any  such 
fanatic,  who  persists  or  who  would  persist  in  telling  us  to- 
day, in  view  of  the  fact  that  we  have  the  greatest  man  of  the 
English  race  pledged  to  do  his  utmost  to  grant  Ireland  her 
legitimate  freedom  and  the  means  of  prosperity,  that  we  have 
side  by  side  with  us  the  great  Liberal  party,  which  has  never 
lost  any  fight  that  it  once  commenced,  I  say  that  if  any  such 
person  exists  (I  know  not  of  the  existence  of  any  such  person), 
who  could  tell  us  not  to  rely  upon  our  constitutional  policy 
and  to  turn  back  into  the  old  path  of  revolution  and  violence, 
that  the  Irish  race  would  unanimously  and  with  one  accord, 

646 


SAMSON    AGONISTES 

whether  in  Ireland,  in  America,  in  AustraHa,  or  wherever  they 
were,  tell  him  that  he  was  not  to  be  their  guide.  .  .  .  And  if  the 
armed  hand  of  revolution  after  the  concession  of  this  great 
measure  were  to  be  lifted  against  the  authority  of  the  Queen 
in  Ireland,  you  could  stamp  out  that  rebellion  as  remorselessly 
with  your  power  as  you  could  a  rebellion  in  the  heart  of  Edin- 
burgh, and  you  would  be  justified  in  the  measures  you  took 
by  the  public  opinion  of  the  world ;  we  should  no  longer  have 
(as  we  have  now)  the  sympathy  of  America  in  our  struggle, 
we  should  no  longer  have  the  good  wishes  of  all  the  continental 
nations.     But  we  should  exhibit  ourselves  in  the  contempti- 
ble position  of  men  who  spurned  the  hand  of  those  who  tried 
to  benefit  them,  and  who  stung  the  heel  of  those  who  did  for 
their  good.     I  do  not  think  that  such  things  are  possible  for  a 
single  instant.     But  if  you  want  further  proof,  look  at  the 
altered  feeling  of  the  Irish  people  at  home  and  abroad;  since 
Mr.  Gladstone  instituted  his  great  measure  of  conciliation,  the 
whole   nature    of    Irishmen   everywhere   has   been    changed; 
those  who  before  threatened  and  talked  rebellion,  and  felt  it 
too,  are  now  willing  to  live  with  you  in  unity  as  fellow-citi- 
zens in  a  great  empire.     This  is  not  a  feeling  alone  which  has 
extended  throughout  Ireland.     Great  as  the  change  has  been 
there,  evidenced  by  the  diminution  of  crime  and  the  willingness 
of  the  people  to  bear,  without  reply  and  without  answer  or 
retaliation,  the  aggressions,  the  horrible  aggressions,  of  the 
present  government,  it  has  been  exceeded  by  the  attitude  of 
the  Irish  of  America,  who  are  represented  to  you  as  being 
revolutionists  and  assassins  of  the  deepest  dye.     They  also 
have  accepted  this  compromise.     They  are  willing  to  leave 
this   matter  in   Mr.    Gladstone's   hands.     They   are  satisfied 
that  he  will  give  us  such  a  concession  as  public  opinion  in  this 
country  can  be  brought  to  consider  consistent  with  their  in- 
terests and  the  future  well-being  of  their  nation.     They  are 
satisfied  that  such  concessions  should  be  accepted  in  good 
faith,  and  that  it  should  be  worked  out  in  good  faith  in  both 
countries.     But  that  if  any  man  raises  his  hand  to  stop  this 
work  of  good-will  he  should  be  put  down  as  a  disunionist  and 
an  enemy  of  his  race.  .  .  .  The  great  Liberal  party  has  taken 
up  this  question.     Our  great  leader  has  taken  it  up;  and  we 
are  convinced  that  neither  you  nor  he  will  rest,  will  stop,  until 
you  have  carried  this  legitimate  measure."  ^ 

'  Edinburgh  daily  papers,  July  21,  1889. 


PART   IV 

FROM   THE   DEATH    OF   PARNELL  TO   1903 


CHAPTER   LIIT 
DEATH     OF     PARNELL  — APPRECIATION 

Mr.  Parnell  continued  the  combat  against  great  odds,  with 
characteristic  tenacity,  during  the  summer  and  autumn  of 
1 89 1.  He  addressed  demonstrations  in  various  parts  of  the 
country  each  Sunday  for  months,  travelHng  from  Brighton, 
in  the  south  of  England,  to  Ireland  on  a  Saturday,  and  re- 
turning again  direct  to  his  home  from  the  place  of  meeting. 
He  lost  ground  steadily  in  his  desperate  campaign,  but  never 
lost  courage.  Doggedly,  if  hopelessly,  he  persisted  in  the 
struggle  until  his  strength  gave  way.  The  end  came  with 
startling  suddenness.  There  had  been  no  tidings  of  serious 
illness,  though  it  was  known  that  his  health  was  breaking 
down  from  the  physical  strain  of  weekly  journeys  from  Eng- 
land to  meetings  in  Ireland.  He  died  at  Brighton  on  October 
6,  1891.^  He  was  only  in  his  forty-sixth  year,  and  but  ten 
short  months  had  rolled  by  since  he  broke  with  the  majority 
of  his  following  in  refusing  to  adopt  the  course  which  his 
wisest  friends  pressed  in  vain  upon  him.  Had  their  counsels 
prevailed,  they  would  have  averted  the  split,  saved  his  life, 
in  all  human  probability,  for  years  of  useful  and  still  greater 
services  to  Ireland,  and  insured  the  success  of  the  Home- 
Rule  cause  at  the  general  election  of  1892. 

Parnell 's  claim  to  greatness  no  Irish  nationalist,  and  few 
Irishmen,  will  ever  deny.  To  do  so  would  be  like  ignoring  the 
existence  of  a  mountain  or  some  other  objective  fact  in  nature. 
His  work  was  great,  and  would  of  itself  make  the  political 
fame  of  any  man  with  a  similar  record.  Like  all  the  world's 
historic  characters,  there  were  marked  limitations  to  his 
greatness,  not  counting  the  final  weakness  which  precipitated 
his  fall. 

*  It  was  a  dramatic  coincidence  that  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith,  the  ally  of 
Walter  of  The  Times,  and  the  author  of  the  act  which  created  the  special 
commission  that  was  expected  to  effect  Parnell's  political  ruin,  died  on 
the  same  day  as  the  Irish  leader.  Sir  John  Pope  Hennessy,  who 
fou.s:ht  the  first  parliamentary  contest  with  the  Parnell  party  after  the 
split,  also  passed  away  on  the  same  date. 

651 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

His  immense  popularity  with  the  Irish  people  was  not 
due  to  any  Celtic  quahties.  Of  these  he  had  not  even  a 
trace.  There  was  no  racial  affinity  between  him  and  them. 
He  was  far  less  like  O'Connell  than  even  Mr.  Gladstone.  The 
great  Englishman  inherited  a  Scottish  kinship  with  the  Irish 
nation  through  his  maternal  ancestors,  and  had  some  traits 
of  character  more  Celtic  than  Saxon.  Mr.  Parnell  was  bom 
in  Ireland.  Beyond  this  and  his  descent  from  English 
ancestors  of  the  Pale,  there  was  nothing  in  habits,  tempera- 
ment, or  individuality  that  would  establish  relationship  be- 
tween him  and  those  whose  boundless  confidence  he  had 
won,  except  in  the  common  purpose  of  the  national  move- 
ment which  he  led. 

He  was  a  Protestant,  leading  a  nation  chiefly  Catholic;  a 
landlord,  commanding  tenants  in  a  war  against  his  own  class; 
a  cold,  reserved  man,  at  the  head  of  one  of  the  most  warm- 
hearted and  impulsive  of  races;  a  sober,  unemotional  speaker, 
who  never  quoted  an  Irish  poet  but  once,  and  did  it  wrong,  in 
a  country  remarkable  for  passion  and  ornate  oratory;  a 
public  man  and  leader  who  treated  his  party  with  icy  aloofness 
for  years,  who  lived  away  from  Ireland  most  of  his  time; 
and  who  appeared  in  his  conduct  towards  the  Irish  people 
to  be  absolutely  unconcerned  as  to  what  they  thought  of  him 
until  the  personal  issue  involved  in  the  unhappy  event  of 
1890  roused  him  into  a  fierce  contest  with  those  who  ques- 
tioned his  right  to  lead  only  when  the  leadership  headed 
directly  for  disaster. 

He  was  unlike  all  the  leaders  who  had  preceded  him  in  his 
accomplishments,  traits  of  character,  and  personal  idiosyn- 
crasies. He  had  neither  wit  nor  humor,  eloquence  or  the 
passion  of  conviction,  academical  distinction  of  any  kind, 
scholarship  or  profession,  Irish  accent,  appearance,  or 
mannerism.  In  fact,  he  was  a  paradox  in  Irish  leadership, 
and  will  stand  unique  in  his  niche  in  Irish  history  as  bearing 
no  resemblance  of  any  kind  to  those  who  handed  down  to 
his  time  the  fight  for  Irish  nationhood. 

What,  then,  was  the  secret  of  his  immense  influence  and 

popularity?     He   was   above   and   before   everything  else   a 

_-    splendid  fighter.     He  had  attacked  and  beaten  the  enemies 

of  Ireland  in  the  citadel  of  their  power — the  British  Parliament. 

\     It  was  here  where  he  loomed  great  and  powerful  in  Irish 

"^    imagination.     As  Wendell  Phillips  put  it   on   one   occasion, 

Parnell  was  the  Irishman  who  had  compelled  John  Bull  to 

listen  to  what  he  in  behalf  of  Ireland  had  to  say  in  the  House 

of  Commons;  and  the  personal  force  which  had  done  this,  and 

had  flung  the  Irish  question  and  representatives  across  the 

652 


? 


DEATH    OF    PARNELL 

plans  and  purposes  of  English  parties,  in  a  battle  for  the 
Irish  people,  appealed  instinctively  to  the  admiration  of  those 
in  whose  name  this  work  was  accomplished. 

He  was  fortunate,  too,  in  being  heir  to  the  ripenmg  fruits 
of  his  predecessors'  labors  —  the  Daniel  O'Connells,  Fintan 
Lalors,  Gavan  Duffys,  James  Stephenses,  and  Isaac  Butts,  who 
had  sown  the  seed  in  less  propitious  days  and  under  darker 
skies.  The  popular  mind  is  not  historic  in  its  judgments,  nor 
inclined  to  portion  out  its  awards  in  equitable  measurement 
to  just  desert.  The  founder  of  Home  Rule,  and  the  little  Bel- 
fast pork-butcher  who  planned  unparliamentary  obstruction, 
were  forgotten  in  the  public  memory  as  Mr.  Parnell  became 
prominently  identified  with  weapons  of  political  warfare  he 
could  use  more  damagingly  against  the  opponents  of  the 
Irish  cause  than  those  who  had  forged  what  his  limited 
organizing  capacity  or  constructive  skill  could  not  have 
created. 

He  had  an  essentially  strong  but  not  a  broad  or  com- 
prehensive mind.  It  was  slow  in  grasping  all  the  bearings 
of  a  problem,  or  in  seizing  upon  the  chances  or  dangers  of  a 
situation,  but  once  it  caught  hold  its  power  of  concentrated 
application  to  the  task  before  it  made  him  a  match  for  greater 
intellects  within  the  sphere  in  which  the  issue  was  to  be  de- 
cided. He  had  a  will  of  adamant,  nourished  more  by  a  measure- 
less pride  than  by  any  dominating  conviction  or  faith,  and,  as  he 
was  a  political  paradox  in  most  respects,  the  same  characteristic 
distinguished  him  in  making  the  strongest  trait  of  his  per- 
sonality the  secret  of  his  weakness  and  the  cause  of  his  fall. 

The  commonest  act  of  human  prudence  and  most  ele- 
mentary knowledge  of  men  would  have  safely  guided  a  less 
proud  and  less  self-centred  man  through  the  wretched  divorce 
calamity.  It  was  the  weakest  of  the  human  passions  that  had 
invited  the  peril.  Yet,  instead  of  seeking  guidance  or  counsel 
from  worldly  wisdom  or  ordinary  prudence,  as  all  other  men 
would  do  in  like  situations,  a  morbid  pride  rejected  all  the 
promptings  of  common-sense.  He  scorned  the  friendly 
advice  of  truer  friends  than  those  associated  with  his  error,  in 
order  to  repel  the  attempt  to  invade  the,  to  him,  inviolable 
right  to  exercise  his  own  indisputable  will  in  what  he  blindly 
persisted  in  believing  concerned  him  alone,  independent  of 
his  position,  duties,  and  responsibilities  as  the  leader  of  a 
nation. 

In  the  earlier  period  of  his  public  career  he  confronted 
political  foes  and  dangerous  situations  with  the  loyal  help  of 
unselfish  comrades.  He  sought  both  for  advice  and  sugges- 
tion in  emergencies  which  called  for  counsel  and  the  mutual 

653 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

confidence  of  leader  and  lieutenants.  Where  he  departed 
from  this  practice  the  results  showed  an  infirmity  of  judg- 
ment and  a  lack  of  moral  courage  which  in  the  end  terminated 
what  promised  atone  time  to  be  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
careers  of  the  nineteenth  century.  The  Kilmainham  treaty, 
the  Galway  election,  and  the  resolve  to  face  the  divorce-court 
storm  as  if  nothing  had  happened  in  the  world  of  public 
opinion,  were  individual  actions  taken  in  contemptuous  in- 
difference to  the  views  or  feelings  of  the  party  of  which  he 
was  the  elected  and  not  the  autocratic  chairman. 

These  were,  however,  the  events  in  his  career  in  which  the 
secret  of  his  personal  relations  with  a  married  lady  called 
into  play  all  that  is  weak,  defective,  and  morally  unsound  in 
a  leader  to  whom  the  world  was  paying  the  homage  of  its 
admiration.  Here  historic  judgment  will  follow  that  of 
human  leniency  in  weighing  this  blot  in  his  record  against 
"the  timid  tear  in  Cleopatra's  eye,"  which  may,  possibly 
have  been  solely  responsible  for  the  final  frailty  of  the  man 
j         with  the  iron  purpose  of  earlier  years. 

I  A  franker  intercourse  with  men,  more  of  comradeship  with 

^  the  members  of  his  party,  would  have  repaired  the  defect 
in  his  personal  equipment  for  wiser  leadership.  He  lacked 
the  lesson  that  should  teach  the  essential  fact  for  all  great 
political  chiefs  to  learn — that  no  matter  how  famous  a  head 
of  a  party  may  become,  there  are  times  and  emergencies  when 
the  safest  form  of  leadership  is  to  follow  and  not  to  lead. 
Both  Napoleon  and  Hannibal  had  to  employ  guides  when 
crossing  the  Alps.  Parnell  could  not,  or  would  not,  see  that 
the  leadership  of  a  political  party  is  unlike  a  military  com- 
mand over  a  militia  company,  with  no  will  but  that  of  the 
officer  they  are  bound  to  obey.  Men  with  representative  re- 
sponsibilities, and  often  with  capacities  and  records  demand- 
ing as  a  right  to  share  in  tlie  councils  which  shape  policies  or 
frame  programmes,  are  not  to  be  treated  as  if  they  were 
automatons  without  rights,  feeling,  or  authority.  In  this 
respect,  however,  there  is  no  more  to  be  said  against  Parnell's 
want  of  this  consideration  for  colleagues  than  against  the  too 
complaisant  subserviency  with  which  the  Irish  people  as  a 
rule  spoil  their  leaders  before  giving  them  a  monster  funeral 
demonstration.  They  must  share  with  the  defects  in  his 
character  some  of  the  responsibility  for  the  error  that  took 
him  in  the  prime  of  life  and  midway  in  a  great  career  from 
the  headship  of  their  cause. 

Joseph  Biggar  once  startled  his  hearers  by  asking  a  question, 
in  his  peculiar  way  of  expressing  an  opinion: 
7f\  "I  wonder  what  Parnell's  politics  are?" 

654 


DEATH    OF    PARNELL 

The  obvious  reply  was  that  it  was  not  his  politics  but  his 
personality  that  had  triumphed  in  a  movement  which  was 
semi-revolutionary.  Isaac  Butt's  politics  would  have  offered 
no  riddle  to  Biggar  to  solve.  They  were  as  well  defined  in  his 
speeches  and  labors  as  were  those  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  Pamell's 
prestige  and  triumphs  sprang  from  a  unique  kind  of  blended 
character,  endowed  with  a  magnetic  power  which  made  him 
more  formidable  than  mental  culture  or  oratorical  abilities 
could  do.  He  derived  nothing  from  the  profession  of  political 
opinions,  but  everything  from  an  insurrection  of  social  forces 
led  by  him  in  revolt  against  a  system  which  was  the  very 
basis  of  English  government  in  Ireland,  and  of  aristocratic 
and  class  privilege  in  England — land  monopoly.  The  Eng- 
lish classes  looked  at  him  as  a  desperate  revolutionist — 
which,  unfortunately,  he  was  not — because  he  had  the  courage 
and  capacity  to  strike  at  what  was  the  weakest  point  in  the 
foreign  rule  of  his  country,  and  also  at  the  very  foundations 
of  England's  own  supremacy — the  House  of  Commons  and 
the  land-owning  power  of  those  who  filled  and  owned  the 
House  of  Lords.  Political  opinions  had  little  or  nothing  to 
do  with  Pamell's  work  in  the  days  when  he  won  his  fame. 
He  was  armed  with  a  reformer's  crow-bar  and  not  with  a 
politician's  note-book.  His  work  was  to  undermine  and  pull 
down  what  had  been  chiefly  responsible  for  Ireland's  op- 
pression, and  the  opinions  he  may  have  held  or  expressed  in 
these  times  are  only  interesting  now  as  a  kind  of  political 
obiter  dicta  associated  with  a  historic  name. 

He  probably  never  had  a  definite  conviction  on  either  the 
system  of  land  laws  best  suited  to  Ireland  or  the  kind  of 
national  self-government  that  would  be  best  adapted  to  the 
salvation  of  the  country.  His  views  comprehended  clearly 
the  abolition  of  landlordism  and  the  clearing  away  of  Dublin 
Castle.  These  reforms  effected,  he  was  more  or  less  indif- 
ferent as  to  whether  the  Irish  farmer  became  an  occupying 
proprietor  or  a  tenant  with  security  of  tenure,  at  a  reduced 
rent,  under  an  Irish  national  state.  I  believe  he  would 
prefer  this  more  nationalist  solution  of  the  agrarian  problem, 
but  he  would  not  divide  a  party  on  such  an  issue. 

On  the  question  of  national  self-government  he  had  no 
preference  for  rival  plans.  He  was  an  avowed  Federal  Home- 
Ruler  under  Isaac  Butt.  "Grattan's  Parliament"  attracted 
his  mind  for  a  time  afterwards.  Then  he  was  willing  to 
accept  Mr.  Chamberlain's  "central  board,"  in  1884  —  as  an 
instalment,  of  course.  Mr.  Gladstone's  "legislative  as- 
sembly," with  its  one  chamber  and  two  orders,  obtained  his 
approval,  but  only  in  common  with  that  of  liis  chief  lieu- 

655 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

tenants,  in  1886.  Subsequently  he  agreed  to  a  modification 
of  the  Gladstone  scheme  in  his  famous  interview  with  the 
Liberal  leader,  at  Hawarden,  in  1889.  In  the  "split"  he  fell 
back  in  a  fighting  factionist  policy  upon  the  Grattan  constitu- 
tion of  1782. 

Speaking  at  a  labor  conference  in  Dublin,  on  March  13, 
1 89 1,  he  declared  himself  as  follows  on  the  land  question: 

"As  regards  the  remaining  points  in  your  programme,  in- 
cluding the  question  of  the  nationalization  of  the  land,  and 
the  immediate  advocacy  of  taxation  of  all  unoccupied  and 
untilled  lands,  including  grazing  lands,  I  have  always  be- 
lieved in  the  principle  of  the  nationalization  of  the  land  as 
being  the  correct  one;  but  I  have  not  believed  in  the  crude 
theories  which  have  been  put  forward  by  certain  persons  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  out  that  principle.  I  think  it  per- 
fectly right  that  taxation  should  be  taken  off  food  and  other 
things  and  thrown  upon  the  land,  perfectly  right,  and  I  shall 
always  support  legislation  in  that  direction.  That  is  what 
the  object  which  is  called  nationalization  of  the  land  pro- 
poses to  effect.  With  that  object  I  am  in  thorough  sym- 
pathy; and  I  should  hope  that  the  numerous  tenant-farmers 
who  will  in  all  probability  become  owners  of  their  farms 
within  the  next  few  years  under  the  present  land-purchase 
bill  of  the  government  will  bear  in  mind  that  the  course  of 
future  legislation  will  tend  very  much  to  take  the  burden  of 
taxation  off  the  producers  and  to  throw  it  upon  the  land,  and 
in  making  bargains  with  their  present  landlords  they  ought 
to  remember  that  the  taxation  on  the  land  for  the  purpose  of 
education,  for  the  purpose  of  promoting  the  industrial  re- 
sources of  Ireland,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  working  classes,  is 
bound  to  be  materially  increased  in  the  future,  and  that  they 
should  leave  a  very  wide  margin  for  themselves  in  the  making 
of  those  bargains,  so  that  tliey  may  be  sure  that  when  they 
have  become  the  owners  or  future  occupying  owners  they  may 
be  able  to  do  their  duty  to  the  landless  rnasses  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen  who  have  stood  so  gallantly  and  valiantly  by 
them  in  the  struggle  for  their  hearths  and  homes."  ^ 

Addressing  a  meeting  in  Navan  on  May  4,  1880,  he  spoke  in 
these  terms: 

"  We  went  down  to  Mayo  and  we  preached  the  eternal  truth 
— the  truth  which  one  day  or  other  v/ill  be  recognized  through- 
out the  length  and  breadth  of  Ireland,  England,  and  Scot- 
land— that  the  land  of  a  country,  the  air  of  a  country,  the 
water  of  a  country,  belongs  to  no  man.     They  were  not  made 

*  Dublin  Press,  March   14,   1S91. 
656 


DEATH    OF    PAR NELL 

by  any  man,  and  they  belong  to  all  the  human  race.  We 
believe  that  fixity  of  tenure  means  fixity  of  landlordism 
fixity  of  degradation;  and  that  if  the  people  of  Ireland  really 
desire  to  settle  the  land  question,  that  they  must  strike  at 
the  root  of  the  evil — the  system  of  landlordism  under  which 
the  land  of  Ireland  was  first  confiscated  and  robbed  from 
its  original  holders."^ 

In  between  these  two  periods  he  declared  for  a  peasant  pro- 
prietary, in  preference  to  the  broader  national  settlement,  but 
probably  did  this  as  an  opportunist  policy,  in  face  of  the  fact 
that  the  farmers  and  priests  were  more  favorable  to  the  less 
radical  plan  of  settlement. 

Mr.  Gladstone  diagnosed  Mr.  Parnell's  political  character 
and  purpose  clearly  during  and  after  the  events  of  1885-86. 
He  recognized  in  him  a  man  of  great  practical  capacity, 
with  conservative  tendencies  scarcely  hidden  behind  the 
controlling  head  of  a  semi-revolutionary  agitation.  He  knew 
that  a  successful  reformer  would  be  the  likeliest  personal  in- 
fluence to  accept  the  responsibility  of  guiding  and  directing 
the  forces  he  had  led  in  the  revolt  against  Dublin  Castle  and 
landlordism,  when  once  a  rational  concession  of  alternatives 
to  these  systems  would  appeal  to  his  sense  of  patriotic  states- 
manship. No  one  more  sincerely  regretted  Mr. Parnell's  fall 
than  Mr.  Gladstone.  "  An  invaluable  man,"  was  his  summary 
of  the  power  and  potential  qualities  of  his  one-time  ally. 
Not  so  Lord  Salisbury.  He  took  The  Times  estimate  of  the 
great  Irishman,  and  persuaded  himself  that  he  was  a  rev- 
olutionist, a  radical,  and  an  incarnate  enemy  of  the  English 
connection.  This  was  the  judgment  of  prejudice,  and  not 
the  true  estimate  of  either  a  penetrating  or  generous  mind. 
It  was  an  absurdly  wrong  view,  but  it  beat  back  the  mo- 
mentary rational  purpose  of  the  Newport  speech  in  1885, 
and  finally  decided  the  leader  of  the  Tory  party  to  fight 
Mr.  Parnell  and  Home  Rule  with  the  aid  of  The  Times 
and  Pigott,  and  all  the  resources  of  unscrupulous  party 
warfare. 

Parnell  was  a  man  of  strong  personal  dislikes.  He  would 
forgive  anything  in  a  colleague  or  an  opponent  but  a  sin 
against  or  a  slight  of  himself.  This  was  unpardonable.  His 
judgment  of  men  was  as  defective  as  his  confidence  in  them 
was  governed  by  a  morbid  suspicion.  These  traits  in  his 
character  grew  into  prominence  in  the  later  period  of  his 
career.  They  were  due  in  all  probability  to  the  habits  of  decep- 
tion and  subterfuge  to  which  he  was  driven  by  the  necessity 

*  Freeman' s  Jourytal,  May  5,  1880. 
42  657 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  concealing  his  life  and  relationship  with  the  lady  who  had 
his  will  and  character  in  her  keeping. 

Magnanimity  or  gratitude  he  had  none.  His  mind  had  few 
if  any  generous  impulses,  and  was  barren  of  all  faith  except  a 
boundless  belief  in  himself.  Here  he  possessed  the  fanaticism 
of  the  zealot,  and  made  a  fatalistic  confidence  in  his  own  des- 
tiny the  dominating  idea  of  his  political  career.  He  frequent- 
ly quoted  two  lines  of  Shakespeare  which  inculcated  fidelity 
to  one's  self  as  the  rule  of  existence.  Herein  lay  the  secret 
of  his  pride,  and  the  vulnerable  spot  in  Achilles's  heel.  A 
fanatical  cult  of  one's  own  ego  in  a  public  man  beset  by  temp- 
tations, untempered  by  a  little  human  heresy  borrowed  from 
the  wisdom  of  the  serpent,  if  not  from  any  higher  moral  source, 
is  very  apt  to  beget  infidelity  to  the  nobler  duties  and  obliga- 
tions of  life,  and  thereby  to  injure  or  to  isolate  the  idol  of 
self-worship. 

These  faults  in  the  human  portraiture  of  Parnell  are  but 
like  the  wart  on  Cromwell's  face.  They  not  only  do  not  con- 
ceal his  greatness,  they  attest  it  by  a  testimony  which  would 
damn  smaller  men  to  the  level  of  comparative  mediocrity. 
He  has  left  the  impress  of  his  personality  and  power  in  the 
work  he  has  done,  and  in  the  universal  recognition  that  exists 
of  the  part  he  has  played  in  the  drama  of  Ireland's  struggle 
against  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  world's  empires.  His  fame 
is  a  national  asset  for  Ireland,  and  if  the  lives  and  labors  of 
her  great  men  are  to  be  guides  and  incentives  to  those  who 
are  to  maintain  the  fight  for  Irish  liberty,  the  faults  as  well 
as  the  virtues  of  the  Wolfe  Tones,  O'Connells,  Butts,  Ste- 
phenses,  and  Parnells  must  be  looked  at,  in  charity,  it  is  true, 
but  as  truth  all  the  same. 

The  best  political  history  of  Mr.  Parnell  is  his  own  account 
of  his  life's  work  for  Ireland,  as  given  on  oath  at  the  Parnell 
Commission.  He  is  the  one  leader  among  national  heroes 
who  was  thus  called  upon  to  defend  his  actions  against  a 
powerful  conspiracy  organized  to  destroy  him,  and  no  better 
testimony  to  the  value  of  his  labors  for  the  Irish  people  can 
be  found  than  in  the  dramatic  examination  he  underwent  for 
nearly  a  week  at  the  hands  of  Sir  Charles  Russell  and  Sir 
Richard  Webster.  It  is  a  story  of  a  wonderful  career,  told  by 
the  leader  of  a  race,  and  if  it  is  some  day  taken  from  the  vol- 
umes of  the  special  commission  and  printed  as  if  written  by 
Parnell,  it  will  be  a  unique  history  of  a  great  leader  in  every 
sense  singular  in  his  fame,  character,  record,  trials,  and 
achievements. 

Mrs.  Delia  Tudor  Parnell,  mother  of  Mr.  Parnell,  once  pub- 
lished in  the  American  press  the  following  family  pedigree : 

658 


DEATH    OF    PARK ELL 

Richard  Nevill,  K.G.,  Earl  of  Warwick,  the  King-maker, 
killed  at  Barnet,  147 1, 

Had  issue  Lady  Isabel  Nevill,  died  1476,  who  married 
George  Plantagenet,  K.G.,  Duke  of  Clarence,  who  died  1477, 

Leaving  issue  Lady  Margaret  Plantagenet,  Countess  of 
Salisbury,  beheaded  1541,  who  married  Sir  Richard  Pole, 
K.G., 

Leaving  issue  Henry  Pole,  Lord  Montacute,  beheaded  1549, 
who  married  Lady  Jane  Nevill,  daughter  of  George,  Lord 
Bergavenny, 

Leaving  issue  Hon.  Katherine  Pole,  who  married  Francis 
Hastings,  K.G.,  second  Earl  of  Huntingdon;  died  1561, 

Leaving  issue  Lady  Frances  Hastings,  who  married  Henry 
Compton,  first  Lord  Compton;  died  1589, 

Leaving  issue  Hon.  Margaret  Compton,  who  married  Henry 
Mordaunt,  fourth  Lord  Mordaunt;  died  1603, 

Leaving  issue  John  Mordaunt,  first  Earl  of  Peterborough, 
died  1642,  who  married  Hon.  Elizabeth  Howard,  daughter  of 
William,  Lord  Effmgham, 

Leaving  issue  John  Mordaunt,  Viscount  Mordaunt  of  Ava- 
lon,  died  1675,  who  married  Elizabeth  Carey,  daughter  of 
Hon.  Thomas  Carey  (son  of  Robert,  Earl  of  Monmouth), 

Leaving  issue  Hon.  Sophia  Mordaunt,  who  married  James 
Hamilton,  of  Bangor;  died  1707, 

Leaving  issue  Ann  Hamilton,  who  married  Michael  Ward, 

Leaving  issue  Anne  Ward,  who  married  Sir  John  Parnell, 
Bart. ;  died  1782, 

Leaving  issue  Sir  John  Parnell,  Bart.,  died  1801,  who  mar- 
ried Letitia  Brooke,  who  was  descended  from  Viscount  Mor- 
daunt of  Avalon,  aforesaid,  whose  sister,  the  Hon.  Anne 
Mordaunt,  was  her  great-grandmother. 

Leaving  issue  William  Parnell,  of  Avondale  (Hayes),  died 
182 1,  who  married  Frances  Howard,  daughter  of  Hugh  How- 
ard (son  of  Viscount  Wicklow), 

Leaving  issue  John  Henry  Parnell,  died  1859,  w^ho  married 
Delia  Tudor  Stewart,  daughter  of  Admiral  Charles  Stewart, 

Leaving  issue  Charles  Stewart  Parnell,  of  Avondale,  M.P., 
born  1846. 


CHAPTER  LIV 
THE     NATIONAL     FEDERATION 

What  was  a  melancholy  tragedy  in  Mr.  Pamell  in  the  last 
year  of  his  memorable  life  became  a  pitiable  exhibition  of 
senseless  factionism,  fraught  with  the  most  serious  conse- 
quences to  the  Irish  cause,  when  his  followers  persisted  in 
continuing  the  party  feud  after  his  death.  It  was  backing 
the  one  serious  mistake  of  his  public  life  to  the  injury  of  his 
whole  life's  work.  The  play  of  Hamlet  minus  the  part  of  the 
Prince  of  Denmark  would  be  a  sensible  rendering  of  Shake- 
speare's masterpiece  compared  with  a  Parnellite  faction  with 
the  dead  leader  in  Glasnevin. 

During  the  month  of  March,  previous  to  Mr.  Parnell's 
death,  the  majority  of  what  was  his  party  and  their  follow- 
ers in  the  country  organized  the  National  Federation,  in  lieu 
of  the  National  League.  Mr.  T.  Harrington  and  other  in- 
fluential members  of  the  old  combination  adhered  to  Mr. 
Parnell's  revolt,  and  the  league  became  identified  in  this 
manner  with  the  disruptionists.  The  majority  of  the  or- 
ganization founded  in  October,  1882,  were  ousted  by  the 
minority  from  its  control,  and  as  the  opinion  of  the  country 
was  overwhelmingly  with  those  who  remained  true  to  Par- 
nell's policy,  while  discarding  his  lead,  a  national  convention 
was  summoned  for  the  formation  of  a  new  body. 

The  delegates  assembled  in  the  Antient  Concert  Rooms, 
Dublin,  on  March  10,  1891.  There  were  upward  of  one  thou- 
sand five  hundred  representatives  of  the  nationalist  movement 
present,  including  men  from  over  one  hundred  public  bodies. 
Mr.  Justin  McCarthy  presided,  and  was  supported  by  Messrs. 
Thomas  Sexton,  T.  M.  Healy,  and  more  than  half  of  the  entire 
national  members  of  Parliament.  The  four  Catholic  arch- 
bishops of  Ireland  wrote  letters  approving  of  the  new  organi- 
zation. Messrs.  Dillon  and  O'Brien  were  in  prison,  undergoing 
their  final  sentence  for  a  breach  of  the  Balfour  coercionist 
law — they  having  returned  from  America  to  Ireland,  via  Bou- 
logne, and  surrendered  to  arrest  on  reaching  England,  after 
some  novel  interviews  with  Mr.  Parnell  in  the  French  city. 

660 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

Though  not  present  at  the  convention,  their  support  of  the 
programme  and  poHcy  which  were  submitted  to  the  delegates 
was  assumed  by  the  organizers  of  the  conference. 

This  programme  was  in  the  main  a  repetition  of  that  of  the 
National  League,  and  branches  of  this  latter  body,  on  volun- 
teering to  join  the  federation,  were  only  required  to  change 
the  name  of  the  branch  to  fall  in  with  the  general  scheme  of 
the  new  combination. 

The  officers  elected  to  manage  the  new  body  were:  Mr. 
Justin  McCarthy,  M.P.  (chairman  of  the  Irish  party),  presi- 
dent, with  the  following  as  members  of  the  executive  com- 
mittee— John  Barry, M.P. ;  Thomas  Condon, M.P. ;  John  Deasv, 
M.P.;  Thomas  A.  Dickson,  M.P.;  Timothv  M.  Healy,  M.P'.; 
John  Morrogh,  M.P.;  Wilham  Murphy,  M.P.;  Michael  McCar- 
tan,  M.P.;  Arthur  O'Connor,  M.P.;  Thomas  Sexton,  M.P.; 
David  Sheehy,  M.P.;  Timothy  D.  Sullivan,  M.P.;  Alfred 
Webb,  M.P. ;  Joseph  Mooney,  J.  J.  Kennedy,  Edward  Hughes, 
Belfast;  and  Michael  Davitt,  with  William  O'Brien,  M.P.,  and 
John  Dillon,  M.P.,  in  prison.  John  Deasy,  M.P.,  David 
Sheehy,  M.P.,  Michael  Davitt,  secretaries.  Joseph  Mooney, 
WilUam  M.  Murphy,  M.P.,  Alfred  Webb,  M.P.,  treasurers. 

These  officers  were  to  be  the  government  of  the  federation 
pending  another  convention  to  be  held  before  the  (then) 
coming  general  election,  when  a  national  council,  representa- 
tive of  branches  of  the  organization,  the  Irish  parliamentary 
party,  and  of  other  popular  bodies,  was  to  be  elected. 

A  few  changes  were  made  in  the  above  list  at  subsequent 
conventions,  as  resignations  were  tendered,  or  other  cir- 
cumstances necessitated  the  addition  of  new  names,  but 
with  these  exceptions  the  above  persons,  and  a  dozen  rep- 
resentative men  from  county  and  civic  delegates,  elected 
each  year,  continued  to  be  the  rulers  of  the  federation  down 
to  the  year  1894. 

In  1 89 1  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour  resigned  the  chief  secretary- 
ship of  Ireland  to  succeed  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith  as  leader  of  the 
House  of  Commons;  the  latter  statesman,  who  had  played 
so  sinister  a  part  in  the  Houston-7"nH^5  conspiracy  against 
Pamell,  having  died,  as  already  pointed  out,  on  the  same  day 
as  the  Irish  leader.  Mr.  Balfour's  promotion  to  the  leadership 
of  his  party  in  the  Commons  was  the  result  of  his  success,  as 
viewed  from  an  English  stand-point,  in  his  combat  with  the 
plan  of  campaign  combination.  I  have  already  given  my 
readers  a  brief  account  of  the  events  of  that  contest.  Mr. 
Balfour  was  powerfully  aided  in  the  later  stages  of  his  fight 
by  the  split  in  the  ranks  of  his  opponents.  This  cleavage  was 
alone  responsible  for  the  defeat  of  the  not  too  tactical  struggle 

661 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

over  "New  Tipperary."  Weakened  nationalist  forces  and 
the  consequent  falling  off  of  financial  assistance  rendered  the 
position  of  those  who  conducted  the  "  plan  "  operations  ex- 
ceedingly difficult,  while  the  people  who  had  made  such 
generous  sacrifices  in  the  early  days  of  the  struggle  lost  heart 
on  seeing  their  leaders  at  loggerheads  with  one  another  over 
policies  and  programmes.  It  was  the  "split,"  and  not  the 
Tory  chief  secretary,  that  broke  the  ranks  of  the  "plan" 
forces  and  procured  the  ultimate  failure  of  the  daring  anti- 
rent  scheme  planned  by  Messrs.  Harrington,  Dillon,  and 
O'Brien  in  1886. 

Mr.  Balfour's  success  has  to  be  considered  and  judged  in 
another  light  in  order  that  justice  may  be  done  to  the 
labors  of  his  opponents  as  well  as  to  those  of  his  measures, 
which  were  really  creditable  to  his  statesmanship. 

He  came  to  Ireland  in  18S7  to  carry  out  an  anti-Pamell  and 
anti-Gladstone  policy — in  other  words,  to  fight  the  forces  of 
land  reform  and  of  Home  Rule.  I  have  detailed  the  results  of 
his  vigorous  application  of  coercion.  He  persecuted  and 
imprisoned  upward  of  one  thousand  leaguers,  as  Mr.  Glad- 
stone did  in  18S1-82.  Then,  following  the  example  of  his 
illustrious  political  rival,  he  began  the  work  of  concession  to 
the  very  men  and  forces  he  had  fought  with  policemen  and 
prisons.  The  Land  Act  of  1887  has  been  explained.  The  act 
to  amend  the  Ashbourne  land  -  purchase  law  of  1885  was 
passed  at  his  instance  in  the  session  of  1890.  It  greatly 
enlarged  the  scope  of  the  older  measure,  and  advanced  the 
sum  of  ;ir33,ooo,ooo,  in  the  form  of  state  credit,  to  enable 
holdings  to  be  bought  by  tenant-farmers — that  is,  for  the 
carrying  out  of  the  Land-League  parliamentary  programme 
of  land  reform  of  1880.  Under  the  provisions  of  this  pur- 
chase scheme  tenants  bargained  with  their  landlords  for  the 
purchase  of  their  farms,  offering,  or  accepting,  so  many 
years'  purchase  of  the  annual  rent  as  the  price  of  the  pro- 
prietorship of  the  holding.  When  an  agreement  was  arrived 
at  the  land  commission  inspected  the  farm.  If  this  was 
deemed  to  be  adequate  security  for  the  loan,  the  amount  of 
the  purchase  money,  less  a  percentage  reserved,  was  ad- 
vanced in  land  stock,  carrying  the  value  of  government 
consols  to  the  seller,  the  tenant  contracting  to  pay  four  per 
cent,  on  the  sum  so  advanced  until  the  loan  was  liquidated, 
a  period  of  some  forty-nine  years. 

Some  other  clauses  of  this  act  were  petty  and  absurd. 
They  showed  a  distrust  of  the  Irish  tenant  as  a  purchaser  of 
his  farm  which  no  one  was  more  ready  to  acknowledge  in 
later  years  to  be  altogether  unmerited  than  Mr.  Balfour.     It 

662 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

was  assumed,  in  the  draughting  of  the  bill,  that  tenants  would 
not  loyally  carry  out  their  contracts  when  made  with  the 
land  commission.  It  was  consequently  provided  that  moneys 
advanced  out  of  the  general  taxation  fund  for  purposes  of 
county  government  were  to  be  hypothecated,  as  a  guarantee 
fund,  against  a  repudiation  of  their  obligations  by  the  pur- 
chasers. Not  a  sixpence  of  such  moneys  has  ever  been  re- 
quired to  meet  such  possible  contingencies. 

Mr.  Balfour's  next  measure  was  one  for  which  he  has  been 
deservedly  praised  by  both  friends  and  opponents.  This  was 
the  congested  districts  board  act  of  1891.  The  scheme  thus 
embodied  in  a  law  was  to  be  administered  by  a  body  of 
nominated  members,  not  necessarily  official,  and  more  or  less 
independent  of  Dublin  Castle.  The  chief  secretary,  for  the 
time  being,  was  to  be  the  chairman  of  the  board.  Other 
members,  to  the  number  of  six  or  eight,  comprised  Dr. 
O'Donnell,  Catholic  Bishop  of  Raphoe,  Rev.  D.  O'Hara,  of 
Mayo,  and  the  Hon.  Horace  Plunkett.  No  salaries  are  paid 
to  the  members. 

The  board  had  its  powers  somewhat  extended  in  1896. 
Its  income  has  likewise  been  increased  since  its  original  forma- 
tion. Its  labors  are  confined  to  those  counties  and  districts, 
chiefly  along  the  Western  seaboard,  in  which  there  are  areas 
congested  in  habitations,  generally  adjacent  to  grazing 
ranches  and  huge  tracts  of  land  called  "waste."  These 
labors  comprise  the  enlargement  of  small  holdings,  encour- 
agement of  better  cultivation,  improved  methods  of  sowing 
cereals  and  root  crops,  more  scientific  breeding  of  live-stock 
and  poultry,  and  the  betterment  of  the  cottier  class  generally; 
including  the  promotion  of  cottage  and  similar  industries, 
together  with  the  improvement  of  the  fishing  industry. 

The  comparatively  small  means  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
the  board  are  derived  in  the  form  of  a  permanent  income  from 
the  investment  of  a  capital  sum  of  money  provided  out  of 
an  Irish  fund,  and  from  other  grants  made  by  Parliament  out 
of  Irish  taxes,  as  the  plans  of  the  board  require  such  added 
resources.  Though  opinions  differ  as  to  the  amount  of  good 
done  by  this  body,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  much  benefit 
has  been  conferred  by  its  labors  upon  several  districts  com- 
prised within  the  area  of  its  operations.  It  has  purchased  a 
few  estates  and  carried  out  improvements  upon  the  holdings 
before  reselling  them  to  the  tenants.  The  Lord  Dillon  estate 
in  Roscommon  and  Mayo  counties  was  acquired  (1898)  in  this 
way,  and  the  marked  improvement  that  is  now  seen  (in  1903) 
in  the  homes  and  the  tillage  of  the  small  tenants  on  this 
property  bear  strong  testimony  to  the  excellent  results  of  the 

663 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

board's  efforts.  This  result  causes  much  regret  that  the 
powers  and  income  of  the  board  are  not  adequate  to  the 
carrying  out  of  large  schemes  for  acquiring  Connaught 
grazing  ranches  on  which  to  "plant"  tenants  with  larger 
holdings  and  better  land  than  the  great  majority  of  the 
Western  peasantry  live  upon  at  the  present  time. 

The  power  exercised  by  the  congested  districts  board  is 
that  of  an  enlightened  state  socialism,  and  the  credit  due  to 
the  initiation  of  the  plan  of  operations,  where  its  benevolent 
and  practical  work  was  most  called  for  in  Ireland,  belongs  to 
Mr.  Arthur  Balfour. 

His  next  attempt  to  legislate  for  the  country  was  a  failure. 
He  introduced  an  Irish  local  government  bill  in  the  session  of 
i8g2,  when  leader  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which  was  killed 
by  ridicule.  There  was  a  pretence  to  treat  Ireland  in  the 
matter  of  county  government  as  England  had  been  legislated 
for  in  the  creation  of  similar  local  bodies.  T]ie  measure,  when 
explained  by  its  author,  showed  little  or  nothing  in  common  be- 
tween the  English  and  the  proposed  Irish  system,  except  the 
name  of  the  bill.  Councils  were  to  be  created  for  both  Irish 
counties  and  baronies,  but  they  were  to  be  hedged  round  with 
such  "safeguards,"  "limitations,"  "restrictions,"  and  rights  of 
appeal  to  judges  that  it  looked  as  if  Mr.  Balfour  had  no  very 
serious  intention  of  pressing  the  acceptance  of  his  grotesque 
proposals  upon  the  House  of  Commons. 

One  provision  in  the  measure  suggested  to  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy 
the  idea  of  naming  the  chief  secretary's  plan  "The  Put-'em- 
in-the-Dock  Bill,"  and  the  name  stuck.  On  the  petition  of 
any  twenty  ratepayers  a  whole  council  charged  with  de- 
linquencies could  be  tried  by  two  judges  and  disbanded,  the 
Lord  Lieutenant  having  power  to  nominate  a  body  of  suc- 
cessors independent  of  election.  Other  equally  absurd  feat- 
ures of  the  bill  invited  destructive  criticism,  and  it  was 
dropped  on  the  eve  of  the  next  general  election. 

This,  then,  was  the  whole  extent  of  Mr.  Balfour's  victory. 
The  men  he  had  imprisoned  remained  in  the  movement 
against  which  he  had  pitted  all  the  forces  of  coercion.  He 
conceded  a  land-purchase  bill,  a  congested  districts  board  bill, 
and  a  measure  for  the  construction  of  light  railways  in  Mayo 
and  Donegal,  and  resigned.  But  the  national  organization 
for  land  reform  and  for  the  ending  of  Dublin-Castle  rule  con- 
tinued its  labors,  as  in  all  the  years  since  1879,  dominated  the 
political  life  of  the  country,  as  heretofore,  and  succeeded  in 
returning  practically  the  same  number  of  nationalist  mem- 
bers (counting  Parnellites)  as  on  each  preceding  appeal  to  the 
electors  of  the  country.     There  was  a  victory  gained  in  the 

664 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

four  years  of  Mr.  Balfour's  Irish  chief- secretaryship,  but  it 
rested  with  the  movement  he  had  failed  to  put  down,  and 
which  compelled  his  government  to  pass  the  measures  re- 
ferred to  for  the  benefit  of  the  country. 

The  National  Federation  was  bom  in  a  storm,  and  its  life 
was  in  every  sense  in  keeping  with  its  birth.  It  had  to  fight 
the  general  battle  of  the  national  movement,  on  the  lines  of 
preceding  combinations,  against  the  opposing  forces  of  land- 
lordism and  Dublin  Castle,  while  being  constantly  assailed 
from  behind  by  the  Parnellite  faction  and  their  many  allies. 
Internal  troubles  also  added  to  its  difficulties,  and  its  power 
of  advancing  the  interests  of  the  cause  was,  indeed,  greatly 
handicapped.  But  the  loyal  support  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  was  not  withheld,  despite  the  many  discouragements 
which  appealed  to  popular  apathy.  Funds  were  well  sub- 
scribed, and  the  federation  entered  the  arena  of  the  general 
election  at  the  end  of  June,  1892,  well  equipped  for  the  con^ 
tests  which  were  to  be  fought  out  against  the  landlord  and 
Unionist  party,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  rebellious  nationalist 
minority,  under  Mr.  John  Redmond's  lead,  on  the  other. 

The  result  of  the  elections  in  Ireland  was  most  decisive 
against  the  dissenting  minority,  there  being  seventy -two 
nationalists  elected  as  against  nine  Parnellites.  The  ver- 
dict of  the  country  was  thus  eight  to  one  in  support  of  the 
policy  and  platform  that  had  held  the  field  against  all  oppo- 
nents since  1880,  but  the  nine  gentlemen  who  were  returned 
in  opposition  declined  to  abide  by  a  national  judgment  so 
emphatic  against  their  side. 

In  Great  Britain  the  elections  were  disappointing  to  Home- 
Rule  hopes.  This  was  due  entirely  to  the  rupture  in  the 
Irish  ranks  and  the  reaction  in  popular  sympathy  with  Mr. 
Gladstone's  policy  which  followed  the  unhappy  episode  in 
Mr.  Parnell's  brilliant  career,  with  all  the  attendant  recrimina- 
tions and  calumnies  of  the  heart-breaking  contest  he  waged 
against  his  previous  programme  of  1886-90.  Had  this  break 
with  the  British  Liberals  not  occurred,  a  majority  strong 
enough  to  confront  and  defeat  the  opposition  of  the  House 
of  Lords  would  surely  have  been  obtained  in  this  the  last 
electoral  campaign  of  the  great  Liberal  leader's  political 
life. 

The  figures  for  Great  Britain  were:  Gladstonians,  270; 
Tories,  268;  Liberal-Unionists,  47;  with  four  labor  members, 
and  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  elected  again  for  a  Liverpool  division. 
Counting  the  Tories  and  Liberal-Unionists  as  one  party  op- 
posed to  Home  Rule,  the  British  constituencies  had  elected 
a  majority  of   17   against   Mr.   Gladstone.      In   England  the 

665 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

majority  was  71.  In  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  combined 
there  was  a  majority  of  40,  afterwards  increased  by  2,  in  sup- 
port of  the  proposed  creation  of  a  Home-Rule  legislature.  It 
was  a  majority  composed  exclusively  of  Irish  nationalists, 
and  though  this  fact  should  not  in  reason  or  fair  play  tell 
against  a  decision  given  by  the  combined  electorate  of  what 
was  known  as  "The  United  Kingdom,"  it  was  a  fact  fatal  to 
the  chances  of  a  Home-Rule  bill  being  agreed  to  by  the  packed 
assembly  of  the  House  of  Lords. 

Lord  Salisbury  pretended  to  see  in  the  decision  of  the  elec- 
tors no  reason  why  he  should  quit  office,  and  he  therefore  met 
the  new  Parliament  with  his  defeated  administration  early  in 
August.  A  vote  of  no  confidence  in  his  government  was  car- 
ried in  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  debate  on  the  Queen's 
speech,  by  a  majority  of  forty — an  Irish  majority — when  he 
was  compelled  to  resign.  Mr.  Gladstone  forthwith  assumed 
office,  formed  a  ministry,  and  adjourned  the  newly  elected 
Parliament  until  February,  1893. 

Mr.  John  Morley  was  again  made  chief  secretary  for  Ireland. 
He  took  up  the  duties  of  an  office  which  seldom  or  ever  bring 
political  happiness  in  their  discharge  to  the  hapless  incum- 
bent, whether  borne  for  or  against  the  national  feeling  of  the 
Irish  people.  He  was  and  always  will  be  the  soul  of  party 
chivalry,  an  exemplar  of  all  the  virtues  that  are  humanly  pos- 
sible in  political  strife ;  a  man  of  the  most  conspicuous  public 
rectitude  and  of  unbending  consistency.  He  would  be  the 
kind  of  Englishman  suited  to  the  re<|uirements  of  an  Irish 
government  had  the  country  still  remained  an  island  of  saints, 
with  no  landlords,  Orangemen,  or  other  troublesome  people 
to  belie  this  modest,  angelic  character  of  a  sinless  land,  and  to 
suggest  quite  an  opposite  degree  of  insular  imperfection. 
Being  a  Home-Ruler,  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  act  as  if  the  enemies 
of  Home  Rule  had  all  the  special  claims  to  his  considerate 
forbearance.  To  show  his  far-reaching  sympathy  with  the 
tenants,  he  appointed  a  commission  to  report  upon  the  work- 
ing of  the  land  acts,  and  put  the  chief  burden  of  the  investi- 
gation upon  the  innocent  shoulders  of  an  English  Catholic 
judge  who  had  done  nothing  to  merit  this  brief  anticipation 
of  purgatory  at  the  hands  of  his  friends. 

An  address  to  the  friends  of  Ireland  abroad  was  issued  by 
the  committee  of  the  Irish  party  in  February,  1893,  and 
signed  by  Messrs.  Justin  McCarthy,  Thomas  Sexton,  John 
Dillon,  Edward  Blake,  T.  M.  Healy,  William  O'Brien,  Arthur 
O'Connor,  T.  P.  O'Connor,  and  Michael  Davitt.  It  gave 
the  Irish  view  of  Mr.  Gladstone's  second  Home -Rule  bill, 
and  this  estimate  of  the  revised  scheme   of  1886  will  give 

666 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

my    readers    the    echo    of    an    appreciative    contemporary 
opinion : 

"We  have  reached  a  most  crucial  moment  in  the  history  of 
ihd's  long  struggle  for  her  rights.  The  prime-minister  of 
England,  the  leader  of  the  government  and  of  the  party  which 
rule  the  British  Empire,  has  brought  in  a  Home-Rule  bill  which 
forms  as  a  whole  a  broad,  solid,  and  enduring  plan  of  national 
self-government  to  Ireland.  The  bill  offers  to  the  Irish  people 
a  parliament,  practically  free  to  deal  with  all  Ireland's  local 
affairs,  and  an  executive  government  responsible  to  that 
parliament. 

"In  this,  as  in  many  other  respects,  the  settlement  of  1893 
places  Ireland  on  a  higher  national  plane  than  that  of  1886 
— increases  her  place  in  the  governments  of  the  world,  and 
offers  more  solid  guarantees  of  the  honorable  fulfilment  of 
the  great  contract  between  her  and  Great  Britain. 

"  The  representatives  of  Ireland  have  accepted,  without 
hesitation,  the  constitution  proposed  in  this  bill,  as  a  fitting 
consummation  of  the  sacrifices  and  labors  of  the  Irish  race 
for  so  many  centuries,  and  believe  they  could  regard  the 
enactment  of  this  measure  as  a  final  and  triumphant  close 
of  the  long,  bloody,  and  sorrowful  struggle. 

"The  enemies  of  Ireland,  however,  do  not  yet  acknowledge 
that  the  end  is  close  and  assured.  Though  they  knovv'  that 
this  bill  is  certain  to  pass  through  the  House  of  Commons  by 
an  unbroken  majority,  and  that  any  measure  which  secures 
a  majority  in  the  popular  chamber  has  always  ultimately 
passed  into  law,  they  invoke  the  assistance  of  the  House  of 
Lords  in  postponing  the  settlement.  We  cannot,  therefore, 
disregard  the  possibility  of  a  prolonged  and  desperate  cam- 
paign to  wreck  the  Irish  cause  and  to  defeat  Mr.  Gladstone's 
noble  efforts. 

"Confronted  by  enemies,  venomous,  unscrupulous,  and 
with  boundless  wealth,  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  carry  on 
even  the  short  remnant  of  the  struggle  without  the  assistance 
of  our  brethren  and  friends  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  It  is 
only  from  people  of  our  own  blood  and  from  American  and 
Australian  sympathizers  with  our  principles  that  we  have 
asked  or  accepted  assistance.  We  make  this  appeal  to  the 
same  tried  friends  the  more  confidently  on  the  morrow  of 
the  day  when  by  a  vote,  unanimous  and  unchallenged,  the 
House  of  Commons  has  stamped  upon  the  foul  and  calumnious 
charge,  made  by  the  paymasters  of  Pigott,  that  independent 
Irish  nationalists  had  consented  to  become  the  mercenaries 
of  a  British  administration. 

"  In  the  struggle  of  the  last  fourteen  years  almost  the  domi- 

667 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

nant  factor,  next  to  the  courage  and  tenacity  of  our  people 
at  home,  has  been  the  financial  assistance  of  our  kindred  and 
friends  beyond  the  seas. 

"In  1880  America  and  Australia  threw  themselves  into 
the  struggle,  and  from  that  hour  the  national  and  parliamen- 
tary movement  has  never  really  looked  back.  Aided  by 
the  generosity  of  our  people  and  friends  abroad,  the  cause 
at  home  has  found  honest,  faithful,  and  courageous  repre- 
sentatives, not  one  of  whom,  during  all  the  stress  of  thirteen 
years,  has  accepted  pay  or  place  from  the  British  govern- 
ment. These  representatives  fought  and  conquered  coercion; 
fought  and  conquered  forgery;  broke  successive  hostile  ad- 
ministrations, until  at  last  they  find  themselves  the  friends 
and  allies  of  the  greatest  of  British  statesmen  and  the  strong- 
est of  British  parties.  They  ask  that  they  may  be  enabled 
from  the  same  powerful  and  generous  people  to  bring  to  a 
consummation  their  labors  and  their  principles.  Borne  by 
the  generosity  of  their  race  through  the  long  night,  they  ask 
now  for  the  aid  required  for  the  brief  interval  that  still  stands 
between  Ireland  and  her  breaking  day." 

Nothing  that  a  consummate  eloquence  and  an  application 
of  unrivalled  parliamentary  powers  could  do  in  support  of 
his  second  Home-Rule  bill  was  left  unsaid  or  undone  by  Mr. 
Gladstone  during  the  debates  to  persuade  and  convince  the 
public  and  the  House  of  Commons  in  its  favor.  Age  seemed 
to  have  left  him  with  unimpaired  intellectual  power.  But 
it  was  known  inside  and  out  of  Parliament  that  the  House  of 
Lords  would  kill  his  measure.  The  hereditary  enemies  of 
Ireland  were  waiting  only  for  the  opportunity  of  showing 
again  their  quenchless  hatred  of  everything  wearing  the 
garb  of  concession  to  the  Irish  people. 

The  Unionists  carried  obstructive  tactics  against  the  bill 
beyond  all  previous  performances  in  the  Commons.  Every- 
thing to  them  was  fair  which  could  delay  a  division  or  pro- 
long a  debate,  and  so  the  weeks  rolled  on  in  endless  dis- 
cussions. Points  of  order,  movements  for  the  adjournment 
of  the  House,  and  all  the  other  available  methods  of  wasting 
time  were  ostentatiously  resorted  to.  Behind  and  beyond  all 
this  there  stood,  knife  in  hand,  the  House  of  Lords. 

After  eighty-two  sittings  the  third  reading  was  reached,  and 
carried  by  a  vote  of  three  hundred  and  forty  -  seven  in  favor 
as  against  an  opposition  of  three  hundred  and  four;  majority, 
forty-three. 

The  Irish  members  who  most  upheld  the  re]:>utation  of  their 
cause  and  country  for  speaking  ability  during  the  various 
stages  of  the  bill  were  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Con- 

668 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

nor,  Mr.  Edward  Blake,  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  and  Mr.  John 
Dillon.  Mr.  John  Redmond  contributed  a  speech  of  striking 
eloquence  to  the  discussion  on  the  second  reading,  but  did  not 
otherwise  compete  with  the  debating  capacity  of  his  colleagues. 

Mr.  Blake,  who  had  spent  a  political  lifetime  as  a  party 
leader  in  the  Canadian  legislature,  had  been  induced  to  join 
the  Irish  forces  fighting  for  Home  Rule  in  Westminster  in 
1893.  He  was  elected,  unopposed,  for  a  division  of  Longford 
county,  and  readily  responded  to  the  invitation  thus  ten- 
dered to  him  to  bring  his  great  experience  and  ripened 
political  judgment  to  the  service  of  Ireland  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament. 

The  House  of  Lords  threw  out  the  bill  for  the  settlement  of 
the  Anglo  -  Irish  feud  with  a  feeling  of  savage  contempt  for 
its  object  and  author.  Four  hundred  and  nineteen  peers 
against  forty-one  nullified  the  votes  and  voice  of  the  elected 
majority  of  the  people's  representatives,  and,  because  the 
bill  was  for  the  benefit  and  appeasement  of  Ireland,  English 
public  opinion  readily  acquiesced  in  this  insulting  defiance 
of  the  electoral  will  of  the  alleged  "United"  Kingdom. 

For  the  remaining  life  of  this  Parliament  the  Irish  forces  at 
Westminster  fulfilled  the  task  of  keeping  the  Liberal  govern- 
ment in  power  and  in  helping  it  to  pass  progressive  measures 
for  the  English  masses.  The  English  parish  councils  bill, 
with  its  excellent  provisions  for  rural  local  government  and 
powers  to  obtain  land  for  agricultural  laborers,  owes  its 
existence  as  a  law  to  the  loyal  support  of  Ireland's  repre- 
sentatives. This  measure  had,  however,  been  mutilated  by 
the  legislative  thugs  of  the  landlord  chamber,  and  this  out- 
rage, following  close  upon  that  of  killing  his  bill  for  the 
settlement  of  the  Anglo-Irish  question,  caused  Mr.  Gladstone 
to  press  his  colleagues  in  the  ministry  for  a  dissolution  in 
order  to  fight  out  this  question  of  class  obstruction  before 
the  people.  His  proposal  was  not  accepted.  Younger  but 
less  courageous  and  less  combative  politicians  shrank  from 
this  democratic  contest  against  the  enemies  of  popular  liberty, 
and  this  virtually  ended  Mr.  Gladstone's  political  career. 
He  resigned  during  the  session  of  1894,  and  was  succeeded  by 
Lord  Rosebery.  A  great  giant's  armor  fell,  as  if  in  an  act 
of  cruel  mockery,  on  the  shoulders  of  a  very  small  dwarf. 

The  immediate  cause  of  his  retirement  was  a  disagreement 
with  a  majority  of  the  cabinet  on  a  scheme  of  naval  ex- 
penditure to  which  he  held  strong  objection.  But  this  was, 
in  all  probability,  a  result  of  the  opposition  of  the  same 
parties  to  his  previous  proposal  to  fight  the  lords  upon  the 
issue   of   obstructing  the   people's   declared   will   in   support 

669 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

of  measures  of  popular  liberty.  The  great  English  tribune 
had  wished  to  fittingly  terminate  his  career  in  a  battle  against 
the  enemies  of  the  Irish  and  English  democracies,  and  the 
peers  within  his  own  cabinet  had  thwarted  that  great  purpose. 
His  subsequent  withdrawal  from  the  leadership  of  the  party 
was  a  consequential  act.  His  last  utterance  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  which  was  one  of  the  most  eloquent  he  ever 
delivered,  was  an  attack,  in  the  form  of  a  stern  warning, 
on  that  assembly  of  insolent  privilege.  Had  he  been  ten 
years  younger  he  would  have  finally  curbed  its  power  for 
evil. 

It  transpires  from  what  Mr.  Morley  discloses  in  his  book  that 
Lord  Rosebery  was  sent  for  by  Queen  Victoria,  not  on  Glad- 
stone's suggestion,  but  independent  of  it.  He  would  have  ad- 
vised the  selection  of  Lord  Spencer  as  his  successor  had  he 
been  treated  in  this  matter  with  ordinary  royal  respect  and 
constitutional  practice.  This  insult  to  his  position  and  years 
of  public  service  was  earned  by  his  friendship  for  Ireland. 
The  royal  favor  for  Lord  Rosebery  did  not  have  long  to 
wait  for  a  justification  of  its  unwisdom.  The  giant's  armor 
weighed  down  to  the  ground  the  unstaple  personality  of  the 
Lord  of  Dalmeny,  who  succeeded  in  his  short  premiership  in 
justifying  all  the  predictions  of  his  party  opponents  by  dis- 
appointing all  the  hopes  of  his  political  friends. 

Mr.  John  Morley  gives  a  touching  account  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone's last  cabinet  meeting,  and  of  his  farewell  to  his  col- 
leagues after  sixty-two  years  of  public  life  and  his  record  of 
four  premierships :  ^ 

"Mr.  Gladstone  sat  composed  and  still  as  marble,  and  the 
emotion  of  the  cabinet  did  not  gain  him  for  an  instant.  He 
followed  the  '  words  of  acknowledgment  and  farewell '  in  a 
little  speech  of  four  or  five  minutes,  his  voice  unbroken  and 
serene,  the  tone  low,  grave,  and  steady.  He  was  glad  to 
think  that  notwithstanding  differences  upon  a  public  ques- 
tion, private  friendships  would  remain  unaltered  and  un- 
impaired. Then,  hardly  above  a  breath,  but  every  accent 
heard,  he  said,  'God  bless  you  all.'  He  rose  slowly  and  went 
out  of  one  door,  while  his  colleagues,  with  minds  oppressed, 
filed  out  by  the  other.  In  his  diary  he  enters — 'A  really 
moving  scene.' " 

He  was  the  greatest  statesman  England  ever  produced,  and 
were  it  not  for  the  unhapp}^  fault  of  a  great  Irishman,  he 
would  have  succeeded  in  his  resolve  to  restore  to  Ireland 
the   remedy   for   all   her  wrongs   and   suffering — a  national 

^  Life  of  Gladstone,  vol.  iii.,  p.  511, 
670 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

legislature.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  carrying  through  the 
British  House  of  Commons  a  Home -Rule  constitution  for 
Ireland,  and  this  service,  along  with  his  great  Land  Act  of 
1 88 1,  will  ever  be  gratefully  remembered  to  his  credit  and 
honor  by  the  Irish  race. 

Early  in  the  session  of  1894  an  unprecedented  event  hap- 
pened in  connection  with  a  land  bill  introduced  by  an  Irish 
party.  Mr.  Kilbride  had  been  successful  in  balloting  for  a 
date  for  this  bill.  In  behalf  of  his  colleagues  he  proposed  to 
amend,  on  radical  lines,  the  main  defects  in  the  land  acts 
passed  into  law  since  1881.  An  amendment  to  a  subsidiary 
motion  having  been  defeated  by  a  large  majority,  the  second 
reading  of  the  Irish  'party's  bill  was  carried  without  a  division. 
It  was  a  significant  proof  of  the  advance  which  Irish  ideas 
of  land  reform  were  registering  in  Parliament,  and  of  the 
fading  power  and  influence  of  the  Irish  landlords  in  that 
assembly.  So  much  were  the  Tory  party  afraid  of  losing  the 
support  of  Ulster  tenant  farmers,  by  opposing  this  national- 
ist measure,  that  they  abstained  from  challenging  the  assent 
of  the  House  of  Commons  to  a  further  acceptance  of  Land- 
League  principles  of  land  tenure. 

Mr.  Morley  proposed  and  carried  a  motion  to  have  a  select 
committee  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  working  of  the  land 
acts,  with  a  view  to  such  legislation  as  might  be  shown  to  be 
needed  in  the  way  of  amendment.  As  is  usual  in  the  creation 
of  all  such  bodies,  parties  were  represented  on  the  commit- 
tee in  equitable  proportion.  The  pro-landlord  section  ob- 
structed the  business  of  the  inquiry,  and  succeeded  in  limiting 
the  investigation  to  a  narrower  area  of  experience  than  Mr. 
Morley  desired.  The  results  of  the  committee's  labors, 
however,  upheld  the  criticism  and  contention  of  the  Irish 
party,  that  the  existing  land  laws  required  additional  safe- 
guards to  tenants'  interests,  protection  against  the  renting 
of  improvements  in  fixing  judicial  rents,  a  shortening  of  the 
statutory  lease  from  fifteen  to  ten  years,  and  a  reform  in 
the  machinery  of  the  land  commission. 

These  and  other  cognate  reforms  were  included  in  a  land 
bill  which  Mr.  Morley  introduced  in  the  session  of  1895.  The 
measure  did  not  pass.  Its  mention  here  and  the  references 
to  the  character  of  its  proposals  only  serve  the  purpose  of 
denoting  a  landmark  in  the  progress  made  by  the  Irish  land 
question  in  the  parliamentary  arena  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
An  English  chief  secretary  for  Ireland  had  to  submit  a  plan 
of  additional  land  reform  which  proposed  that  all  improve- 
ments found  in  the  inspection  of  a  holding  were  to  be  pre- 
sumed to  be  made  by  the  tenant  in  the  fixing  of  a  fair  rent; 

671 


THE    PALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

there  should  be  no  contracting  out  of  the  law  by  the  tenant ; 
the  statutory  term  was  to  be  shortened ;  evicted  tenants  were 
to  be  reinstated  on  conditions  equitable  all  round;  statutory 
tenancies  which  had  suffered  detriment  under  the  unamended 
law  were  to  be  repaired  into  the  position  of  "future  tenancies," 
and  the  recovery  of  arrears  of  rent  was  to  be  limited  to  a 
period  of  two  years. 

Thus,  the  cause  of  the  tenant  farmer  as  against  that  of  the 
one-time  omnipotent  landlord  was  steadily  and  irresistibly 
making  progress  towards  the  elimination  of  the  latter  from 
the  land-holding  system  of  Ireland. 

In  the  mean  time  the  general  national  movement  was  still 
laboring  against  internal  troubles.  The  Parnellite  friction  was 
contagious  to  a  people  somewhat  prone  to  indulge  in  factious 
contention.  Quarrels  over  the  distribution  of  moneys  known 
as  "The  Paris  Funds"  (a  sum  of  some  ;C4o,ooo  which  was 
banked  in  Paris,  at  the  time  of  the  "split,"  and  was  sub- 
sequently set  apart,  by  the  consent  of  both  parties,  to  meet 
obligations  contracted  before  the  rupture  and  to  relieve 
evicted  tenants)  alternated  with  an  absurd  press  controversy 
over  a  circular  which  had  been  sent,  in  thoughtless  moments, 
to  some  Liberal  politicians,  soliciting  subscriptions  for  the 
funds  of  the  Irish  party.  This  last  cause  of  quarrel  arose  from 
a  wilful  misunderstanding  of  what  was  a  manifest  act  of 
carelessness  on  the  part  of  an  old  veteran  in  the  Irish 
fight. 

Despite  these  wrangles  among  leaders,  the  country  gave  its 
continued  confidence  to  the  policy  of  the  federation.  The 
usual  meetings  in  support  of  the  national  programme  were 
held  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  as  during  previous  years. 
Financial  help  from  abroad  was  not  as  generously  offered 
as  before  the  rupture  in  the  ranks  of  the  Irish  party.  The 
majority  of  our  friends  in  America  had  been  discouraged 
by  the  divisions  that  had  broken  in  upon  the  solid  unity 
of  ten  years,  and  they  awaited  the  return  of  more  fraternal 
feelings  at  home  before  again  contributing  as  in  times  of 
happier  invitation. 

The  veteran  supporter  of  all  good  causes  in  Ireland,  Dr. 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  grandson  of  Robert  Emmet's  brother, 
together  with  other  earnest  co-workers  in  New  York,  formed 
an  auxiliary  National  Federation  in  that  city  which  extended 
to  a  few  other  large  centres.  It  did  not  grow  into  a  powerful 
body,  before  the  reunion  of  the  sundered  ranks  of  the  move- 
ment in  Ireland,  but  its  officers  and  supporters  merit  a  kindly 
mention  in  this  story  for  the  help  they  extended  to  the  parent 
organization  when  it  most  required  assistance. 

672 


THE    NATIONAL    FEDERATION 

Among  those  who  co-operated  with  Dr.  Emmet  in  his  loyal 
labors  were: 

Officers. — Dr.  Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  president;  Eugene 
Kelly,  treasurer;  James  S.  Coleman,  secretary;  Joseph  P. 
Ryan,  assistant  secretary;  John  Byrne,  chairman  board  of 
trustees. 

National  Committee. — William  R.  Grace,  New  York;  Henry 
McAleenan,  New  York;  John  D.  Crimmins,  New  York;  Joseph 
J.  O'Donoghue,  New  York;  E.  D.  Farrell,  New  York;  Hugh 
King,  New  York;  James  A.  O'Gorman,  New  York;  John  W. 
Fahy,  Rochester;  Patrick  Cox,  Rochester;  Joseph  P.  Carbery, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio;  General  M.  Ryan,  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  John 
Sullivan,  Cincinnati,  Ohio;  Luke  Byrne,  Columbus,  Ohio; 
M.  Gannon,  Columbus,  Ohio;  Dominick  Fov,  Boston;  Miles 
M.  O'Brien,  New  York;  Hugh  J.  Grant,  New  York;  Dr.  C.  J. 
McGuire,  New  York;  Eugene  Parker,  New  York;  General 
James  R.  O'Beirne,  New  York;  C.  C.  Shayne,  New  York; 
Dennis  Looney,  New  York;  Peter  McDonnell,  New  York; 
Michael  Fennelly,  New  York;  James  Smith,  New  Jersey;  M. 
B.  Holmes,  New  Jersey;  Robert  Blewitt,  New  Jersey;  Pat- 
rick Dunleavy,  Philadelphia;  Hugh  McCaffrey,  Philadelphia; 
Joseph  Sheehan,  Philadelphia;  Francis  Haggerty,  Philadel- 
phia; Richard  Walsh,  New  York. 

During  1892,  alone,  a  sum  of  over  eight  thousand  pounds 
was  collected  by  Dr.  Emmet  and  his  colleagues ;  six  thousand 
of  this  being  remitted  to  the  national  treasurers  in  Dublin 
by  Mr.  Eugene  Kelly,  and  one  thousand  coming  from  the 
Rev.  Father  Cronin,  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  one  of  the  most 
loyal  and  most  earnest  workers  the  movement  in  Ireland 
had  the  good  fortune  to  find  across  the  Atlantic. 

Canadian  supporters,  however,  were,  in  proportion  to 
numbers,  the  most  helpful  of  the  friends  in  need  that  came 
to  the  financial  assistance  of  the  federation  during  the  in- 
ternal troubles  of  the  nineties.  Each  year,  when  aid  was  most 
required,  their  remittances  came  over  the  ocean  to  cheer  on 
the  good  work  against  the  cruel  odds  with  which  it  was 
contending.  This  doubly  generous,  because  most  opportime,. 
help  was  due  mainly  to  the  great  popularity  of  Mr.  Edward 
Blake  with  all  classes  in  Canada,  and  to  his  own  untiring 
labors  to  yjrovide  the  means  by  which  the  fight  in  Ireland  and 
in  Parliament  could  be  continued  until  returning  political 
reason  among  parliamentaiy  leaders  should  again  unlock 
the  resources  of  general  Irish  assistance  for  the  cause  so 
upheld. 

Nor  did  far-off  Australia  forget  to  give  a  helping  hand  in 
these  days  of  discouragement.     Friends  on  the  island  con- 
43  673 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

tinent,  and  in  New  Zealand  too,  were  generously  mindful  of 
what  the  situation  "  at  home  "  required.  They  sent  their  drafts 
and  cheers  from  the  antipodes  in  the  old  spirit  of  racial 
comradeship,  which  no  oceans  or  continents  can  weaken  while 
a  struggle  for  justice  in  Ireland  has  to  be  made. 


CHAPTER  LV 
THE     IRISH-RACE     CONVENTION 

A  SNATCH  division  on  a  matter  relating  to  "cordite,"  in 
a  discussion  of  the  estimates  in  the  session  of  1895,  caused 
a  defeat  of  the  Liberal  government  and  precipitated  a 
general  election.  The  result  was  a  smashing  defeat  for  the 
Liberals,  under  their  new  leader.  With  the  absence  of  Mr. 
Gladstone's  great  personality  from  the  struggle,  the  Unionists 
scored  an  easy  and  an  emphatic  victory  over  their  not-too- 
harmonious  opponents.  The  example  of  the  Irish  lead- 
ers seemed  to  have  inspired  a  similar  tendency  to  a  rivalry 
of  claims  among  contending  aspirants  for  the  successor- 
ship  to  Mr.  Gladstone.  This  weakness  among  British  allies, 
together  with  the  conduct  of  the  wrangling  disputants  in  the 
Irish  ranks,  made  Home  Rule  a  very  losing  issue  on  which 
to  appeal  for  support  to  British  electors.  The  sting  of  the 
defeat  lay  in  the  humiliating  fact  that  it  was  the  price  of  Irish 
folly,  and  not  the  result  of  any  strenuous  efifort  of  English 
opponents.  Twice  within  the  short  period  of  five  years 
those  who  persisted  in  fighting  friends  and  one-time  colleagues, 
over  personal  issues,  in  senseless  disregard  of  the  higher  claims 
of  cause  and  country,  succeeded  in  inflicting  a  defeat  upon 
Ireland's  national  hopes. 

The  outcome  of  the  general  election  in  Ireland  was  a  second 
decisive  verdict  against  the  Parnellite  section.  The  coun- 
try returned  ten  of  them,  as  against  seventy  nationalists, 
and  thus,  in  two  appeals  to  the  highest  electoral  tribunal,  a 
sweeping  judgment  was  given  in  favor  of  the  candidates  of 
the  National  Federation  and  the  policy  for  which  they  stood. 

The  friction  within  the  ranks  of  the  majority,  to  which 
brief  allusion  has  been  made,  caused  the  retirement  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Sexton  from  Parliament  on  the  eve  of  the  elections. 
It  was  a  most  serious  step  for  the  de  facto  parliamentary 
leader  of  the  Irish  party  during  the  previous  dozen  years  to 
take,  and  represented  an  incalculable  loss  to  Ireland.  He 
was  not  alone  the  ablest  of  the  Irish  delegation  in  the  work 
of  the  House  of  Commons;  he  had  made  a  reputation  there 

675 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

as  a  parliamentarian  which  was  second  to  that  of  no  member 
of  the  assembly  after  the  resignation  of  Mr.  Gladstone.  The 
injury  thus  done  to  Home-Rule  interests  by  the  resignation 
to  which  Mr.  Sexton  was  driven,  called  attention,  in  an 
imperious  manner,  to  the  deadly  injury  that  was  being  done 
to  Ireland's  cause  in  this  way,  and  set  influences  at  work 
which  ultimately  led  to  a  reunion  of  the  national  movement. 

The  first  impulse  and  encouragement  to  this  returning 
political  reason  came  to  Ireland  from  friends  in  distant  re- 
gions. His  Eminence  Cardinal  Moran,  presiding  at  a  lect- 
ure delivered  in  Sydney,  New  South  Wales,  by  the  present 
writer,  in  September,  1895,  and  the  late  Archbishop  Walsh, 
of  Toronto,  Canada,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Edward  Blake,  written 
in  the  following  month,  made  earnest  and  touching  appeals 
to  the  disputants  at  home  to  end  their  quarrels,  and  thus 
enable  sympathizers  at  a  distance  to  render  hearty  aid  again 
to  the  Irish  movement.  This  seed  of  blessed  harmony  was 
blown  to  Ireland  and  bore  good  fruit. 

On  November  14th,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Irish  parliamentary 
party,  held  in  DubHn,  Mr.  John  Dillon  moved,  and  Mr.  J.  C. 
Flynn  seconded,  this  resolution:  "That  this  party  approves 
of  the  suggestion  made  by  the  Archbishop  of  Toronto  in 
favor  of  a  national  convention  representative  of  the  Irish 
race  throughout  the  world,  and  that  with  the  view  of  carrying 
this  decision  into  effect,  the  chairman  and  committee  of  the 
Irish  party  are  hereby  authorized  to  communicate  with  the 
executive  of  the  National  Federation,  and  jointly  with  them 
to  make  arrangements  for  the  holding  of  such  a  convention." 

In  the  month  of  May  following,  at  another  meeting  of  the 
same  party,  it  was  also  unanimously  resolved,  on  the  motion 
of  Mr.  John  Dillon: 

"We  cordially  invite  Mr.  John  Redmond  and  his  friends  to 
co-operate  with  us  in  a  common,  earnest  endeavor  to  make 
the  coming  convention  an  effective  means  of  satisfying  the 
wide-spread  yearning  of  the  Irish  race  for  a  thorough  reunion. 
While  it  is  obviously  impossible  for  us,  without  the  con- 
currence of  those  concerned,  to  include  them  in  the  arrange- 
ments for  the  national  convention,  we  ask  them  to  join  with 
us  in  making  such  arrangements  as  will  secure  to  them  a 
full  representation  in  the  convention  on  the  basis  hereinbefore 
indicated." 

This  appeal  met  with  no  friendly  response,  but  the  most 
influential  of  Mr.  Redmond's  followers,  Mr.  T.  Harrington,  was 
an  active  co-worker  in  the  cause  of  reunion.  Encouraged  by 
his  example,  large  numbers  of  his  friends  and  admirers  in  the 
country  aided  him  in  the  same  good  work. 

676 


THE    IRISH-RACE    CONVENTION 

The  Irish -race  convention  assembled  in  Leinster  Hall, 
Dublin,  on  September  i,  2,  3,  1896,  under  the  presidency  of 
the  Most  Rev.  Dr.  O'Donnell,  Bishop  of  Raphoe.  Some 
two  thousand  two  hundred  and  fifty  representative  persons 
took  part  in  the  proceedings;  the  National  Federation  of 
Ireland,  and  auxiliary  organizations  in  Great  Britain,  the 
United  States,  Canada,  the  Australian  colonies.  New  Zealand, 
and  South  Africa,  being  represented  by  duly  credentialled 
delegates. 

The  delegates  from  distant  countries  were: 

United  States  of  America. — T.  C.  Boland,  Scranton, 
Pennsylvania;  Hon.  William  L.  Brown,  New  York;  John 
Cashman,  Manchester,  New  Hampshire;  M.  J.  Cooney, 
Montana;  Patrick  Cox,  Rochester,  New  York;  John  B.  Devlin, 
Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania;  James  Duggan,  Norwich,  Con- 
necticut; Patrick  Dunleavy,  Philadelphia  Council,  N.  F.; 
Rev.  D.  W.  Fitzgerald,  Manchester,  New  Hampshire;  Martin 
Fitzgerald,  Manchester,  New  Hampshire;  P.  Gallagher,  New 
York;  John  Guiney,  Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania;  Anthony 
Kelly,  Minneapolis,  Minnesota;  Edward  Mackin,  Wilkesbarre, 
Pennsylvania;  Hon.  Martin  McMahon,  New  York;  Rev. 
George  F.  Marshall,  Milford,  New  Hampshire;  Patrick  Martin, 
Baltimore,  Maryland;  Michael  Murphy,  representing  Irish 
National  Federation  of  America,  New  York;  Rev.  Denis 
O'Callaghan,  Boston;  Hon.  Edmond  O'Connor,  Binghamton, 
New  York;  Denis  O'Reilly,  Boston;  Hon.  C.  T.  O'SulHvan, 
New  York;  Rev.  Edward  S.  Phillips,  Pennsylvania;  Michael  J. 
Roone3^  representing  Irish  National  Federation  of  America, 
New  York;  Josepli  P.  Ryan,  New  York;  M  J.  Ryan,  Phila- 
delphia; James  SulHvan,  M.D.,  Manchester,  New  Hampshire; 
Edward  Treacy,  Boston ;  P.  W.  Wren,  Bridgeport,  Connecticut. 

Canada.— Hon.  John  Costigan,  M.P.,  P.C.;  Very  Rev.  M.  A. 
Clancy,  Placentia,  Newfoundland;  P.  F.  Cronin,  Toronto; 
Rev.  Dr.  Flannery,  St.  Thomas,  Ontario,  representing 
Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians  in  Canada;  Very  Rev.  Dr. 
Foley,  HaHfax,  Nova  Scotia;  James  J.  Foy,  Q.C.,  Toronto; 
Edward  Halley,  First  Vice  -  President  Young  Irishmen's 
Literary  and  Benefit  Association,  Montreal;  Very  Rev.  Dean 
Harris,  St.  Catherine's;  Chevalier  John  Heney,  Ottawa;  John 
M.  Keown,  Q.C.,  St.  Catherine's;  Lieutenant  -  Colonel  Mac- 
Shane,  Nova  Scotia;  James  J.  O'Brien,  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia; 
Rev.  P.  F.  O'Donnell,  Montreal;  Rev.  F.  O'Reilly,  Hamilton: 
Rev.  Frank  Ryan  (representing  Archbishop  of  Toronto), 
Toronto;  Hugh  Ryan,  Toronto;  James  D.  Ryan,  President 
of  the  Benevolent  Irish  Society,  St.  John's,  Newfoundland; 
Gerald  B,  Tiernan,  Halifax. 

677 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Australasia. — Charles  Hamilton  Bromly,  ex-Attorney-Gen- 
eral, northern  Tasmania;  Michael  Davitt,  M.P.,  delegated 
for  Dunedin,  New  Zealand;  Thomas  Hunt,  Victoria;  Mr. 
Kennedy,  Wellington,  New  Zealand ;  Rev.  Father  O'Callaghan, 
C.C.,  Mallow,  delegated  to  represent  southern  Tasmania. 

South  Africa. — Moses  Cornwall,  J. P.,  Kimberley,  represent- 
ing Irishmen  of  Griqualand  West;  H.  J.  Haskins,  Johannes- 
burg. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  delegates  from  branches  of  the 
National  League  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  affiliated 
with  the  National  Federation  of  Ireland,  took  part  in  the 
sessions  of  the  convention. 

No  assembly  equal  in  representative  character  had  ever 
before  in  tlie  history  of  the  Irish  struggle  met* in  the  capital 
of  Ireland  or  in  an}''  other  part  of  the  world.  Every  country 
and  colony  beyond  the  seas  where  Irishmen  are  settled  in 
large  numbers  sent  spokesmen  to  plead  for  reunion,  and  to 
show  the  opponents  of  the  Home- Rule  movement  how  world- 
wide was  the  combination  and  the  power  of  active  sympathy 
which  stood  behind  the  fatherland  in  its  national  demand  for 
justice  and  liberty. 

The  "Parliament  of  the  Irish  race,"  as  the  great  gathering 
was  named  by  some  of  its  foreign  delegates,  was  ably  presided 
over  by  the  young  Bishop  of  Donegal,  who  typified  in  name, 
descent,  and  patriotic  fervor  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  the 
Celtic  chieftains  who  had  fought  and  bled  for  land  and  liberty 
in  the  earliest  stages  of  the  Irish  land-war.  A  few  sentences 
from  his  opening  address  to  this  epoch-making  convention 
will  clearly  e.xplain  the  unique  character  and  significance 
of  the  historic  gathering,  and  its  bearing  upon  the  "wide- 
world"  meaning  of  the  Irish  struggle. 

"Men  of  the  Irish  race,  there  is  only  one  way  in  whicli  I 
may  hope  to  return  thanks  for  the  unique  honor  which  this 
chair  confers  upon  me.  It  is  to  launch  at  once  on  this 
magnificent  convention  the  business  that  has  brought  you 
here  from  the  four  shores  of  Ireland  and  from  many  lands 
beyond  the  seas.  To  you,  gentlemen,  our  kith  and  kin, 
come  home  from  abroad,  we  who  live  in  the  Green  Isle  say 
from  our  hearts,  in  the  sweet  language  of  your  fathers,  '  Cead 
mille  failte.'  In  your  love  for  Ireland  you  are  here  from  the 
great  republic  of  the  West,  where  so  many  millions  of  our 
people  have  built  up  for  themselves  a  position  and  a  name, 
and  whence  in  times  of  trial  has  come  to  us  the  most  generous 
support  for  every  national  demand.  You  are  here  from  self- 
governing  Canada,  one  of  whose  great  prelates  first  suggested 
this  convention  to  end  our  dissensions.     You  are  come  from 

678 


THE    IRISH-RACE    CONVENTION 

friendly  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland.  You  are  come 
even  from  Australia,  which  has  always  vied  with  America  in 
support  of  the  national  cause.  You  are  here  from  Africa, 
where,  in  our  days,  to  the  south  it  promises  to  rival  the 
northern  splendor  of  fifteen  centuries  ago.  Then  the  never- 
failing  Irishmen  of  England  and  Scotland  are  here;  and,  lastly, 
the  tried  men,  priests  and  people,  who  live  in  the  old  land,  in 
long  array,  from  every  county  and  every  shore.  You  have 
come  from  near  and  far,  at  great  inconvenience  and  expense, 
to  work  for  the  old  cause,  and  to  banish  from  our  midst  the 
bitterness  of  strife,  filled  with  the  idea  that  love  of  our  mother- 
land implies  co-operation,  and  love,  and  friendship,  and  for- 
bearances among  ourselves  in  her  cause.  In  my  time  I  have 
seen  the  young  family  outcast  on  the  road-side  from  the 
home  the  strong  man  had  built ;  I  have  seen  the  priest  dragged 
to  prison  for  trying  to  shield  the  victims  of  such  wrong;  I 
have  seen  thousands  of  little  boys  and  girls  of  from  nine  to 
twelve  years  hired  into  agricultural  service  far  away  from 
the  homes  where  they  ought  to  be  at  school;  I  have  seen 
throngs  of  young  people  leaving  the  old  and  weakly  behind, 
and  hurrying  to  the  emigrant-ship;  and  I  have  often  asked 
myself:  Will  the  emigrants  ever  come  back?  Will  they 
ever  send  us  back  the  power  to  change  these  things  and  to 
undo  these  wrongs?  W^ell,  picked  men  of  our  race  are  here 
to-day  from  every  land  of  the  Irish  dispersion,  and  with  God's 
blessing  before  they  go  back  the  foundations  will  be  laid  broad 
and  deep  of  that  victory-compelling  unity  which  this  great 
convention  was  called  to  promote."^ 

Speakers  from  each  of  the  countries  named  by  Dr.  O'Donnell 
addressed  the  convention  in  the  same  strain.  Letters  and 
telegrams  were  read  from  Philadelphia,  Queensland,  Adelaide 
(South  Australia),  Auckland  and  Greymouth  (New  Zealand), 
Sydney  (New  South  Wales),  France,  Buffalo  (New  York), 
St.  John's  (Newfoundland),  Ontario  (Canada),  Hobart 
(Tasmania),  and  from  various  centres  in  Great  Britain,  to- 
gether with  the  following  communication: 

"At  a  meeting  of  Irishmen  held  in  Pretoria,  South  Africa, 
on  July  2ist,  it  was  unanimously  resolved: 

"'That  this  meeting,  assembled  in  Pretoria,  deeply  de- 
plores the  dissension  that  still  exists  among  the  Irish  party, 
and  expresses  the  hope  that  the  coming  national  convention 
will  unite  all  sections  of  the  Irish  representatives,  and  erase 
forever  the  evil  elements  of  dissension  and  discord.'" 

The  deliberative  spirit  of  the  assembly,  the  singular  feature 

'Dublin  Freeman's  Journal,  September  2,  1896. 
679 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IxN    IRELAND 

of  its  racial  representativeness,  its  dimensions,  and  its  suc- 
cess, were  described  in  an  article  contributed  to  a  London 
journal  by  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  who,  as  chairman  of  the 
National  Federation  and  of  the  Irish  party,  bore  a  prominent 
part  in  the  proceedings: 

"Perhaps  it  may  be  considered  by  some  people  that  I  am 
not  an  absolutely  impartial  or  unprejudiced  critic  when  I 
declare  my  opinion  that  the  national  convention,  which  be- 
gan in  Dublin  on  Tuesday  and  closed  on  Thursday,  was  a 
complete  and  splendid  success.  But  I  have  seen  a  good  many 
political  conventions  and  political  movements  in  my  time, 
and  I  think  I  have  acquired  observation  enough  and  common- 
sense  enough  not  to  confound  my  own  personal  wishes  with 
the  positive  facts  and  the  actual  results.  The  convention 
realized  all  my  best  desires  and  dearest  hopes  as  an  Irish 
nationalist.  The  convention  was  fortunate  in  its  president. 
The  Bishop  of  Raphoe  is  a  very  young-looking  man  for  a  prel- 
ate, and  has  a  clearly  cut,  statuesque  face,  which  must  have 
won  upon  every  spectator.  The  Bishop  of  Raphoe  has  a  fine 
voice,  and  is  richly  endowed  with  power  of  argument  and  with 
thrilling  eloquence. 

"  Let  me  say  that  throughout  the  whole  of  the  three  days' 
proceedings  there  was  hardly  any  display  of  that  kind  of  Irish 
oratory  which  Mr.  Davitt  once  described  as  'sunburstery.' 
The  meeting  did  not  want  sunburstery ;  it  wanted  reason  and 
argument.  It  might  have  been  an  English  meeting,  or  a 
Scottish  meeting,  so  far  as  quiet,  practical  intelligence  and  a 
desire  to  get  at  substantial  results  could  constitute  its  prin- 
cipal characteristics. 

"Was  it  a  representative  assembly?  Well,  I  can  only  say 
that  the  vast  inajority  of  those  who  attended  it  were  regularly 
elected  delegates,  openly  appointed  by  the  various  local 
branches  of  the  Irish  National  Federation  over  all  parts  of 
the  world.  There  were  delegates  from  the  cities  of  the  United 
States,  from  Canada,  from  the  Australasian  colonies,  from 
South  America,  from  South  Africa,  from  England,  from 
Scotland,  and  from  Ireland.  The  great  Leinster  Hall  was 
literally  crowded  with  delegates.  It  was  a  somewhat  curious 
fact  that  on  the  same  platform  sat  Mr.  John  Costigan,  long 
Conservative  minister  of  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  and  Mr. 
Edward  Blake,  for  many  years  the  leader  of  the  Liberal  party 
in  the  Dominion  Parliament— both  alike  devoted  to  the  cause 
of  Home  Rule  in  Ireland.  As  somebody  asked,  how  could 
an  American,  or  a  Canadian,  or  an  Australasian  fail  to  be  a 
believer  in  Home  Rule?  Is  it  not  certain  that  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  Irishmen  living.  Lord  Rosmead,  lately  known 

680 


THE    1  R  1  S  H  -  R  A  C  E    CONVENTION 

as  Sir  Hercules  Robinson,  became  from  an  extreme  opponent 
of  Home  Rule  a  convert  to  Home  Rule  because  of  his  colonial 
experiences?"  ^ 

Every  item  in  the  federation  programme — unity,  national, 
political,  social,  agrarian,  industrial,  and  educational — was 
discussed  and  demanded,  in  appropriate  resolutions,  and  the 
"  Irish-Race  Parliament "  adjourned  its  session  to  an  unnamed 
date. 

*  Daily  News,  September  5,  1896. 


CHAPTER  LVI 
I.  — MORE    REFORMS    WON 

The  return  of  the  anti-Home-Rule  party  to  power  in  1896 
found  tlie  Irish  land  question  again  confronting  them  in  Par- 
liament, as  a  result  of  the  continued  agitation  in  Ireland. 
The  first  judicial  term  of  fifteen  years  (since  the  passing  of  the 
Land  Act  of  188 1)  was  expiring,  and  the  land  courts  would  have 
to  adjudicate  upon  the  applications  for  a  second  rent-fixing. 
The  report  of  Mr.  John  Morley's  select  committee,  on  the 
working  of  previous  acts,  and  the  proposals  which  the  Home- 
Rule  chief  secretary  had  made  in  the  bill  which  was  discussed , 
but  not  adopted,  by  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  session  of 
1895,  compelled  the  new  government  to  frame  a  measure 
which  would  deal  with  the  grievances  thus  complained  of  in 
the  administration  of  the  existing  law.  These  faults  were 
undeniable,  and  a  remedy  had  to  be  provided. 

Mr.  Gerald  Balfour,  brother  of  the  previous  chief  secretary 
of  that  name,  succeeded  Mr.  Morley  in  the  Irish  Ofitice,  and  he 
introduced  and  succeeded  in  passing  the  Land  Act  of  1896. 
It  was  a  complicated  measure,  full  of  legal  technicalities  and 
of  statutory  references  to  previous  legislation.  While  it 
offered  no  final  solution  of  the  radical  defects  in  the  existing 
land  laws,  it  effected  three  reforms  in  the  tenure  and  purchase 
of  land  in  Ireland  which  contributed  to  the  general  work  of 
finally  abolishing  the  landlord  system. 

Recognizing  the  injustice  done  to  the  tenants  in  having 
rents  fixed  upon  their  own  improvements,  contrary  to  the 
meaning  of  the  Healy  clause  of  the  act  of  1881,  Mr.  Balfour's 
new  act  proposed  that  the  land  commission  was  (i)  to  esti- 
mate the  fair  rent  on  the  assumption  that  all  the  improve- 
ments on  the  farm  or  holding  were  the  landlord's  property; 
and  (2)  then  to  estimate  the  value  of  the  improvements  be- 
longing to  the  tenant,  and  to  deduct  the  letting  value  due  to 
them  from  the  fair  rent  of  the  holding  as  it  stands. 

This  ingenious  method  of  doing  justice  to  Irish  tenants  will 
be  appreciated  by  non-Irish  readers  from  the  fact  that  every 
commission  that  has  investigated  the  working  of  the  Irish 

682 


MORE    REFORMS    WON 

land  system,  from  that  presided  over  by  Lord  Devon,  in  1845, 
down  to  Mr.  Morley's  committee,  in  1894,  had  to  acknowledge 
that  all  improvements  in  Irish  land  were  the  work  of  the 
tenants. 

Farmers,  therefore,  who  could  not  legally  prove  what  their 
fathers  or  predecessors  had  done  to  better  the  holding  in 
buildings,  drainage,  etc.,  would  have  to  pay  rent  on  them 
as  if  they  had  resulted  from  expenditure  on  the  landlord's 
part.  Thus  the  new  act  appeared  to  amend  the  law  in  the 
tenants'  interest,  but  the  partisans  of  the  Irish  landlords  on 
the  land  commission  easily  succeeded,  by  means  of  rules, 
procedures,  and  other  devices,  to  nullify  in  practice  what  the 
new  statute  offered  in  terms  to  the  rent -earners.  A  plan  for 
a  second  valuation  on  appeal  was  sanctioned  in  the  act,  which 
enabled  the  landlord,  at  the  public  expense,  to  try  and  re- 
verse a  judgment  not  favorable  to  his  rent-roll.  The  court 
valuers  who  inspected  farms,  on  such  appeals,  were  not  ex- 
amined in  the  land  court,  and  they  were  more  prone  to  report 
in  favor  of  the  landlord  than  the  sub-commission,  against 
whose  estimate  of  a  fair  rent  the  landlord  was  encouraged 
by  a  clause  of  the  bill  to  try  and  have  increased. 

Two  other  provisions  in  this  act  of  1896  were  intended  to 
serve  the  cause  of  land  reform.  One  related  to  the  buying 
of  farms  by  tenants,  and  sanctioned  a  system  of  decadal  re- 
ductions in  the  repayment  of  loans  advanced  by  the  state 
for  the  purchase  of  land.  This  scheme  worked  out  in  this 
way:  The  tenant's  obligations  to  the  state,  on  completing  a 
bargain  with  the  landlord  for  the  buying  of  a  farm,  would  be  a 
contract  to  pay  4  per  cent,  annually  to  the  land  commission 
upon  the  total  sum  advanced  by  it  for  the  purchase,  £2  155. 
for  interest,  and  £,\  55.  for  a  sinking-fund  for  the  liquidation 
of  the  debt.  Under  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour's  plan  the  time  of  re- 
payment was  extended  from  forty-nine  years  to  about  seventy, 
so  as  to  secure  to  the  buyer  an  abatement  each  ten  years,  of  four 
decadal  periods,  calculated  upon  the  reduction  in  the  capital 
sum  made  by  the  annual  instalments  in  payment  of  the  loan. 

The  obvious  object  of  this  plan  was  to  enable  the  landlords 
to  obtain  higher  prices  for  their  property  from  the  tenants, 
by  lessening  the  annual  payments  of  the  latter  every  ten 
years. 

Under  another  section  of  Mr.  Balfour's  act  estates  water- 
logged in  mortgage  and  managed  by  "court  receivers"  were 
to  be  sold  in  the  land-judge's  court  on  the  petition  of  the 
tenants,  the  judge  being  empowered  to  give  a  preference,  as 
between  offers,  to  the  tenants,  providing  the  price  so  tendered 
would  appear  reasonable  in  his  judgment. 

683 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

On  the  whole,  the  Land-law  Act  of  1896  was  another  gain  for 
the  movement  which  had  the  abolition  of  the  whole  landlord 
system  as  a  primary  purpose,  and  the  working  of  this  measure 
has  served  that  object. 

The  discussion  of  a  complicated  bill  like  that  of  1896, 
bristling  as  it  was  with  legal  technicalities,  brought  into  par- 
liamentary prominence  an  otherwise  somewhat  silent  mem- 
ber of  the  Irish  party.  This  was  Mr.  Maurice  Healy  (brother 
of  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy),  at  that  time  member  for  Cork  City. 
He  was  a  skilful  debater  where  accurate  knowledge  of  the 
complex  land  law.  of  Ireland,  of  precedents,  judgments,  de- 
cisions, and  of  authorities  was  required.  He  made  no  pre- 
tence to  oratory,  but  there  was  no  man  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons more  capable  of  dissecting  an  unworkable  statute,  or 
of  bringing  to  bear  a  clearer  fund  of  common-sense  upon  a 
tangle  of  conflicting  contentions,  than  this  quiet-looking  mem- 
ber, with  his  student's  face,  strong  Munster  accent,  and  hands 
tucked  away  beneath  the  tails  of  a  conveniently  long  coat. 

In  other  respects,  too,  he  had  been  one  of  the  most  valuable 
members  of  the  Irish  representation.  He  was  indispensable 
for  a  long  number  of  years  in  the  accurate  legal  draughting  of 
party  bills,  and  for  other  services  for  which  his  training,  his 
intellectual  gifts,  and  general  capacity  equipped  him  beyond 
any  of  his  colleagues.  During  the  discussion  upon  the  County 
Government  Bill  of  1898,  to  be  briefly  described  below,  he 
was  one  of  the  safest  guides  of  the  party  in  detecting  the 
legal  pitfalls  always  concealed  somewhere  in  Irish  measures 
prepared  by  legal  minds,  Irish  or  English,  in  the  service  of 
British  rule  in  Ireland. 

Mr.  Maurice  Healy  was  defeated,  on  a  somewhat  personal 
issue,  in  the  general  election  of  1900,  and  his  valuable  help 
to  Irish  interests  in  the  Hoiise  of  Commons  has,  for  a  time, 
been  lost. 

Lord  Rosebery's  resignation  of  the  leadership  of  the 
Liberal  party  in  October,  1S96,  after  a  two-years'  tenure 
of  the  position,  and  a  defeat  of  his  party  at  the  general 
election,  caused  no  regret  in  the  Irish  ranks.  Mr.  Gladstone's 
mantle  had  fitted  him  badly.  One  of  his  first  maladroit  acts 
as  Liberal  leader  was  to  promulgate  the  doctrine  that  Eng- 
land, as  the  "predominant  partner,"  was  to  determine 
whether  or  not  Ireland  should  obtain  Home  Rule.  The  fac- 
tors of  Scotland,  Ireland,  and  Wales  were  only  to  count  in  a 
secondary  and  subordinate  sense  in  the  weight  of  votes  and 
decisions.  The  combined  electors  of  the  three  countries 
had,  by  a  substantial  majority,  sanctioned  the  Gladstone 
bill  of  1893,  and  it  was  in  face  of  this  fact  that  Lord  Rose- 

684 


MORE    REFORMS    WON 

bery  laid  down  a  new  constitutional  argument,  which  justified 
the  action  of  the  House  of  Lords  in  rejecting  that  measure. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  too,  relinquished  the 
duties  of  leadership.  He  had  been  called  upon,  as  vice- 
chairman  of  the  Irish  party,  under  Mr.  Parnell's  headship, 
to  assume  the  lead  of  the  majority  of  those  who  had  to  break 
with  their  colleagues  in  "Committee-room  15."  To  no  man 
in  public  life,  in  Ireland  or  Great  Britain,  could  the  "  split "  be 
more  repugnant,  personally  and  politically.  No  more  amiable 
nature  or  less  aggressive  politician  could  well  be  imagined 
in  public  life  than  the  genial  and  "kindly  Irish  of  the  Irish" 
personality  of  him  who  was  thus  forced  into  a  position  of 
seeming  rivalry  to  his  friend.  For  four  or  five  years  of  great 
anxieties  and  of  much  worry  he  bore  the  responsibility  thus 
thrust  upon  him  in  a  rare  spirit  of  cheerful  forbearance  which 
did  much  to  soften  asperities,  but  with  a  courage  that  never 
faltered  in  face  of  the  most  unpleasant  duties  and  situations. 
All  who  fought  with  Mr.  McCarthy  in  those  years  esteemed 
him  for  the  many  delightful  qualities  of  a  singularly  lovable 
man,  who  probably  never  had  an  enemy,  and  who  could 
count  more  legions  of  friends  and  admirers  than  most  of 
the  celebrities  of  his  time. 

The  leadership  of  the  party  and  of  the  National  Federation 
came  by  force  of  circumstances  and  by  fitness  of  selection  to 
Mr.  John  Dillon.  He  had  been  Mr.  McCarthy's  first  lieuten- 
ant in  the  House  of  Commons  after  the  resignation  of  Mr. 
Sexton,  while  in  Ireland  he  took  chief  command  of  the  feder- 
ation in  all  the  hard  and  routine  labor  of  directing  the 
popular  organization.  His  enonnous  capacity  for  work,  great 
experience  of  public  life,  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  his  missions 
to  America  and  Australia,  and  his  unremitting  efforts  in  the 
early  Land-League  period  secured  him  a  greater  measure  of 
confidence  from  the  Irish  race  than  went  out  to  any  of  his 
colleagues.  It  was  a  confidence  fully  earned  in  twenty  years 
of  a  conspicuously  unselfish  and  beneficial  work  for  Ireland. 

Mr.  Dillon  found  the  position  of  a  recognized  parliamentary 
and  national  leader  the  reverse  of  a  bed  of  political  roses.  It 
was  a  bed  made  by  friends  afflicted  with  more  of  candor  than 
of  comradeship.  Open  adversaries  are  no  serious  concern 
to  a  capable  and  courageous  public  man.  He  knows  the 
rules  of  the  game,  and  can  meet  the  moves  of  his  antagonists 
on  anticipated  ground.  It  is  otherwise  when  political  jeal- 
ousies are  prone  to  relieve  the  common  enemy  of  some  of 
the  duties  of  dealing  with  opponents.  One's  own  side  may 
be  thwarted  now  and  then  in  revenge  for  having  failed  to 
recognize  and  to  reward  the  gifts  of  leadership  which  can 

68s 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

best  show  themselves  in  the  petty  animosities  of  a  disap- 
pointed ambition.  Mr.  Dillon  had  one  marked  disqualifica- 
tion to  statesmen  of  this  caliber:  like  the  famous  Athenian, 
there  was  nothing  that  could  be  said  in  truth  against  his 
character,  courage,  consistency,  or  record.  A  public  man 
fatally  gifted  with  an  extra  equipinent  of  political  honesty, 
generally  acknowledged,  necessarily  annoys  the  class  of 
minds  that  try  their  best,  and  fail,  to  find  a  serious  fault 
on  which  to  hang  a  just  complaint  against  a  friend  and  a 
brother  in  political  arms. 

The  Irish  party,  under  Mr.  Dillon's  lead,  and  the  popular 
organization  in  Ireland  were  enabled  to  guide  the  Irish 
movement  safely  through  a  period  of  unequalled  difficulties. 
It  was  a  time  of  trials  innumerable,  but  of  transition  from 
the  crisis  of  1890  to  the  reconciliation  which  was  to  follow 
as  a  result  of  the  work  set  going  by  the  great  race  convention. 
To  keep  the  flag  of  the  general  national  cause  flying  through 
these  trying  years  of  party  recrimination,  and  to  maintain 
the  fight  for  the  land  and  for  Home  Rule  against  the  old 
opponents  in  Westminster  and  in  Ireland  at  the  same  time, 
was  a  labor  well  and  bravely  done  by  a  leader  without  v/hose 
sterling  qualities  of  patience,  sound  judgment,  and  patriotic 
self-sacrifice  the  movement  of  the  decade  of  1 891- 1900 
would  never  have  carried  the  Irish  cause  so  safely  into  the 
new  decade  of  reunion  and  of  new  hopes. 

As  if  in  sardonic  comment  upon  the  Irish  moaning  over  dis- 
severed ranks,  the  political  fates  decided  to  make  this  very 
decade  of  dissension  one  of  the  most  prolific  in  the  concession 
of  reforms  to  the  people  of  Ireland.  It  was  after  the  fall  of 
Mr.  Parnell  that  the  Land-purchase  Act  of  1891  was  passed; 
that  a  Home- Rule  bill  went  througli  the  House  of  Commons; 
that  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour's  Land-law  Bill  of  1896  became  law, 
and  that  the  greatest  of  all  the  victories  won  by  the  Irish 
forces  was  scored  in  the  enactment  of  the  Local  -  Govern- 
ment Bill  of  1898.  It  would  be  absurd  to  contend  that 
these  measures  came  as  a  consequence  of  a  distmited  national 
organization.  They  were  conceded  to  Ireland  as  a  result 
of  an  agitation  whose  power  and  momentum  compelled 
English  parties  to  render  that  amount  of  response  to  the 
constitutional  demands  and  political  activities  of  the  people 
of  Ireland.  The  fact,  however,  remains  that  it  was  during 
the  years  of  the  "split"  that  the  local  government  of  the 
thirty-two  counties  of  Ireland  was  transferred  from  the 
landlords  and  their  supporters  to  popular  councils  elected 
on  a  parliamentary  franchise,  and  that  another  reeling  blow 
was  thus  given  to  feudalism  in  Ireland. 

686 


MORE    REFORMS    WON 

Previous  to  the  passing  of  this  act,  the  rural  affairs  of  each 
county  in  Ireland — the  levying,  collecting,  and  expenditure 
of  local  rates,  the  up-keep  of  roads,  management  of  asylums, 
and  other  duties  and  responsibilities — were  looked  after  by 
bodies  called  "grand  juries"  and  "presentment  sessions" — 
non-elective,  pro-landlord  bodies,  called  into  existence  by 
judges  and  sheriffs  appointed  by  Dublin  Castle.  The  people 
who  paid  the  rates  had  no  voice  whatever  in  the  expenditure 
of  their  money  or  in  the  election  of  members  of  these  nomi- 
nated "juries."  They  were  the  arbitrary  creation  of  the 
ruling  landlord  class  or  of  its  indirect  influence.  In  their 
administrative  actions  and  political  tendencies  they  were  uni- 
formly anti-national,  narrow,  and  reactionary. 

The  reform  which  abolished  this  anachronism  in  the  con- 
trol of  Irish  rural  affairs  is  known  on  the  English  statute- 
book  as  "The  Local  -  Government  (Ireland)  Act,  1898,  61 
and  62  Vict.,"  and  was  passed  into  law  on  August  12th 
of  that  year.  It  provided  for  the  creation  of  elective  coun- 
ty councils  for  each  county  in  Ireland,  urban  district 
councils  for  townships  adjacent  to  cities  and  boroughs, 
and  rural  district  councils  in  localities  defined  in  this  last 
name. 

The  franchise  for  the  election  of  councillors  is  generally 
that  of  the  parliamentary  franchise,  women  being  qualified 
to  vote  for  and  to  be  elected  upon  rural  councils  which  per- 
form the  duties  of  guardians  of  the  poor. 

The  rural  district  councils,  corresponding  more  or  less  to 
the  parish  councils  of  England  in  area  of  responsibility  and 
in  general  local  powers,  are  mainly  the  bodies  to  which  the 
working  of  the  laborers '-dwellings  acts,  already  described,  is 
confided  under  the  law  of  1898. 

The  act  is  a  very  voluminous  one,  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty-four  clauses  and  seven  schedules.  It  specifies  innu- 
merable duties  and  small  powers  conferred  upon  the  classes 
of  elective  councils  into  which  the  local  government  of  Ire- 
land is  now  divided.  There  are,  almost,  an  equal  number 
of  restrictions  and  limitations  imposed  upon  these  bodies, 
most  of  them  of  a  vexatious  kind,  and  showing  the  usual 
anti-Irish  bias  and  jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  pro-English 
authors  of  the  measure.  The  central  local  government 
board  of  Ireland,  which  is  a  department  of  Dublin  Castle 
and  is  entirely  independent  of  Irish  public  opinion,  is  invested 
with  powers  of  interference,  of  control,  and  of  veto  in  matters 
purely  local  and  administrative  which  are  indefensible  on 
any  rational  ground  of  public  use  or  necessity.  These 
bureaucratic  meddlings  are  as  irritating  as  they  have  been 

687 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

proved  to  be  unnecessary  for  any  service  to  the  country  at 
large,  and  there  is  a  standing  demand  in  the  popular  mind  and 
politics  of  the  country  for  a  sweeping  away  of  these  restric- 
tions. 

The  councils  have  been  an  unqualified  success.  Predic- 
tions on  the  part  of  political  opponents  about  "jobbery," 
"waste  of  taxes,"  "incompetency,"  and  all  the  rest,  have 
been  one  and  all  falsified  by  results  and  experience.  Except 
in  a  few  instances,  incidental  to  all  popular  bodies,  there  have 
been  no  unseemly  acts,  and  absolutely  no  trace  of  malversa- 
tion of  funds,  such  as  were  not  altogether  unknown  in  con- 
nection with  some  of  the  old  grand  juries.  Local  govern- 
ment has  been  more  efficiently  attended  to,  and  the  various 
duties  appertaining  thereto  more  carefully  performed  by 
nationalist  councils  in  three  -  fourths  of  the  counties  than 
under  the  previous  pro-landlord  regime.  Testimony  to  this 
fact  has  been  borne  even  by  anti -nationalist  critics.  The 
all-round  proficiency  thus  exhibited  by  the  people  in  the  la- 
bors and  responsibilities  of  urban  and  rural  "home  rule  "  are 
strong  reasons  and  unanswerable  arguments  with  many  pre- 
vious opponents  of  the  popular  demand  in  favor  of  the  com- 
pletion of  the  edifice,  partly  erected  in  1898,  by  the  necessary 
extension  of  the  structure  into  one  of  comprehensive  national 
proportions. 

The  concession  of  this  local-government  measure  to  Ire- 
land was  availed  of  by  the  Irish  landlords  for  the  purpose  of 
one  of  their  endless  plans  of  levying  class  blackmail  upon  in- 
dustry and  public  taxes.  They  made  the  usual  clamor  for 
English  ears — that  they  would  be  taxed  by  their  enemies,  the 
nationalists,  under  the  new  system,  in  retaliation  for  past 
conflicts  and  political  antagonism;  they  would  be  victim- 
ized as  the  "English  garrison,"  and  all  the  rest.  Therefore 
the  authors  of  the  bill  proposed  to  relieve  Irish  landlord  prop- 
erty of  taxes  for  the  support  of  the  poor,  amounting  to  a  sum 
of  ^350,000  a  year,  under  the  pretext  that  this  was  to  be  some 
assistance  to  Irish  agriculture  in  face  of  the  prevailing  de- 
pression in  that  industry;  a  similar  state  of  things  to  that  in 
Ireland  having  induced  the  same  government  to  pass  the  Eng- 
lish agricultural  rating  act.  The  whole  scheme  was  one  which 
in  America  would  invite  the  suggestion  of  "boodling."  It 
was  appropriating  /^2, 000, 000  annually  from  the  general  taxes 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  at  the  instance  of  a  pro-landlord 
ministry,  for  the  direct  assistance  of  their  agricultural  friends 
and  supporters  among  the  electorate  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  The  Irish  landlords  received  their  bonus,  and  in 
consideration  of  this  sum  offered  no  hostility  in  the  House  of 

688 


MORE    REFORMS    WON 

Commons  or  House  of  Lords  to  the  extension  of  a  measure  of 
self-rule  to  the  counties  of  Ireland. 


II.  — FISCAL    INJUSTICE 

The  findings  of  a  royal  commission  which  inquired  into 
the  financial  relations  between  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in 
1894-95  were  discussed  in  the  House  of  Commons  early  in 
1897,  and  made  a  strong  argument  for  a  Home-Rule  manage- 
ment of  Irish  affairs  instead  of  that  of  a  government  from 
London. 

The  anomalies  of  Irish  taxation  under  an  English  regime 
are  almost  without  a  parallel  in  the  fiscal  history  of  any  other 
country.  It  has  been  an  instance  of  a  growing  imperial  levy 
upon  Irish  resources,  with  a  continuous  decrease  of  popula- 
tion and  of  a  relative  taxable  capacity  to  that  of  Great  Britain. 

At  the  period  of  the  act  of  union  the  total  taxation  of  Ire- 
land, for  all  government  purposes,  amounted  to  a  sum  of  about 
;£2,ooo,ooo;  in  1825  (twenty-five  years  after  the  union  with 
England),  the  total  taxes  had  increased  to  ^^6, 000, 000;  in 
1850,  to  over  ;^'9,ooo,ooo;  in  1875,  to  over  ;i^  11,000,000, 
with  a  population  reduced  two  millions  during  the  previous 
quarter  of  a  century. 

In  1895,  with  less  than  a  total  of  five  millions  of  people,  the 
yearly  taxation  of  Ireland  by  England  had  amounted  to  more 
than  ;^i 2,000,000.  At  the  present  time  (1904),  with  a  popu- 
lation of  about  four  million  four  hundred  thousand,  the  Irish 
people  are  taxed  fully  six  and  one-half  times  more  than  they 
were  a  hundred  and  ten  years  ago,  when  a-sort-of-a-parlia- 
ment  in  Dublin  gave  some  kind  of  a  national  concern  to  the 
domestic  interests  of  the  country. 

Side  by  side  with  this  unparalleled  decrease  of  people  and 
inverse  increase  of  taxes,  levied  upon  the  country  by  rulers 
in  Westminster,  the  ratio  of  pauperism  to  population  is  larger 
than  when  there  were  fifty  per  cent,  more  inhabitants  in  Ire- 
land. In  1864,  with  a  population  of  five  million  six  hundred 
thousand,  in  round  figures,  there  were  two  hundred  and  ninety 
thousand  paupers  in  the  country,  or  fifty-two  per  one  thou- 
sand of  population.  In  1894,  with  a  population  of  four  mill- 
ion six  hundred  thousand,  there  were  four  hundred  and  thirty- 
seven  thousand  paupers,  or  ninety-five  per  one  thousand  of 
population.^ 

A  parallel  comparison  in  relation  to  the  growth  of  a  military 

'  Thomas  Lough,  M.P.,  England's  Wealth  and  Ireland's  Poverty, 
p.    21 T . 

44  689 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

police  force  will  inform  non-Irish  readers  of  one  other  notori- 
ous phase  of  the  alien  government  of  Ireland  which  Home 
Rule  seeks  to  abolish. 

In  1836,  with  a  population  of  over  seven  millions,  there  were 
about  eight  thousand  five  hundred  of  the  Royal  Irish  Constab- 
ulary employed  in  Ireland. 

In  1895,  with  a  population  of  less  than  five  millions,  and 
with  a  lower  record  of  crime  than  that  of  any  civilized  land  in 
the  world,  we  were  burdened  with  eighteen  thousand  police, 
including  pensioners.* 

The  royal  commission  referred  to  was  appointed  in  1894. 
Its  first  chairman  was  the  late  Mr.  Childers,  at  one  time  chan- 
cellor of  the  exchequer  in  a  Liberal  government;  after  his 
death  The  0 'Conor  Don  was  nominated  to  the  position. 

Mr.  Thomas  Sexton  and  Mr.  Edward  Blake  were  the  leading 
members  representing  the  Irish  party,  and  rendered  very 
great  service  by  their  expert  knowledge  of  financial  and  fiscal 
questions.  The  inquiry  extended  over  a  period  of  two  years, 
and  comprised  the  evidence,  oral  and  written,  of  many  of  the 
leading  economic  authorities  in  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 

There  were  several  reports  presented  by  groups  and  mem- 
bers of  the  commission  upon  the  completion  of  their  labors ; 
but  eleven  out  of  fourteen  members  came  to  a  common  agree- 
ment on  the  five  following  findings: 

"I.  That  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  must,  for  the  purpose 
of  this  inquiry,  be  considered  as  separate  entities. 

"II.  That  the  act  of  union  imposed  upon  Ireland  a  burden 
which,  as  events  showed,  she  was  unable  to  bear. 

"III.  That  the  increase  of  taxation  laid  upon  Ireland  be- 
tween 1853  and  i860  was  not  justified  by  the  then  existing 
circumstances. 

"IV.  That  identity  of  rates  of  taxation  does  not  necessarily 
involve  equality  of  burden. 

"V.  That  while  the  actual  tax  revenue  of  Ireland  is  about 
one-eleventh  of  that  of  Great  Britain,  the  relative  taxable 
capacity  of  Ireland  is  very  much  smaller,  and  is  not  estimated 
by  any  of  us  as  exceeding  one-twentieth." 

In  the  year  (1895)  when  this  report  was  issued  to  the  public 
the  difference  to  Ireland  between  an  annual  revenue  of  one- 
eleventh  of  what  Great  Britain  paid  and  of  one-twentieth  of 
that  amount  (which  would  represent  Irish  taxable  capacity) 
was  a  sum  of  ;£2,7oo,ooo. 

Mr.  Sexton  reported  his  own  conclusions  as  follows: 

"Having   regard   to  the  relative  taxable  capacity  of  Ire- 

'  Thomas  Lough,  M.P.,  England's  Wealth  and  Ireland's  Poi'ertv. 
p.  82. 

690 


MORE    REFORMS    WON 

land  (i)  at  the  period  of  the  union  (1801),  and  (2)  at  the 
present  time;  also  to  the  continued  increase  of  British  popu- 
lation, and  more  rapid  multiplication  of  British  wealth  con- 
trasted with  the  decline  of  Irish  manufacture  and  trade  after 
the  union,  and  the  great  reduction  of  Irish  population,  man- 
ufacturing industry,  and  agricultural  income  since  the  famine 
(of  1847-48),  it  does  not  appear  that  Ireland's  fair  proportion 
of  imperial  revenue  collected  since  the  union  amounted  to 
more  than  ;,^3,ooo,ooo  per  annum,  or  a  total,  up  to  1894,  of 
about  ;(^ 2 80, 000, 000.  (But)  The  revenue  actually  raised  in 
Ireland  during  the  period  of  the  separate  exchequers,  and 
"contributed"  since  then  (according  to  treasury  comiputa- 
tions),  has  amounted  to  about  ;/^57o,ooo,ooo — or  an  average 
approximately  of  ;^6,ooo,ooo  a  year — being  double  the  amount 
stated  as  the  fair  proportion  of  Ireland  in  view  of  her  relative 
capacity."* 

On  March  29,  1897,  the  report  of  this  commission,  and  the 
general  question  arising  therefrom,  were  debated  in  the  House 
of  Commons  on  a  m.otion  by  Mr.  Blake.  The  motion  asked  for 
action  on  the  part  of  Parliament  that  would  provide  remedial 
legislation  for  this  manifest  fiscal  injustice,  but  it  was  defeated 
by  a  ministerial  vote  of  317  against  an  Irish  and  (British) 
Radical  vote  of  157. 

^  Mr.  Sexton's  Report.     Financial  Relations  Commission,  1895. 


CHAPTER  LVII 

NATIONALIST     REUNION:    THE    UNITED     IRISH 

LEAGUE 

The  progress  that  was  being  made  in  realizing,  in  some 
measure,  many  of  the  objects  of  the  national  movement, 
as  evidenced  in  the  concessions  referred  to  in  the  previous 
chapter,  greatly  encouraged  the  country  in  its  desire  for  a 
reunion  of  the  nationalist  forces.  The  issues  of  the  "split" 
were  becoming  ancient  history,  while  the  dimensions  of 
Mr.  John  Redmond's  following  were  such  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible for  so  small  a  faction  ever  to  overcome  the  majority 
in  popular  confidence.  Earnest  men  on  both  sides  began 
to  suggest  plans  of  reconciliation,  and  circumstances  tended 
to  favor  their  efforts. 

Mr.  John  Dillon,  in  a  speech  at  Glasgow,  in  October,  1898, 
suggested  a  conference  of  representative  men  from  both 
sides  with  the  object  of  bridging  over  old  differences.  This 
proposal  was  not  accepted  by  the  minority.  The  Limerick 
board  of  guardians,  composed  largely  of  Parnellites,  took  up 
the  good  work,  and  in  a  series  of  practical  proposals,  sub- 
mitted to  other  public  bodies,  obtained  strong  expressions  of 
opinion  from  all  parts  of  the  country  condemning  a  con- 
tinuance of  disunion.  A  convention,  confined  to  delegates 
from  elective  councils  in  Munster,  assembled  in  Limerick, 
and  resolved  upon  summoning  a  conference  of  the  nationalist 
parliamentary  representatives  in  Dublin,  and,  without  any 
references  to  previous  disputes,  to  agree  to  work  together 
in  future  for  the  promotion  of  the  common  cause.  The  con- 
ference met  in  due  course.  Fifty-six  members  responded, 
but  Mr.  Redmond  and  his  eight  or  nine  followers  remained 
away.  Mr.  James  O'Kelly  was  present,  however,  and  as  he 
was  the  best  known  of  the  Parnellites,  and  had  the  longest 
record  of  services  to  Ireland,  his  adhesion  to  the  movement 
for  harmony  had  a  marked  effect  upon  popular  opinion. 

This  parliamentary  conference,  mainly  composed  of  Mr. 
Dillon's  supporters  in  the  House  of  Commons,  adopted  the 
following  proposals,  framed  by  Mr.  Edward  Blake: 

692 


NATIONALIST    REUNION 

"i.  All  Irish  nationalists  to  be  reunited  in  one  party  on 
the  principles  and  constitution  of  the  old  Parnellite  party  as 
it  existed  from  1885  to  1890.  2.  The  reunited  party  to  be 
absolutely  independent  of  all  British  political  parties.  3.  The 
main  object  of  the  united  party  to  be  to  secure  for  Ireland  a 
measure  of  Home  Rule  at  least  as  ample  as  that  embodied 
in  the  bills  of  1886  and  1893.  4.  The  party  also  to  fight  on 
the  old  lines  for  the  redress  of  all  Irish  grievances,  notably 
those  connected  with  the  land,  labor,  taxation,  and  education. 
5.  That  since  a  genuine  reunion  involves  a  real  reconciliation, 
we  declare  our  view  that  all  the  adherents  of  a  reunited  par- 
ty should  accord  to  and  receive  from  each  other  recognition, 
and  standing  based  on  past  public  service,  and  capacity  for 
future  public  service,  to  Ireland,  absolutely  irrespective  of 
the  course  any  adherent  may  have  felt  it  his  duty  to  take 
at  or  since  the  division  of  1890,  and  that  the  reunited  party 
and  its  adherents  should,  while  fully  recognizing  the  right 
of  every  constituency  to  select  its  own  candidate,  exert  all 
legitimate  influence  in  favor  of  the  adoption  of  this  principle 
in  the  selection  of  candidates  for  Parliament  and  for  party 
offices.  And  as  the  earliest  practicable  exemplification  of  the 
spirit  of  this  resolution,  this  meeting,  mainly  composed  of 
those  belonging  to  the  larger  party,  declares  its  readiness  to 
support  the  choice  of  a  member  of  the  Parnellite  party  as  first 
chairman  of  the  united  party." 

Mr.  John  Dillon  at  once  resigned  his  chairmanship  of  the 
parliamentary  party  in  order  to  facilitate  the  carrying  out 
of  the  proposals  thus  agreed  to  and  proclaimed,  but  Mr.  Red- 
mond did  not  see  fit  to  follow  so  inviting  a  lead  for  reunion. 

Subsequent  efforts  for  union  were,  however,  made  by  Mr. 
Redmond,  in  conjunction  with  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  on  the 
initiative  of  Mr.  T.  Harrington,  who  had  labored  steadily 
since  1896  in  promoting  reconciliation.  At  a  meeting  of 
seven  members  held  in  the  Mansion  House,  Dublin,  on 
January  18,  1900,  and  presided  over  by  Mr.  Harrington,  it 
was  resolved  to  accept  the  proposals  agreed  to  by  the  majority, 
as  above,  and  to  co-operate  with  all  other  members  to  that 
end. 

In  the  mean  time  two  other  factors  were  working  powerfully 
in  the  cause  of  common-sense  and  harmony  in  the  Irish  ranks. 
One  was  the  war  forced  upon  the  Boer  republics  by  England, 
and  the  other  was  the  organization  of  the  United  Irish  League 
at  Westport,  County  Mayo,  by  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  M.P. 

The  attack  made  upon  the  Transvaal  by  the  forces  of  the 
British  Empire,  in  furtherance  of  the  purposes  and  plans  of 
freebooters  and  financiers,   appealed   most    strongly   to    the 

693 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

dissent  and  reprobation  of  the  Irish  people  and  their  parUa- 
mentary  delegates  at  Westminster.  It  resembled  the  past 
treatment  of  Ireland  by  England  at  the  behest  of  the  "Out- 
lander"  landlords.  There  was  a  similar  stream  of  calumnies 
and  lies  against  the  Transvaal  in  the  Jingo  press;  the  same 
attacks  upon  the  Boer  people,  their  laws,  customs,  insti- 
tutions, and  character;  the  same  audacious  professions,  that 
all  that  was  aimed  at  was  "the  franchise  for  Outlanders," 
"freer  government,"  "equal  rights  for  white  men,"  and  to  put 
down  "tyranny  and  corruption" — all  with  the  one  object 
of  masking  a  scheme  of  conquest  and  confiscation.  We  were 
only  too  familiar  with  this  kind  of  hypocrisy  as  a  prelude  to 
predatory  designs  in  Ireland,  and  the  nationalist  members 
of  Parliament,  of  both  sections,  vied  with  each  other  in 
denunciation  of  a  war  so  monstrously  unjust,  and  in  exposing 
the  sham  pretences  by  which  it  was  attempted  to  justify 
what  one  Irish  member  declared  in  the  House  of  Commons 
to  be  "the  greatest  crime  of  the  nineteenth  century." 

This  comradeship  of  combat  in  a  common  cause  of  liberty 
against  the  criminal  aggression  of  a  great  empire  upon  two 
little  republics  finally  broke  down  the  barriers  which  nine 
years  of  sectional  strife  had  set  up  between  Irish  nationalists. 
The  work  of  complete  reunion  was  accomplished  on  February 
7,  1900,  in  the  election,  by  the  majority  of  the  nationalist 
party,  of  the  leader  of  the  minority,  Mr.  John  Redmond,  as 
sessional  chairman  of  the  reconciled  sections. 

This  result  had  been  greatly  contributed  to  by  the  labors 
of  Mr.  William  O'Brien,  Mr.  James  O'Kelly,  Mr.  P.  A.  McHugh, 
and  others  who  had  co-operated  in  the  founding  and  extend- 
ing of  the  organization  which  Mr.  O'Brien  had  projected  in 
1898.  The  chief  purpose  of  this  new  body  was  to  effect  a 
reunion,  not  so  much  through  appeals  to  leaders  or  parlia- 
mentarians, who  had  first  caused  the  split,  but  through  a 
fighting  combination  of  the  people,  irrespective  of  past  dif- 
ferences, on  the  old  lines  of  the  "land  for  the  people  and 
Ireland  for  the  Irish." 

Mr.  O'Brien  was  not  alone  the  originator  of  this  new 
movement;  he  was  its  chief  inspiration,  organizer,  and 
combatant.  He  is  a  man  gifted  with  marked  powers  of 
platform  eloquence  and  a  style  of  speaking  which  is  well 
adapted  to  evoking  the  enthusiasm  of  an  Irish  audience. 
In  addition,  he  is  popularly  known  and  esteemed  in  Ireland 
as  a  foremost  fighter  in  every  stage  of  the  Irish  movement 
since  he  joined  its  ranks  under  Mr.  Parnell  in  1881.  Several 
imprisonments,  various  prosecutions  for  alleged  libels  on 
notorious  enemies  of  the  cause  in  papers  edited  by  him,  are 

694 


NATIONALIST    REUNION 

all  to  his  credit  in  the  records  of  the  past  twenty-five  years 
of  the  Irish  struggle.  He  wields  an  influence  in  popular 
councils  in  proportion  to  the  general  public  recognition  of  the 
services  he  has  rendered  and  the  generous  sacrifices  he  has 
made  in  the  struggles  that  have  been  fought,  won,  lost,  and 
ref ought  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  as  related  in 
these  pages. 

In  1900,  the  National  Federation,  which  had  been  the 
popular  organization  for  nine  years,  was  merged  into  the 
United  Irish  League.  The  federation  had  been  identified 
with  the  divisions  in  the  national  movement,  and  when  the 
prospects  of  reunion  loomed  hopefully  upon  the  cause,  it 
was  resolved  to  allow  the  branches  of  the  old  body  to  merge 
themselves  in  the  new. 

This  example  was  followed  by  the  Irish  organizations  in 
Great  Britain,  Australia,  and,  to  some  extent,  in  the  United 
States.  There  was  no  change  in  programme  or  in  purpose  in 
adopting  the  name  and  platform  of  the  United  Irish  League. 
The  ends  aimed  at  were  identical  with  those  of  the  preceding 
combinations.  It  caused  no  wrench  of  principle  or  of  methods 
of  propaganda  to  pass  from  one  name  to  another  where  the 
media  and  objects  remained  unchanged. 

The  federation  had  the  good  fortune  during  the  period 
of  its  existence  to  possess  as  acting-secretary  the  services  of 
Mr.  John  Muldoon.  No  political  movement  could  boast  of 
a  more  faithful  officer,  and  the  national  cause  has  since 
found  in  the  young  barrister  from  Omagh  an  able  advocate 
and  sterling  supporter. 

In  1 90 1  the  provisions  of  the  coercion  act  of  1887  were  put 
in  force  by  Dublin  Castle,  in  the  proclamation  of  various 
districts  in  some  seventeen  counties.  This  was  the  time- 
seasoned  method  by  which  the  crass  stupidity  of  English 
chief  secretaries,  played  upon  by  Irish  landlords,  came  to  the 
assistance  of  Irish  popular  combinations.  The  league  had 
struggled  during  three  years  to  make  headway  even  in  Con- 
naught,  and  had  only  a  very  few  branches  east  or  south  of 
the  Shannon.  The  rural  politics  of  scores  of  county  and  dis- 
trict councils  seemed  to  occupy  most  of  the  attention  and 
energies  of  the  men  who  had  made  previous  movements  power- 
ful and  historic.  Coercion,  however,  is  to  Irish  national  feel- 
ing what  the  proverbial  red  rag  is  to  the  bull,  and  as  in  the 
many  previous  instances  of  the  same  kind  of  Dublin-Castle 
folly,  the  repressive  law  which  was  intended  to  intimidate 
served  only  to  recruit  branches  and  to  extend  the  league. 
Meetings  were  duly  proclaimed  as  illegal;  the  first  under  the 
renewed    application   of   despotism    being   in    Ballinrobe,   in 

695 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

south  Mayo,  where  hundreds  of  police  were  thrown  in  a  cor- 
don round  the  town  to  prevent  the  then  member  of  Parha- 
ment  for  the  division  from  addressing  a  gathering  of  his  con- 
stituents. By  the  aid  of  blundering  officialdom  of  this  kind, 
and  other  favoring  causes,  the  league  gradually  made  headway 
in  the  other  provinces,  saving  Leinster,  where  it  has  not,  even 
since  the  reunion  period,  found  the  favor  with  which  previous 
organizations  were  welcomed  by  its  people. 

In  the  United  States  there  was  a  steady  revival  of  practical 
interest  in  the  progress  of  the  movement  in  Ireland  after  re- 
union had  been  accomplished.  Branches  of  the  league  were 
formed  in  New  York  and  Boston,  while  Mr.  Patrick  Ford 
had  already  forwarded  a  sum  of  ;^6oo  as  a  subscription  from 
the  readers  of  his  paper  to  the  promoters  of  the  Connaught 
branches  of  the  league.  In  August,  1901,  a  great  demonstra- 
tion was  held  in  Chicago  by  the  United  Irish  Societies  of  that 
city,  under  the  presidency  of  the  veteran  worker  for  Ireland, 
Colonel  John  Finerty.  Some  fifteen  thousand  citizens  took 
part  in  the  gathering,  and  extended  to  the  league  in  Ireland 
an  endorsement  of  its  programme  and  a  promise  of  substantial 
siipport. 

Subsequently  Mr.  John  Redmond,  as  chairman  of  a  united 
parliamentary  party  and  of  the  United  Irish  League,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  P.  A.  McHugh,  M.P.,  and  Mr.  Thomas  O'Don- 
nell,  M.P.,  went  to  America  on  a  short  mission  to  proclaim 
the  glad  tidings  of  a  reunited  Ireland.  They  addressed  meet- 
ings in  the  chief  cities  of  the  Eastern  States,  and  aroused  the 
latent  sympathies  of  their  hearers  into  a  renewed  manifesta- 
tion of  active  interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  struggle  still  going 
on  in  the  old  land. 

On  the  return  home  of  the  mission.  Mr.  W.  K.  Redmond, 
M.P.,  and  Mr.  Joseph  Devlin,  the  leader  of  the  nationalists  of 
Belfast,  proceeded  to  the  United  States  on  a  speaking  tour, 
and  resumed  the  work  which  their  predecessors  had  suspended. 
Branches  of  the  league  sprang  up  where  the  envoys  appeared, 
and  in  a  few  months'  hard  work  the  foundations  for  a  revived 
auxiliary  organization,  on  the  lines  of  the  Land  and  National 
Leagues  of  the  eighties,  were  laid  in  many  of  the  largest  cen- 
tres of  Irish- American  population. 

In  the  month  of  October,  1902,  a  convention  of  representa- 
tive bodies,  league  branches,  and  other  friendly  organizations, 
was  held  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston,  and  was  attended  by  a 
special  delegation  from  Ireland,  comprising  Mr.  John  Red- 
mond, Mr.  John  Dillon,  Mr.  Edward  Blake,  and  the  present 
writer.  The  convention  was  a  conspicuous  success;  there 
being  over  seven  hundred  accredited  delegates  present  from 

696 


NATIONALIST    REUNION 

States  and  cities  stretching  south  to  New  Orleans  and  west- 
ward to  Colorado.  Canada  was  likewise  represented  in  lead- 
ing Irishmen  from  Montreal  and  other  cities.  The  proceed- 
ings, which  were  thoroughly  harmonious,  occupied  two  days, 
and  the  space  given  to  a  report  of  them  in  the  press  of  Boston 
revealed  a  great  reawakening  of  American  public  interest  in 
the  developments  which  were  taking  place  in  the  struggle  in 
Ireland. 

A  permanent  organization  was  established  by  the  conven- 
tion. Colonel  John  Finerty,  of  Chicago,  was  unanimously 
elected  president,  with  the  veteran  Patrick  Egan,  the  his- 
toric treasurer  of  the  Land  League  and  ex  -  United  States 
minister  to  Chili,  as  first  vice-president.  Mr.  Thomas  Fitz- 
patrick,  of  Boston,  also  a  Land-League  veteran,  was  elected 
treasurer,  and  Mr.  John  O'Callaghan,  of  the  same  city,  an 
able  and  energetic  worker  for  the  Irish  cause,  was  made 
secretary. 

The  delegates  from  Ireland  attended  great  public  receptions 
in  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  where  large  subscriptions  were 
donated,  Mr.  Dillon  and  Mr.  Davitt  extending  their  tour  to 
ten  other  cities,  and  likewise  obtaining  substantial  assistance 
for  the  support  of  the  home  movement.  The  financial  results 
of  the  mission  totalled  over  ;;r  10,000. 

Mr.  Joseph  Devlin  was  again  sent  out  by  the  directory  of 
the  league  in  Ireland  to  superintend  the  work  of  organization 
through  the  United  States.  This  labor  was  most  ably  per- 
formed. It  revealed  in  one  of  the  youngest  of  the  rising 
Irish  leaders  a  gift  of  platform  oratory,  a  resource  of  tactful 
methods  of  propaganda  and  of  organization  which  are  hope- 
ful of  much  promise  to  the  future  service  of  the  cause  Mr. 
Devlin  has  so  ably  and  courageously  served  since  he  became 
Mr.  Thomas  Sexton's  chief  lieutenant  during  that  brilliant 
Irishman's  tenure  of  the  parliamentary  seat  of  west  Belfast 
in  Westminster. 

In  the  mean  time  events  of  far-reaching  importance  had 
been  hurrying  questions  of  great  moment  on  the  road  to  a 
settlement  in  Ireland. 

Mention,  however,  must  first  be  made  of  the  general  elec- 
tion which  preceded,  in  the  order  of  time,  some  of  the  oc- 
currences dealt  with  above. 

In  the  autumn  of  1900  an  appeal  to  the  country  was  sprung 
upon  the  electors  in  the  interests  of  the  ministry  responsible 
for  the  criminal  blunder  of  the  South-African  War.  It  was  as 
well  known  to  Mr.  Chamberlain  and  to  the  English  War  OfUce 
as  to  independent  observers  who  had  witnessed  the  perform- 
ances of  British  troops  and  generals  in  the  field  against  a  mere 

^  697 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

handful  of  untrained  Boer  farmers,  that  the  military  prestige 
of  the  British  Empire  as  a  fighting  power  had  been  literally 
buried  under  the  veldt  of  the  Transvaal,  Natal,  and  the  Free 
State.  Ugly  facts  of  crass  blundering  and  of  incompetency 
in  connection  with  high  commands;  of  astounding  surrenders 
to  inferior  forces;  of  amazing  contracts  for  war  material,  and 
of  a  ruthless  military  policy  carried  out  against  the  homes  of 
the  fighting  burghers  and  against  their  wives  and  families — 
these  and  other  damnatory  facts,  equally  discreditable  to  the 
name  and  greatness  of  one  of  the  world's  leading  empires, 
were  well  known  to  the  chiefs  of  an  incapable  government. 
Dreading  the  effects  of  a  certain  disclosure  of  evidence,  which 
would  convict  them  of  responsibility  for  all  that  their  inca- 
pacity had  occasioned  and  cost,  they  concealed  the  truth, 
put  a  deceptive  issue  before  the  electors,  appealed  to  the  Jingo 
spirit  of  a  misinformed  public,  and  snatched  a  victory  which 
was  the  measure  of  their  unscrupulous  tactics. 

In  Ireland  the  elections  were  fought  under  happier  auspices 
than  on  the  two  previous  occasions  since  Mr.  Parnell's  great 
loss.  There  was  some  friction,  which  a  little  forbearance  and 
common-sense  might  easily  have  averted,  in  an  opposition 
to  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  in  north  Louth.  The  electors  of  that 
division  refused  to  dismiss  their  representative,  even  at  the 
dictation  of  the  league.  One  or  two  other  instances  of  a  sim- 
ilar kind  disturbed  an  otherwise  stormless  series  of  elections. 
The  landlord  and  Castle  opponents  of  the  national  cause  were 
nowhere  in  the  fight,  and  the  country  triumphantly  re-elected 
a  party  of  eighty-one  nationalists  to  continue  the  old  contest 
and  policy  in  Westminster. 

It  was  the  least  costly  general  election  ever  fought  by  the 
nationalist  forces  in  Ireland.  The  total  expenses  were  under 
a  sum  of  _^4ooo;  so  little  did  the  common  enemy  venture  to 
contest  the  field  against  the  popular  candidates,  and  so  skil- 
fully did  Mr.  Alfred  Webb,  the  infallible  treasurer  and  gen- 
eral guardian  of  the  finances  of  the  movement,  manage  the 
costs  part  of  the  electoral  campaign. 

Mr.  George  Wyndham  became  chief  secretary  in  succession 
to  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour.  His  blood-relationship  to  Lord 
Edward  Fitzgerald,  and  certain  suave  manners,  combined 
with  some  previous  experience  of  the  country  when  acting 
as  private  secretary  to  Mr.  Arthur  Balfour,  heralded  his 
advent  to  the  post  with  predictions  of  a  further  development 
of  Mr.  Gerald  Balfour's  policy  of  "killing  Home  Rule  with 
kindness." 

He  Ijegan  well  for  the  league  organization,  and  badly  for  the 
Castle,  in  reviving  some  of  the  powers  of  the  coercion  act  of 

698 


NATIONALIST     REUNION 

1887.  As  already  related,  this  action  was  worth  the  work 
of  a  dozen  league  organizers.  Meetings  were  proclaimed, 
prosecutions  were  instituted  for  boycotting  and  other  acts, 
all  in  the  bad  old  custom  of  previous  times.  But  it  all  wore 
an  appearance  of  unreality,  suggesting  the  conviction  that 
this' rusty  weapon  of  coercion  was  brought  out  of  the  Castle 
armory  more  to  satisfy  the  insatiable  spirit  of  landlord 
vengeance  against  leagues  and  combinations  waging  war  upon 
their  system  than  for  any  real  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  prisons 
and  state  trials,  after  so  many  notorious  fiascoes,  as  a  means 
of  winning  Irish  minds  to  a  reverence  for  England's  laws. 

The  strongest  of  the  many  reasons  which  rendered  a  renewal 
of  coercion  a  stupidly  short-sighted  proceeding  in  the  light 
of  previous  experience  was  the  crimelessness  of  the  country. 
In  fact,  at  no  period  in  Ireland's  modern  history  was  there 
less  crime,  violence,  disorder,  or  turmoil  than  when  seventeen 
Irish  counties  were  in  part  or  in  whole  proclaimed  under  the 
law  of  1887.  Judges  going  the  circuit  of  assize  in  each 
and  all  of  these  counties  congratulated  juries  on  the  lightness 
of  the  calendar  and  on  the  peaceful  condition  of  the  country. 
The  explanation  of  the  anomaly  was  the  activity  of  the 
league  in  holding  public  meetings,  in  the  denunciation  of 
grabbers,  and  in  the  carrying -out  of  the  general  work  of 
keeping  before  the  public  and  Parliament  the  unsettled 
problem  of  the  land  question,  especially  in  Connaught,  the 
necessity  for  other  reforms,  and  the  paramount  want  of 
Home  Rule  for  the  country.  Mr.  Wyndham  knew  he  was  not 
attacking  outrage,  but  political  opponents  and  the  right  of 
public  meeting,  with  laws  which  no  other  crimes  appealed  to 
for  application. 

For  addressing  prohibited  meetings,  or  making  speeches 
contrary  to  the  intentions  of  the  law  of  Edward  III.  of  the 
year  1361,  or  printing  resolutions  or  other  matter  equally 
obnoxious  to  the  majesty  of  the  law  of  1887,  the  following 
members  of  Parliament,  journalists,  councillors,  and  other 
citizens  were  tried  and  imprisoned  by  Mr.  George  Wyndham 
in  1901-2: 

Mr.  P.  A.  McHugh,  M.P Twelve  months,  in  four  im- 
prisonments (six  sentences 
in  all). 

Mr.  John  O'Donnell,  M.P Ten  months  (in  five  terms). 

Mr.  Wm.  K.  Redmond,  M.P.  .    Six     months     (two     previous 

terms). 

Mr.  John  Roche,  M.P Four   months    (two   previous 

convictions). 
699 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

Mr.  Michael  Reddy,  M.P Seven  months. 

Mr.  J.  P.  Farrell,  M.P.,  editor 

Longford  Leader Five  months. 

Mr.  Haviland  Burke,  M.P One  month. 

Mr.  Conor  O'Kelly,  M.P One  month. 

Mr.  Wilham  Duffy,  M.P One  month. 

Mr.  Jasper  Tully,  M.P One     month     (one    previous 

term). 
Mr.  John  P.  Hayden,  M.P.  .  .  .    One  month. 
Mr.  Denis  Kilbride,  M.P.  (then 

ex-M.P.) Nine  months  (two  terms). 

Mr.  David  Sheehy,  M.P.  (then 

ex-M.P.) Eighteen  months  (five  terms). 

Mr.    Wm.    Lowry,    Chairman 

Birr  Poor-Law  Board Five  months. 

Michael  Hogan Three  months. 

Mr.  M.  Glennon Three  months  (one  previous 

term). 
Mr.  Daniel  Powell,  editor  Mid- 
land Tribune Four  months. 

Mr.  Carroll  Nagle,  D.C Six  weeks. 

Mr.  James  Lynam Six     months     (one     previous 

term). 

Mr.  R.  Maher,  D.C Two  months. 

Mr.  Joseph  Gantley Two  months. 

Mr.  Thomas  Searson Six  weeks. 

Mr.  James  Mumane Five  weeks. 

Mr.  Andrew  Holohan Six  weeks. 

Mr.  J.  A.  O'Sullivan Four  months. 

Mr.    T.    McCarthy,    The   Irish 

People Two  months. 

Mr.    T.    O'Dwyer,    The    Irish 

People Two  months. 

Mr.    S.     Holland,     The    Irish 

People Served  one  day. 

Mr.  P.J.  Flanagan,  Corofin.  .  .    Four  months,  and  driven  in- 
sane in  prison. 

Mr.  Martin  Finnerty Six    months    (two    being  in 

default  of  bail). 

Mr.  John  Lohan Three      months,      and      two 

months  in  default  of  bail. 

Mr.  James  Kilmartin Three  months  (one  previous 

term). 
Mr.  S.  P.  Harris,  Limerick.  .  .  .    Six  months. 

Mr.  B.  McTeman,  T.C Two  months. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Quilty,  Co.  C Short  sentence. 

700 


NATIONALIST    REUNION 

Mr.  M.  O'Dwyer,  Templemore .  Five  months. 

Mr.  Patrick  Fitzpatrick,  Ros- 

crea Two  months. 

Mr.  David  Sheehan,  Roscrea.  .  One  month. 

Mr.  Thomas  Larkin,  Roscrea  .  Two  months. 

Mr.  John  Mitchel,  Roscrea.  .  .  .  Two  months. 

Mr.    Lynam,  editor  Waterford 

Star Two  months. 

Mrs.  Anne  O'Mahony,  proprie- 
tor Waterford  Star  (a  widow)  Two  months. 

The  first  name  on  this  Hst  is  one  of  the  most  deservedly 
popular  members  of  Parliament  and  public  men  in  Ireland, 
a  nationalist  with  a  record  second  to  that  of  few  men  in  the 
popular  movement  for  the  very  highest  qualities  of  political 
life  and  for  years  of  devoted  service  to  the  national  cause. 

The  last  name  on  Mr.  Wyndham's  list  is  that  of  a  lady, 
widow  of  a  very  sterling  worker  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
agitation.  Mrs.  O'Mahony  refused  to  give  the  names  of  some 
leaguers  who  proposed  resolutions  at  some  branch  meeting 
and  who  sent  the  terms  of  these  motions  to  her  paper  for  pub- 
lication. This  was  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  "crime"  for 
which  English  law  in  Ireland  consigned  her,  as  a  felon,  to  an 
Irish  jail. 

And  it  is  of  such  as  these  that  English  coercion,  invoked  by 
Irish  landlordism,  makes  "criminals"  in  Ireland! 


CHAPTER  LVIII 
THE     LAND-PURCHASE     ACT     OF     1903 

These  imprisonments  of  public  men  in  a  crimeless  country, 
and  the  visit  to  Ireland  of  special  correspondents  from  leading 
American  papers  as  a  result  of  the  Redmond-Dillon  mission, 
and  the  revived  interest  thereby  occasioned  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  Irish  movement,  were  potent  factors  in  bringing  about 
the  change  of  policy  which  procured  the  abandonment  of 
coercion  once  again.  No  English  ministry  can  now  ignore  a 
marked  trend  of  American  feeling  in  a  sympathetic  support 
of  reasonable  Irish  demands.  It  is  the  plea  of  an  inter- 
national influence  from  one  of  the  greatest  of  modem  nations 
— from  the  one  mighty  power  with  whom  Great  Britain  is 
daily  yearning  for  a  closer  friendship  than  is  possible  with 
Japan  or  Portugal;  for  a  possible  alliance  that  would  be 
worth  that  of  any  two  European  governments,  great  or 
small.  All  this  tells  for  Ireland,  because  the  millions  of  our 
race  in  Brother  Jonathan's  colossal  republic  cannot  be  ig- 
nored by  any  American  political  party.  And  herein  lies  a 
situation  suggesting  some  poetic  justice:  Over  one  hundred 
and  thirty  years  ago  English  feudalism  in  Ireland  drove  so 
many  Irish  away  that  half  of  General  Washington's  army  in 
the  War  of  Independence  was  recruited  from  the  ranks  of 
these  exiles.  To-day  the  movement  for  the  ending  of  this 
same  evil  land  system  in  Ireland  derives  one  of  its  strongest 
impulses  from  the  assistance  and  encouragement  extended 
to  us  by  the  people  of  Washington's  world-power  nation. 

No  reference  to  this  crucial  period  in  the  history  of  the 
Irish  land  war  can  overlook  the  part  played  by  the  tenants  on 
one  or  two  small  estates  in  County  Roscommon.  They  justly 
complained  of  high  rents  levied  on  poor  land.  Their  holdings 
were  of  the  typical  Connaught  kind,  uneconomic  generally, 
with  an  abundance  of  better  land  close  by  given  over  to  graz- 
ing interests.  They  formed  a  local  combination — confined,  in 
fact,  to  the  tenantry  themselves — and,  on  having  their  demands 
for  a  fairer  rent,  or  for  a  purchase  of  the  land,  refused  by  the 
landlords,  they  went  on  strike  (to  pay  no  rent)  against  a  con- 

702 


THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF    1903 

tinuance  of  the  old  conditions.  They  were  not  advised  to 
this  action  by  the  directory  of  the  United  Irish  League.  Its 
leaders  believed  it  to  be  a  right  demand  put  forward  in  a 
wrong  way.  The  tenants  were  left  in  their  contest  to  the 
guidance  of  local  sympathizers,  one  of  whom,  Mr.  John  Fitz- 
gibbon,  an  old-time  Land-League  leader,  proved  the  sincerity 
of  his  sympathy  for  them  by  going  to  prison  in  their  behalf. 
It  was  not  a  successful  fight.  The  owners  were  Catholics. 
This  circumstance  appeared  to  cover  a  multitude  of  landlord 
sins  in  the  minds  of  some  discriminating  Catholic  dignitaries 
whose  political  charity  would  scarcely  extend  to  the  same 
lengths  in  the  case  of  heavy  rents  going  into  Protestant  land- 
lord pockets.  The  landlords  secured  the  moral  support  of  a 
local  bishop  and  beat  the  combination.  The  fight  was,  in  a 
sense,  a  failure,  but  it  was  like  unto  some  defeats  in  a  right 
cause — the  victory  gained  by  the  landlords  and  their  clerical 
allies  was  of  a  Pyrrhic  nature. 

In  the  session  of  1902  Mr.  George  Wyndham  introduced  yet 
another  Irish  land  bill.  Three  powerful  influences  combined 
to  make  this  step  expedient.  One  was  the  approach  of  the 
third-term  judicial-lease  period,  under  the  Land  Act  of  1881, 
which  provided  that  rents  were  to  be  adjusted  every  fifteen 
years  at  the  instance  of  tenant  or  landlord.  The  average 
reduction  that  was  made  on  the  first  term  was  over  twenty  per 
cent.  That  on  the  second  term  averaged  twenty-two  per  cent. 
As  prices  were  still  being  affected  by  outside  competition  and 
other  causes,  a  further  abatement  of  at  least  twenty  per 
cent,  would,  in  all  probability,  follow  the  application  of  the 
law  of  1 88 1  to  the  rentals  of  1911.  This  would  mean  the  lop- 
ping off  of  sixty  per  cent,  of  the  income  of  the  Tory  landlord 
class  of  Ireland.  It  would  be  only  economic  and  legal  justice 
to  the  tenants,  but  would  spell  ruin  for  the  landlords.  In  the 
mean  time  it  would  weaken  their  credit,  alarm  English  mort- 
gagees, and  menace  with  future  bankruptcy  three  -  fourths 
of  the  ex-rack-renters  and  evictors  of  Ireland. 

The  second  impulse  behind  the  chief  secretary's  action  was 
the  drop  that  had  taken  place  in  the  value  of  the  guaranteed 
land  stock,  created  under  the  Balfour  Land  Act  of  1891,  in 
which  selling  landlords  were  paid  the  price  of  their  properties. 
This  stock  carried  by  law  the  interest  and  value  of  consols. 
On  the  eve  of  the  South  African  War  these  government  se- 
curities stood  in  the  money  market  of  London  at  114.  When 
Mr.  Wyndham's  bill  was  introduced  they  had  fallen  to  90. 
To-day  they  are  under  that  figure.  This  depreciation  repre- 
sented a  loss  to  the  selling  landlord  of  £2/^  in  every  ;^ioo  worth 
of  land  disposed  of. 

703 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

The  next  cause,  after  the  necessities  of  the  landlords,  which 
called  for  more  legislation  was  that  of  the  United-Irish- 
League  movement  and  the  co  -  operating  influences  already 
described.  The  country  was  absolutely  crimeless.  Ridicu- 
lous prosecutions  were  multiplying.  Members  of  Parliament 
were  sent  to  jail,  meetings  were  being  suppressed,  until  public 
opinion  was  again  clamoring  for  some  measure  that  would 
put  an  end  to  the  whole  land  war  and  give  agrarian  peace  to 
the  country.     So  Mr.  Wyndham  produced  his  bill. 

It  proposed  to  oil  the  wheels  of  land  purchase  by  means 
which  would  induce  landlords  to  sell  and  tenants  to  buy  more 
speedily  than  under  the  Ashbourne-Balfour  acts  of  previous 
years.  This  was  to  be  done  by  lowering  the  sum  payable 
annually  by  the  buying  tenant  (in  combined  interest  and  sink- 
ing fund)  from  £^  on  each  ;^ioo  loan  to  ^3  155.  The  owner 
would  also  be  paid  in  cash,  and  not  in  depreciated  consols 
(no  longer  value  for  ;^ii4),  an  arrangement  that  would  also 
add  materially  to  his  advantages  in  the  transaction. 

The  tenant  would  be  coerced,  in  a  sense,  to  buy  his  holding 
(a  strange  Tory  proposal  in  the  light  of  past  English  policy  in 
Ireland!)  by  a  pressure  that  would  deprive  him  of  some  ex- 
isting advantages  under  the  Gladstone  law  of  1881,  should  he 
refuse  reasonable  terms  of  purchase  offered  to  him  from  the 
land  commission.  Special  commissioners  were  to  be  created 
for  the  quicker  working  of  land  purchase,  with  the  view  of  the 
final  solution  of  the  Irish  land  problem  in  the  buying  out  of 
all  the  landlords  and  the  putting  in  of  the  tenants  as  the  oc- 
cupying owners  of  the  soil  of  the  country. 

There  were  some  proposals  in  the  bill  obnoxious  to  the 
prevalent  popular  opinions  in  Ireland  on  land  purchase,  es- 
pecially the  semi-penal  pressure  in  section  36.  Mr.  Wynd- 
ham, however,  made  it  clear  that  reasoned  objections  against 
these  clauses,  and  to  the  other  parts  of  his  plan,  would  not 
be  considered  in  a  no)i  possnmus  spirit. 

This  bill,  unfortunately,  was  condemned  and  rejected  by 
the  Irish  party,  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy  excepted. 

A  combative  plan  of  anti-landlord  agitation  was  now  put 
forward  by  some  of  the  leaders  of  the  United  Irish  League 
to  rouse  the  country  into  what  was  hoped  would  be  "a  men- 
acing agitation."  The  plan  was  to  partake  of  a  policy  for  the 
rental  and  social  "picketing"  of  landlords  on  trades-union 
lines,  in  some  undefined  manner,  who  should  be  unwilling  to 
sell  their  estates.  There  was  likewise  to  be  a  more  vigorous 
boycotting  of  land-grabbers  who  should  occupy  evicted  farms. 

The  landlords  struck  back  at  this  still-born  scheme  of 
aggressive   persuasion,   and   defeated   its   plan   and   purpose 

704 


THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF    1903 

by  the  simple  counter  stroke  of  assisting  a  boycotted  mer- 
chant, in  a  town  called  Tallow,  to  take  civil  action  for  high 
damages  against  the  officers  of  the  local  branch  of  the  league 
for  alleged  injury  done  to  his  business.  The  case  came  to 
trial  in  Dublin,  and  the  superior  courts  awarded  the  com- 
plainant ;£7ooo  damages. 

Lord  De  Freyne,  the  owner  of  one  of  the  Roscommon 
estates  already  alluded  to,  instituted  proceedings  of  a  similar 
kind  against  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  league 
directory.  Thus  attacked  on  both  lines  of  a  not  too  wisely 
thought  out  plan  of  operations,  some  of  the  leading  league 
leaders  took  fright,  and  went  into  a  land  conference  with 
certain  members  of  the  landlord  party. 

The  origin  of  this  conference  is,  to  some  extent,  a  matter  of 
dispute.  The  Catholic  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  Dr.  Walsh,  a 
lifelong  friend  of  the  cause  of  land  reform,  proposed  a  gather- 
ing of  this  kind  earlier  in  the  year  1902.  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy 
also  advocated  a  similar  m.eeting.  A  leading  landlord  in  the 
South  of  Ireland,  Mr.  Talbot  Crosbie,  of  Kerry,  and  others  of 
less  note,  wrote  letters  to  the  press  urging  the  adoption  of  a 
conciliatory  plan  of  consultation  between  tenants'  and  land- 
lords' leaders  to  find  a  basis  of  settlement.  Finally,  Mr. 
George  Wyndham  declared  publicly  that  the  settlement  of 
the  Irish  land  question  lay  with  Irishmen,  in  a  friendly 
arrangement  of  terms,  and  not  with  the  English  government. 

Captain  Shawe-Taylor,  son  of  a  Galway  landlord,  here  en- 
tered upon  the  scene.  He  openly  invited  the  Duke  of  Aber- 
corn,  Lord  Barrymore,  and  some  others,  in  behalf  of  the  land- 
lords, to  meet  Messrs.  John  Redmond,  William  O'Brien,  T.  W. 
Russell,  and  Lord  Mayor  Harrington,  of  Dublin,  in  behalf  of 
the  tenants.  The  landlords  named  declined  to  act,  where- 
upon Captain  Shawe-Taylor  invited  Lord  Dunraven,  the 
Earl  of  Mayo,  Colonel  Hutchinson-Poe,  and  Colonel  Everard, 
as  new  nominees  for  the  landlord  side,  with  the  gentlemen 
already  mentioned  for  the  tenants.  These  parties  mutually 
agreed  to  meet  in  the  Mansion  House,  Dublin,  and  the  land 
conference  thus  suggested  began  its  work  in  December,  1902, 
with  Lord  Dunraven  as  chairman. 

The  selection  of  the  names  on  both  sides  was  an  arbitrary 
one.  Rightly  or  wrongly  it  was  attributed  to  Mr.  Wyndham. 
But  the  public  appeared  to  think  that  the  gentlemen  so  named 
might  be  jointly  capable  of  producing  a  workable  plan  of  set- 
tlement for  public  discussion  and  consideration. 

On  January  3,  1903,  the  conference  proposals  were  put  be- 
fore the  public  through  the  press.  Some  of  these  were  of  a 
startling  character  and  were  hailed  with  keen  satisfaction  by 
45  705 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

extreme  landlord  organs.  The  following  were  among  the 
terms  agreed  to: 

"4.  An  equitable  price  ought  to  be  paid  to  the  owners, 
which  should  be  based  upon  income. 

"  Income,  as  it  appears  to  us,  is  second-term  rents,  including 
all  rents  fixed  subsequent  to  the  passing  of  the  act  of  i8g6, 
or  their  fair  equivalent. 

"5.  That  the  purchase  price  should  be  based  upon  income 
as  indicated  above,  and  should  be  either  the  assuraiace  bv 
the  state  of  such  income,  or  the  payment  of  a  capital  sum 
producing  such  income  at  three  per  cent.,  or  at  three  and  a 
half  per  cent.,  if  guaranteed  by  the  state,  or  if  the  existing 
powers  of  trustees  be  sufficiently  enlarged. 

"Costs  of  collection  (of  estate  rentals)  where  sttch  exist,  not 
exceeding  ten  per  cent.,  are  not  included  for  the  purpose 
of  these  paragraphs  in  the  word  income. 

"6.  That  such  income  or  capital  sum  should  be  obtainable 
by  the  owners  (a)  Without  the  requirement  of  capital  outlay 
upon  their  part,  such  as  would  be  involved  by  charges  for 
proving  title  to  sell ;  six  years'  possession  as  proposed  in  the 
bill  of  1902  appears  to  us  a  satisfactory  method  of  dealing 
with  the  matter;  (b)  Without  the  requirement  of  outlay  to 
prove  title  to  receive  the  purchase  money;  (c)  Without  un- 
reasonable delay ;  (d)  Without  loss  of  income  pending  invest- 
ment ;  (c)  And  without  leaving  portion  of  the  capital  sum  as 
a  guarantee  deposit."  * 

In  addition  to  these  extravagant  terms,  the  landlords  were 
to  be  enabled  to  sell  their  mansions  and  demesne  lands  to 
the  state,  to  be  bought  back  again  by  themselves!  And  this, 
too,  on  the  same  terms  as  tenants  would  buy  their  farms; 
such  repurchase  not  to  be  considered  a  security  to  the 
mortgagees.     It  was  also  provided, 

"That  the  owners  should  receive  some  recognition  of  the 
facts  that  selling  may  involve  sacrifice  of  sentiment,  that  they 
have  already  suffered  heavily  by  the  operations  of  the  land 
acts,  and  that  they  should  receive  some  inducements  to  sell." 

On  the  landlord  side  it  was  conceded  that  the  system  of 
dual  ownership  should  be  abolished,  the  tenants  to  be  made 
occupying  proprietors,  the  evicted  tenants  to  be  restored  on 
an  equitable  basis;  that  "separate  and  exceptional  treat- 
ment" should  be  accorded  to  the  congested  districts,  with  a 
view  to  the  better  distribution  of  the  population  and  of  the 
land,  with  some  recommendations  for  the  amendment  of  the 
laborers '-dwelHngs  acts. 

*  Parliamentary  paper,  "Land  Purchase  (Ireland),"  March  25, 
1903,  pp.  6,  7. 

706 


THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF    1903 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  publication  of  this  agreement 
was  to  inflate  the  value  of  landlord  property  over  thirty  per 
cent.  The  proposed  settlement  set  out  above  would  amount 
to  an  average  of  twenty-seven  years'  purchase  of  an  annual 
rental  that  had  brought  an  average  of  less  than  eighteen 
years'  purchase  in  the  land  market  of  Ireland  since  1885. 
The  plan  was  very  adroitly  contrived  so  as  to  insure  the 
landlord  the  maximum  price  and  advantage  in  every  detail 
of  the  transactions  of  purchase  while  confining  the  tenants 
within  a  ring  of  zones  with  a  minimum  advantage  of  fifteen 
per  cent,  and  a  maximum  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  "on  second- 
term  rents  or  their  fair  equivalent,"  but  with  periodical  re- 
ductions under  the  decadal  plan  of  calculated  abatements. 

The  previous  custom  of  calculating  the  value  of  the  land- 
lords' selling  interest  by  so  many  years'  purchase  of  the 
rental  was  discarded  by  Lord  Dunraven  and  the  ingenious 
financial  device  set  out  above  substituted.  This  new  plan 
enabled  him  to  obtain  an  agreement  from  the  other  side  to 
terms  that  would  probably  have  been  at  once  rejected  if  put 
forward  in  the  more  comprehensible  manner  that  had  neither 
puzzled  tenants  nor  their  leaders  dtiring  the  previous  eighteen 
years'  experience  of  the  working  of  the  purchase  acts. 

Taking  into  account  the  falling  price  of  land  in  England, 
the  steady  effects  of  the  working  of  the  Land  Act  of  i88t  in 
bringing  down  the  selling  value  of  land  in  Ireland,  the  near 
approach  of  the  third -term  judicial  rent,  and  of  the  facts 
generally  known  and  acknowledged  that  the  improvements  in 
the  soil  of  Ireland  are  solely  the  work  of  the  tenants,  the  terms 
secured  for  the  owners  in  the  joint  agreement  represented  the 
reconquest  by  Lord  Dunraven  (for  the  landlords  who  had  not 
sold  their  properties)  from  the  spokesmen  of  the  tenants  of 
almost  all  that  the  land  movement  and  the  land  acts  had  won 
during  the  preceding  twenty  years  for  those  tenants  who  had 
not  bought  their  holdings. 

The  oldest  land  reformers  in  the  country  severely  criticised 
this  surrender,  and  an  angry  controversy  arose.  Mr.  Wyndham 
was  quick  to  see  the  enormous  concessions  made  to  the  class  he 
chiefly  represented ,  and  he  discarded  the  bill  of  1 902 ,  and  framed 
one  more  or  less  on  the  lines  of  the  land-conference  report. 

A  national  convention  was  summoned  by  the  United  Irish 
League  to  discuss  and  pass  upon  this  measure.  It  assembled 
in  Dublin  in  May,  and  remained  in  session  for  two  days. 
Fully  two  thousand  delegates  attended,  and  the  ability, 
self-restraint,  and  practical  good  sense  which  characterized 
the  entire  business,  under  Mr.  John  Redmond's  able  presi- 
dency, attracted  wide  and  favorable  attention.     A  series  of 

707 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

resolutions  were  debated  and  carried,  calling  for  radical 
amendments  in  twenty  or  more  clauses  of  the  bill,  and  a 
mandate  was  given  to  the  Irish  parliamentary  party  to  press 
for  and  to  obtain  these  amendments,  as  vitally  necessary 
to  the  making  of  the  measure  acceptable  to  the  country  as  a 
final  settlement  of  the  land  question. 

A  very  foolish  policy  of  over-lauding  the  bill  was  adopted 
by  some  of  the  tenants'  leaders,  which  had  the  effect  of  kill- 
ing in  advance  the  chances  that  had  existed  of  obtaining  these 
essential  improvements  of  the  measure  in  Parliament.  Noth- 
ing could  well  have  been  more  maladroit  or  politically  short- 
sighted than  this  policy.  It  had  the  doubly  injurious  effect 
of  closing  the  avenues  to  effective  amendment,  and  of  inciting 
the  landlords  to  turn  this  ridiculous  praise  of  Mr.  Wyndham's 
scheme,  already  so  enormously  advantageous  to  their  interest, 
into  additional  demands  for  prices  inflated  by  such  laudation. 

The  chief  secretary  also  took  the  fullest  advantage  of  this 
unwise  action  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  tenants'  representa- 
tives. He  took  the  rhetorical  booming  of  his  bill  as  a  testi- 
mony, from  his  opponents,  of  the  fairness  and  sufficiency  of 
his  proposals.  He  succeeded  in  carrying  the  measure  through 
Parliament  without  a  single  division  being  challenged  upon 
any  of  the  manv  serious  defects  which  obtruded  themselves 
through  the  framework  of  the  latest  parliamentary  scheme 
for  the  ending  of  the  Irish  agrarian  war. 

There  was  no  provision  of  any  kind  made  in  the  new  act 
for  any  local  or  national  responsibility  in  Ireland  for  either 
the  initial  stages  of  settlement  or  for  the  administration  of  a 
system  which  was  to  transform  four  or  five  hundred  thousand 
landholders  into  state  tenants  during  a  period  of  seventy 
years.  On  the  contrary,  the  administration  of  the  law  was  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  three  estates  commissioners — officials  respon- 
sible, not  to  the  Irish  people,  but  to  the  Imperial  Parliament. 

No  provision  was  made  to  protect  the  homes  of  the 
peasantry  under  the  new  land  code  by  such  homestead 
laws  as  obtain  in  the  United  States  and  Canada. 

No  clause  was  inserted  to  encourage  tillage  industry  by 
means  that  would  make  the  buying  of  grazing  -  lands  con- 
ditional upon  the  compulsory  allocation  of  some  percentage 
of  such  soil  by  the  purchasers  to  the  employment  of  labor. 

No  compulsory  powers  were  granted  to  the  estates  com- 
missioners to  deal  with  the  exceptional  conditions  prevailing 
in  the  congested  districts.  It  is  likewise  a  debatable  ques- 
tion whether  the  act,  as  it  stands,  really  enables  the  com- 
missioners to  do  more  than  facilitate  the  action  of  the  land- 
lords  in    disposing   of   the  least    remunerative  part   of  their 

708 


THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF    1903 

estates  without  the  power  of  making  the  owners  include 
the  whole  of  their  land  in  the  sale  transaction. 

A  favorable  chance  was  also  lost  in  permitting  the  govern- 
ment and  the  landlords  to  secure  such  extravagant  terms 
of  settlement,  at  the  risk  and  expense  involved  to  the  state, 
without  obtaining  a  complete  amendment  of  the  agricultural 
laborers'  dwellings  act  in  what  purported  to  be  a  final  solution 
of  the  land  question.  Such  an  act  of  justice  to  a  most 
deserving  class  was  urgently  called  for  and  could  have  been 
won  by  adequate  pressure. 

What  the  act  really  does,  however,  towards  the  ending  of 
the  Irish  land  war  is  to  provide  a  total  sum  of  ;^i  12,000,000, 
in  state  credit,  towards  the  carrying  out  of  this  great  work. 
One  hundred  of  these  millions  are  loanable  at  the  terms  of 
;^3  55.  for  each  ;^i 00;  £2  155.  for  annual  interest,  and  ten  shil- 
lings towards  a  sinking  fund,  but  with  no  decadal  abatements. 

Twelve  millions  are  a  bonus  from  the  state,  presumably  to 
encourage  the  landlords  to  sell  and  the  tenants  to  buy — a  condi- 
tion which  is  likely  to  be  interpreted  as  meaning  that  the  whole 
sum  is  to  be  added  to  the  extra  price  demanded  by  the  landlords 
under  the  "boom"  created  by  the  land  conference  agreement. 

Provisions  in  the  act  secure  the  state  against  possible  loss 
through  the  failure  or  refusal  of  tenants  to  pay  their  annual 
instalments.  The  results  of  improvident  bargains,  or  of  re- 
pudiations by  purchasers,  are  made  to  fall  upon  the  general 
taxpayers  of  Ireland;  though  these  have  no  voice  of  any  kind 
in  the  arranging  of  terms  of  purchase  or  in  the  administration 
of  the  land  after  being  sold  by  the  landlord. 

The  folio wmg  tables  and  calculations  bearing  upon  the 
purely  financial  character  of  the  new  land  law,  and  its  com- 
parison with  the  working  of  previous  purchase  acts,  have 
been  prepared  by  Mr.  Thomas  Sexton,  and  published  in  the 
Freeman's  Journal,  as  guides  to  the  right  understanding  by 
the  public  of  the  money-part  of  the  latest  land-purchase  act : 

"THE     OLD     ACTS    AND     THE     NEW 

"  REDUCTIONS    COMPARED 

With  the  4  per  cent,  annuity 
rate,  and  decadal  reduc- 
tions, the  average  price 
paid  under  the  Ashbourne 
acts,  viz.,  17  years'  pur- 
chase, secured  an  average 
yearly     reduction     of    the 

rent  by 

709 


46  per  cent.,  or  gs.  2d.  in  the 
pound. 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 


With  the  4  per  cent,  annuity 
rate,  and  decadal  reduc- 
tions, the  average  price 
under  the  Balfour  acts  — 
which  was  a  fraction  over 
17  years'  purchase  —  se- 
cured   an    average    yearly 


reduction  of  the  rent  by 

The  same  17  years'  purchase 
under  the  new  act,  with 
3I  annuity  rate,  but  no  dec- 
adal reductions,  would  re- 
sult in  a  yearly  abatement 
of  the  rent  by  nearly 

23  years'  purchase  under  the 
new  act  would  give  a  re- 
duction   of   only 


49  per  cent.,  or  95.  gd.  in  the 
pound. 


45    per 


cent.,   or 
pound 


95.    in    the 


25    per  cent.,    or    55. 
pound. 


in   the 


!7  years'  purchase  under  the"] 
new  act  would  give  a  re-  > 
duction  of  only J 


2  per  cent.,  or  25 
pound. 


6d.  in  the 


"  Under  the  act  of  1903  the  interest  charged  to  the  tenant, 
2 1  per  cent.,  remains  the  same  as  before,  but  the  sinking  fund 
to  pay  off  the  loan  has  been  cut  down  from  255.  to  10s.  per  cent., 
so  that  the  whole  charge  has  been  altered  from  ;^4  to  £7,  55.  per 
cent.,  with  two  results  unfavorable  to  the  purchaser:  the  one, 
that  he  must  pay  his  annuity  for  twenty-six  years  longer  than 
before;  the  other,  that  decadal  reductions  are  abolished,  and 
the  full  annuity  must  be  paid  from  the  beginning  to  the  end. 

"  The  tenant  who  buys  under  the  new  act  must  pay  instal- 
ments amounting  to  ;^222  for  every  ;^ioo  lent  to  him  by  the 
treasury,  while  the  purchaser  under  the  act  of  i<S96  is  to  pay 
;^2io  for  every  ;^ioo,  if  he  takes  the  decadal  reductions,  and 
only  ^(^170  if  he  does  not. 


"LANDLORDS'     BONUSES 

"  Laiu  Costs.  —  Certain  legal  expenses  heretofore  charged 
against  the  purchase  money,  but  in  future  to  be  paid  out  of 
public  funds,  will  in  most  cases  be  equal  to  a  gift  of  one  year's 
purchase. 

"  Cash  instead  of  Stock. — This  change  effected  by  the  new 

710 


THE    LAND-PURCHASE    ACT    OF    1903 

act  is  equal  to  a  gain  (in  comparison  with  sales  since  1899) 
of  one  to  two  years'  purchase. 

"  Grant  in  Aid. — The  new  bonus  of  12  per  cent,  on  the  pur- 
chase money  amounts  to  usually  two  to  three  years'  purchase. 

''Residence,  Demesne,  etc. — In  cases  where  the  new  provision 
for  raising  money  on  residence  and  untenanted  land  can  be 
applied,  and  is  fully  used,  the  gain  will  be  as  good  as  two 
years'  purchase. 

''Mortgages. — Where  mortgages  now  consume,  say,  one-third 
of  the  rental,  the  gain  by  paying  them  off  will  be  equal  to 
about  two  years'  purchase. 

"  (When  the  charge  is  heavier  the  benefit  will  be  greater.) 

" SUMMARY 

"  The  landlord  selling  under  the  new  act  will  be  free  of  law 
costs  (usually  equal  to  at  least  one  year's  purchase)  that  all 
previous  vendors  had  to  pay.  He  escapes  a  loss  of  the  differ- 
ence between  cash  and  the  value  of  stock,  which  reduced  by 
from  one  to  two  years'  purchase  the  proceeds  of  all  sales  since 
1899.  And  he  also  receives,  in  the  bonus,  a  new  gift  worth 
from  two  to  three  years'  purchase. 

"  The  benefit,  therefore,  under  these  three  heads  amounts  to 
from  four  to  six  years'  purchase,  to  which  two  years'  purchase 
may  be  added  when  full  advantage  is  taken  of  the  provision 
for  raising  money  on  residence  and  untenanted  land,  and  also 
two  years'  purchase  for  improvement  of  income,  when  a  mort- 
gage charge  equal  to  one-third  of  the  rental  is  extinguished. 
This  makes  a  total  gain  of  from  six  to  eight  years'  purchase  in 
the  former  case,  and  from  eight  to  ten  in  the  latter,  with  a 
further  proportionate  increase  of  profit  whenever  mortgage 
charges  exceed  one-third  of  the  rental. 

"  The  prices  at  which  estates  were  sold  in  the  land  judges' 
court  from  1880  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  test  of  the  outside 
value  to  the  last  penny  that  could  be  screwed  out  of  tenants 
or  outside  competitors  by  the  pressure  of  the  court.  The 
measure  of  price  then  and  now  was  the  number  of  years' 
purchase ;  so  comparison  is  at  once  available.  For  simplicity's 
sake,  we  will  take  round  numbers,  discarding  the  decimals:  In 
1880,  the  price  was  sixteen  years'  purchase;  in  1881,  fifteen 
years';  in  1882,  seventeen  years';  in  1883,  fourteen  years';  in 
1884,  nineteen  years';  in  1885,  fourteen  years';  in  1886,  four- 
teen years';  in  1887,  fifteen  years';  in  1888,  fourteen  years'; 
in  1889,  fourteen  years';  in  1890,  fifteen  years';  in  1891,  four- 
teen years';  in  1892,  twelve  years';  in  1893,  sixteen  years';  in 

711 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

1894,  fifteen  years';  in  1895,  sixteen  years';  in  1896,  fifteen 
years';  in  1897,  fifteen  years';  in  1898,  sixteen  years';  in  1899, 
sixteen  years';  in  1900,  fifteen  years';  and  in  1901,  fifteen 
years'.  These  figures  are  open  to  every  one  who  cares  to 
look  them  up  in  page  708  of  Thorn's  Directory  for  the  current 
year.  As  will  be  apparent  at  a  glance,  they  are  far  below  the 
average  of  number  of  years'  purchase  of  annual  value — that 
is  to  say,  second-term  rents,  or  their  fair  equivalents,  which 
has  been  suggested  in  these  columns  as  a  possiljle  and  reason- 
able price  under  the  land  act." 


CHAPTER  LIX 
SOLDIERS     IN     THE     FIGHT 

I  ESTIMATE  that  a  sum  of  upward  of  ;^i,2oo,ooo  was  con- 
tributed by  the  Irish  race  to  the  various  funds  and  purposes 
of  the  national  movement  of  the  past  quarter  of  a  century. 
Ireland  herself  subscribed  fully  ;^6oo,ooo  of  this,  in  response 
to  the  appeals  that  have  been  made  from  time  to  time,  for 
relief  of  distress,  election  and  parliamentary  funds,  evicted 
tenants,  legal  defence,  testimonials  to  leaders,  and  subsidiary 
purposes. 

From  the  United  States  about  ;^5oo,ooo  came;  ;^2 50,000  in 
the  Land  League  period,  up  to  October,  1882;  ^(^210, 000  dur- 
ing the  National  League;  ^30,000  during  the  National  Fed- 
eration, and  ^12,000,  so  far,  in  support  of  the  LTnited  Irish 
League. 

From  Australasia  about  ;^6o,ooo;  Canada,  ^12,000;  the 
Irish  leagues  of  Great  Britain,  ^^20,000;  with  ;^io,ooo  from 
the  late  Cecil  Rhodes  to  Mr.  Parnell. 

This  is  only  a  rough  estimate,  and  is  not  made  from  account- 
books.  Of  this  total  sum  fully  ;^30o,ooo  went  to  the  evicted 
tenants  and  their  special  cause;  ;/^6o,ooo  to  relief  of  distress; 
;^ioo,ooo  to  lawyers  in  state  trials,  costs  of  prosecutions,  fines, 
etc. ;  _^5o,ooo  in  support  of  prisoners'  families,  cost  of  Land- 
League  huts,  grants  to  persons  or  properties  injured  in  the 
service  of  the  movement,  subsidies  to  publishing  departments, 
etc.;  ^80,000  in  testimonials  to  certain  leaders,  national  and 
local;  and  the  balance  to  election  purposes,  payments  to 
members  of  parliament,  official  expenses,  the  salaries  of  or- 
ganizers, and  the  general  political  outlay  of  the  movement. 

This  story  now  comes  to  a  close.  The  ground  it  has  covered, 
and  the  wide  purview  of  its  scope,  in  an  attempted  narrative 
of  a  struggle  that  has  gone  on  for  over  two  hundred  years, 
made  it  quite  impossible  for  me  to  do  anything  like  justice  to 
men  who  have  borne  a  valued  and  memorable  part  in  the  work 
of  the  past  twenty-five  years'  portion  of  this  struggle.  To 
have  rendered  such  justice  in  full  measure  would  have  re- 
quired the  space  of  half  a  dozen  volumes. 

7^3 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

And  as  in  the  records  of  actual  warfare,  so  in  those  of 
pohtical  movements:  the  rank  and  file,  who  get  killed,  or 
maimed  for  life,  are  passed  over  in  a  general  recognition  of 
their  worth  and  work,  while  special  mention  belongs  only  or 
mainly  to  those  in  command.  In  the  Irish  agrarian  war  the 
evicted  tenants  have  been  the  chief  sufferers.  Theirs  was  the 
sacrifice  of  home,  and  often  of  life,  in  the  loss  of  all  that  some- 
times makes  existence  worth  preserving.  To  them,  then — 
the  myriads  of  Celtic  peasants  who  have  thus  paid  the  penal- 
ties of  a  long  and  righteous  conflict  now  nearing  its  triumphant 
ending — be  the  most  honor  and  gratitude  rendered  in  the  mem- 
ories of  the  emancipated  peasantry  of  future  Irish  generations. 

Able  and  loyal  workers,  almost  innumerable,  in  Ireland  and 
beyond  the  seas,  who  have  fought  in  this  good  fight,  are  like- 
wise shut  out  from  recognition,  only  because  it  would  be  im- 
possible to  place  all  such  names  on  record. 

There  are,  however,  a  few  men  whose  names  have  occasion- 
ally cropped  up  in  the  course  of  my  story  who  demand,  as  a 
matter  of  unquestioned  right,  a  fuller  mention  of  conspicuous 
and  lengthened  labor  from  the  Land-League  time  to  the  pres- 
ent. Some  of  these  stand  out  prominently  in  the  roll-call  of 
veterans:  Andrew  J.  Kettle,  of  County  Dublin;  Bailie  John 
Ferguson,  of  Glasgow;  Alfred  Webb,  of  Dublin  City,  and  a 
few  others. 

Of  Mr.  Kettle  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  he  has  been 
one  of  the  most  loyal,  energetic,  and  able  advocates  given  by 
the  gentleman  farmer  class  of  Ireland  to  the  cause  of  tenant- 
right  and  nationalism,  from  1848  to  the  present  time.  He  has 
been  both  a  friend  and  lieutenant  to  every  leader  of  the  people 
in  his  long  life  of  most  useful  service  to  his  country,  and  was 
honored  by  each  and  all  of  them  as  his  sterling  qualities  and 
conspicuous  abilities  entitled  him  to  be. 

John  Ferguson  is  known  to  the  race  of  which  he  has  ever 
been  the  highest  type  of  intellectual  leader  as  a  man  of  rare 
eloquence,  of  fearless  nationalism,  and  of  untiring  service  in 
behalf  of  the  Irish  people.  He  is  in  our  time  a  connecting 
link,  in  the  roll  of  Irish  Protestant  champions  of  all  good 
causes,  with  the  Parnells,  Butts,  Mitchels,  Emmets,  Tones, 
and  Grattans,  that  carries  the  record  of  noble  labors  for  lib- 
erty back  to  the  names  of  Lucas,  Molyneux,  and  Swift.  Dur- 
ing the  past  quarter  of  a  century  his  work  for  Ireland  has 
been  most  valuable  and  continuous,  and  it  is  a  matter  of  pride 
to  his  countless  friends  to  know  that  he  is  to-day  one  of  Glas- 
gow's most  prominent  city  councillors  and  a  recognized  leader 
on  land  and  social  questions  among  the  foremost  thinkers  and 
advocates  in  Great  Britain. 

714 


SOLDIERS    IN    THE    FIGHT 

Alfred  Webb  is  another  honored  Hnk  with  the  generation 
before  this  and  with  its  leaders  and  best  workers  for  Ireland. 
A  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  and  a  man  of  the  rarest 
qualities,  he  has  been  a  guide,  and  in  many  ways  a  safeguard, 
in  all  the  movements  he  has  been  connected  with  in  a  long 
record  of  unostentatious  but  invaluable  labors  for  his  native 
land.  Never  hesitating  to  consider  if  a  word  in  season,  or  an 
act  demanded  by  prudence,  would  be  popular  or  otherwise, 
he  has  shown  a  courage  and  a  public  spirit  on  many  an  occa- 
sion, in  speech  and  letter,  which  denoted  the  man  with  char- 
acter gifts  of  the  highest  moral  bravery. 

Mr.  Webb  has  acted  as  treasurer  for  leagiies  and  funds  al- 
most without  count  in  his  public  career,  and  this  has  always 
been  a  guarantee  of  absolute  rectitude  in  the  control  and 
management  of  such  moneys. 

He  has  the  distinguished  honor  of  being  the  only  Irish 
nationalist  who  ever  attended  a  congress  of  native  Hindus- 
tani on  a  special  request  from  the  congress  movement  of 
India.  He  was  at  the  time  a  member  of  the  Irish  parlia- 
mentary party,  and  in  that  capacity,  and  as  a  warm  sym- 
pathizer with  the  cause  of  India's  countless  millions  of 
unenfranchised  British  subjects,  he  presided  at  an  annual 
convention  in  Madras,  in  the  nineties  of  the  last  century. 

Nor  can  the  name  of  T.  D.  Sullivan  be  overlooked.  His 
ballads  and  stirring  lyrics  in  the  Land-League  times  were  an 
encouraging  and  stimulating  force  in  days  when  help  of  every 
kind  was  most  needed  in  the  up-hill  fight  against  many  foes. 
In  many  ways,  too,  in  and  out  of  Parliament,  and  in  a 
constant  advocacy  of  the  peasants'  cause  in  his  papers, 
he  has  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  the  people  of  Ire- 
land. 

In  the  field  of  literature  help  has  also  been  given  in  the 
several  books  on  Irish  land  reform  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Barry 
O'Brien,  the  author  of  the  Lije  of  P  am  ell;  by  Dr.  Sigerson,  in 
his  History  of  the  Land  Tenure  and  Land  Classes  of  Ireland; 
by  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor,  M.P.,  in  his  book  The  Great  Irish 
Stru^^gle;  Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  in  his  work  .4  Word  for  Ireland, 
and  by  Mr.  Justin  McCarthy,  in  many  contributions  to  Eng- 
lish and  American  magazines. 

Throughout  the  entire  period  of  the  past  twenty-five  years 
the  Irish  of  Great  Britain  have  been  our  nearest  and  our 
stanchest  helpers  among  the  legions  of  our  race  abroad  who 
have  made  our  struggle  more  or  less  successful  in  its  aims. 
For  the  greater  part  of  this  period,  Mr.  T.  P.  O'Connor  has 
been  the  president  of  the  Irish  national  organizations  co- 
operating with  the  home  movement,  and  has  rendered  the 

715 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

most  signal  service  to  the  cause  of  land  reform  by  his  ability 
and  labors. 

Mr.  James  F.  X.  O'Brien,  M.P.,  has  also  filled,  for  a  long 
number  of  years,  the  responsible  post  of  general  secretary  to 
these  auxiliary  organizations.  He  is  one  of  the  oldest  living 
veterans  of  the  Irish  national  cause,  and  as  true  a  type  of 
Irish  patriot  as  ever  bore  the  Dalcassian  name. 

The  name  of  the  late  Hugh  Murphy,  of  Glasgow,  has  also 
a  claim  upon  Ireland's  grateful  recollection  for  his  unwearied 
labors  in  her  cause  during  the  last  twenty-five  years. 

From  Ireland  to  the  United  States:  Death  has  recently 
claimed  one  who  rendered  services  of  the  highest  value  to 
Ireland,  in  the  press  and  magazines  of  America — Mrs.  Margaret 
F.  Sullivan,  of  Chicago.  She  published  Ireland  of  To-day, 
in  the  middle  eighties,  and  in  its  brilliant  survey  of  the  Irish 
movement,  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  Parnell  period, 
she  brought  the  salient  facts  of  Ireland's  history,  with  great 
literary  skill,  before  the  wide  circle  of  her  readers. 

Among  other  names  conspicuously  identified  with  the  Irish 
cause  in  the  United  States  from  1879  until  their  death  are 
those  of  John  Boyle  O'Reilly  and  P.  J.  Flatley,  Boston; 
Miss  Fanny  Parnell,  James  Redpath,  Austen  E.  Ford,  Jr., 
Eugene  Kelly,  and  Dr.  Wallace,  New  York;  Daniel  Corkery, 
James  Sullivan,  and  John  J.  Fitzgibbon,  Chicago;  Dr.  Thomas 
O'Reilly,  St.  Louis;  John  Fitzgerald,  Lincoln,  Nebraska;  Judge 
Cooney,  Dr.  O'Toole,  and  Thaddeus  Flanagan,  San  Francisco. 

Of  living  loyal  helpers,  one  name  among  a  legion  stands 
out  in  the  records  of  the  American  auxiliary  movements. 
Its  mention  will  not  invite  the  suspicion  of  an  invidious 
distinction.  It  is  the  name  of  Patrick  Ford,  of  the  Irish 
World.  Mr.  Ford  has  been  actively  and  constantly  the 
most  powerful  support  of  the  struggle  in  Ireland  on  the 
American  continent.  His  services  to  the  Irish  people  in  the 
advocacy  of  their  cause  in  his  paper,  and  in  the  enormous 
financial  assistance  rendered  by  its  readers  and  friends  to  the 
Irish  national  leaders,  are  beyond  anything  ever  done  by  a 
weekly  newspaper  for  a  great  movement.  No  praise  that 
could  be  written  in  these  pages  would  be  deemed  extravagant 
or  undeserved  by  the  mass  of  the  people  of  Ireland  for  these 
invaluable  labors.  The  Irish  World  has  been  a  tower  of 
strength  in  every  conflict  of  the  past  quarter  of  a  century  in 
which  the  great  principle  of  "the  land  for  the  people"  was 
fought  for  and  upheld,  and  its  name  and  giant  efforts  in  a 
historic  social  and  national  revolution  will  always  be  linked 
with  the  name  and  achievements  of  the  Irish  Land  League. 

716 


CHAPTER  LX 
A    FUTURE    RACIAL    PROGRAMME 

"  Despotism  is  out  of  date.  We  can  govern  India;  we  cannot  gov- 
ern Ireland. 

"Be  it  so.  Then,  let  Ireland  be  free.  She  is  miserable  because 
she  is  unriiled.  We  might  rule  her,  but  we  will  not,  lest  our  arrange- 
ments at  home  might  be  interfered  with.  We  cannot  keep  a  people 
chained  to  us  to  be  perennially  wretched  because  it  is  inconvenient 
for  us  to  keep  order  among  them.  In  an  independent  Ireland  the 
ablest  and  strongest  would  come  to  the  front,  and  the  baser  elements 
be  crvished.  The  state  of  things  which  would  ensue  might  not  be 
satisfactory  to  us,  but  at  least  there  would  be  no  longer  the  inversion 
of  the  natural  order  which  is  maintained  by  the  English  connection 
and  the  compelled  slavery  of  education  and  intelligence  to  the  nu- 
merical majority.  This,  too,  is  called  impossible — yet,  if  we  will 
neither  rule  Ireland  nor  allow  the  Irish  to  rule  themselves,  nature  and 
fact  may  tell  us  that,  whether  we  will  or  no,  an  experiment  that  has 
lasted  for  seven  hundred  years  shall  be  tried  no  longer." — James  A. 
Froude:  History  of  the  English  in  Ireland,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  584,  585. 

Why  should  not  the  Irish  people  make  a  persistent  demand, 
inside  and  out  of  Parliament,  for  the  fullest  measure  of 
freedom  to  which,  as  a  separate  nationality  among  civil- 
ized peoples,  we  are  in  every  sense,  and  on  every  rational 
ground,  entitled?  Why  should  Ireland  not  be  a  state  in 
the  freest  and  fullest  sense  in  which  Holland,  Denmark, 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  Bulgaria,  Servia,  and  Greece  are 
nations.''  On  the  grounds  of  abstract  justice,  of  historic 
claim,  or  racial  right — or  on  that  of  England's  failure  in 
Ireland — our  demands  could  not,  in  reason,  be  disputed.  Eng- 
land has  not  alone  failed  to  wnn  our  assent  to  her  selfish 
dominion  over  us;  she  has  shown  her  incapacity  to  rule 
Ireland  either  for  its  contentment  or  prosperity,  or  for  her 
own  advantage  and  peace.  The  present  condition  and 
prospects  of  a  depopulated  country,  after  centuries  of  Eng- 
lish lordship,  and  a  hundred  years  of  direct  rule  over  us,  is 
alone  a  full  condemnation  of  the  system  of  government  which 
has  reduced  it  to  the  level  of  the  poorest  country  in  Europe, 
and  made  it  the  only  civilized  land  on  earth  in  which  a  hardy 
and  prolific  race  is  persistently  diminishing  in  numbers. 

717 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

There  are  two  grounds,  and  two  only,  which  can,  in  reason, 
be  advanced  by  Englishmen  against  an  independent  Ireland. 
One  is,  the  economic  benefit  or  advantage  English  rule  over 
Ireland  is  to  Great  Britain;  the  other  is,  the  political  danger 
which  the  freeing  of  Ireland  from  this  rule  might  mean  to 
the  liberties  of  the  people  of  England,  Scotland,  and  Wales. 
These  two  grounds  must,  necessarily,  influence  the  views  and 
action  of  the  people  of  the  greater  island  on  such  a  question. 
But  they  are  not  grounds  which  should  weigh,  in  the  balance 
of  right  and  justice,  against  the  fair  contention  of  Irishmen 
that,  good  or  bad  as  the  change  might  be  for  others,  it  is  only 
Ireland's  right  to  claim  to  be  governed,  in  everything  that 
concerns  her  own  domestic  affairs,  by  her  own  people,  with- 
out any  interference  on  the  part  of  any  other  people  or  power 
on  earth. 

These  two  chief  selfish  objections  which  Englishmen  will 
offer  against  conceding  the  full  claim  of  national  freedom 
for  Ireland  are  best  replied  to  from  a  rational  English  point 
of  view. 

Sir  Robert  Giffen,  writing  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for 
March,  1886,  on  "The  Economic  Value  of  Ireland  to  Great 
Britain,"  expressed  himself  in  these  sane  words: 

"We  grow  a  new  people  in  Great  Britain,  equal  to  the  whole 
disaffected  parts  of  Ireland  at  the  present  time,  every  ten 
years.  In  a  few  generations,  at  this  rate,  Ireland  must 
become,  relatively  to  Great  Britain,  very  little  more  than  a 
somewhat  larger  Isle  of  Man,  or  Channel  Islands.  To  let 
Ireland  split  partnership  would  differ  in  no  kind,  and  com- 
paratively little  in  degree,  as  far  as  business  is  concerned, 
from  letting  the  Isle  of  Man  remain  a  separate  state." 

This  view  may  present  the  Ireland  of  to-day  in  a  light  not 
too  flattering  to  Irish  racial  vanity,  but  it  likewise  represents 
it  in  the  condition  of  economic  decay  and  general  retro- 
gression to  which  England's  rule  has  reduced  it;  and  es- 
tablishes, in  this  way,  the  strongest  of  all  grounds  and  reason 
why  the  partnership  should  cease. 

Sir  Robert  Giffen  next  proceeds  to  show  how  Ireland's 
annual  income,  from  all  her  industrial  and  commercial 
sources,  is  less  than  one-twentieth  of  the  yearly  income  of 
Great  Britain,  and,  consequently,  how  little  profit  the  richer 
countries  now  make  out  of  the  poorer  one.  He  sums  up  the 
startling  decay  of  people,  capital,  and  taxable  resources  in 
Ireland  as  follows: 

"To  put  the  matter  shortly  and  in  the  roundest  figures, 
Ireland  has  sunk  in  population  from  one-third  to  less  than 
one -seventh  of  Great  Britain;  in  gross  income,  from  two- 

718 


A    FUTURE    RACIAL    PROGRAMME 

seventeenths  to  less  than  one-seventeenth;  in  capital,  from 
a  proportion  that  was  material  to  about  one-twenty-fourth 
only;  in  taxable  resources,  from  a  proportion  that  was 
perhaps  about  one  -  tenth  to  a  proportion  of  only  one  in 
fifty." 

It  is  thus  shown  that  in  people,  profits,  and  prospects 
Ireland  is  of  very  little  further  economic  value  now  to  Great 
Britain.  She  is,  in  fact,  no  longer  a  source  of  income  to  the 
exploiting  partners  in  the  concern  satirically  called  the 
"United"  Kingdom.  Not  alone  is  she  now  the  pauper 
partner;  she  is,  according  to  Sir  Robert  Giffen,  a  dead  loss 
in  the  cost  of  maintaining  the  union.  This  would,  indeed, 
be  a  kind  of  retributive  act  of  justice  on  the  country  that 
forced  Ireland  into  that  ruinous  compact,  only  it  is  a  sad 
kind  of  satisfaction  to  find  the  author  of  a  crime  punished 
by  means  which  only  make  the  victim  the  poorer  and  the 
greater  sufferer  through  the  penalty  inflicted  upon  the  guilty. 

He  points  out  the  loss  sustained  by  the  British  people  in 
these  figures:  "The  English  government  is  a  loser  by 
Ireland  to  the  extent  of  about  ;(^2, 7 50,000  per  annum,  al- 
though it  receives  from  Ireland  over  ;^3 ,000,000  more  revenue 
than  Ireland,  on  any  fair  computation,  ought  to  pay.  If 
Ireland  only  paid  a  fair  contribution  for  imperial  purposes, 
we  (that  is,  Great  Britain)  should  be  out  of  pocket  by  this 
;^3,2oo,ooo  more,  or  nearly  ;^6,ooo,ooo.  Actually,  it  is  beyond 
question  we  lose,  as  a  government,  nearly  ;^3,ooo,ooo  annually, 
while  taxing  Ireland  over  _;^3,ooo,ooo  more  than  it  ought  to  be 
taxed." 

These  are  serious  words  and  significant  figures,  and  the  man 
over  whose  name  they  stand  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  is 
counted  among  the  ablest  economic  authorities  of  our  time. 
He  is  a  most  patriotic  Englishman,  and  a  Unionist  in  politics. 
He  is,  in  no  sense,  a  partisan  or  supporter  of  the  Home-Rule 
movement,  but  a  calm  thinker  and  writer  who  has  viewed 
this  question  from  the  practical  point  of  view  of  economic 
and  fiscal  considerations.  What,  then,  can  be  said,  in  truth 
or  in  common -sense,  by  intelligent  Englishmen  in  further 
support  of  the  act  of  union,  in  face  of  facts  which  are  thus 
placed  before  the  public  in  unchallenged  contention,  a 
century  after  that  union  was  effected? 

It  may  be  said  that,  even  if  Ireland  has  so  ceased  to  be 
commercially  profitable,  and  entails  a  dead  loss  of  three 
millions  annually  upon  England  in  its  Irish  government, 
there  is  still  the  possible  peril  of  separation  to  consider  in 
the  consequential  existence  of  an  independent  Ireland  only 
three    hours'    sail    from    England's    shores.     This,    beyond 

719 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

question,  is  the  root  objection  to  separation — that  is,  it  is 
England's  chief  selfish  attitude;  though  it  would  in  no  way- 
weaken  the  justice  of  our  claim  to  complete  national  freedom 
if  we  made  it  as  a  united  people.  But  let  me  answer  this 
English  objection  in  the  words  of  Sir  Robert  Giffen,  in  the 
same  article.     Writing  on  this  very  point,  he  said: 

"  I  should  like  further  to  ask  the  question,  why  a  state  like 
Ireland  beside  us,  if  completely  separate,  should  add  sensibly 
to  the  dangers  we  incur  from  states  like  Belgium  and  Holland, 
which  are  just  about  as  populous  and  much  richer,  and 
equally  near?  The  question  is  one  of  military  strategy;  but, 
without  being  dogmatic,  I  would  suggest  that  the  experience 
of  past  times,  when  France  tried  to  use  Ireland  against  us, 
does  not  wholly  apply.  In  past  times  Ireland  was  useful 
positively  to  Great  Britain,  l)ecause  of  the  relative  magnitude 
of  its  resources,  in  both  men  and  wealth.  The  loss  of  it 
would  have  been  a  great  lo?s  then  to  Great  Britain,  in  the 
life  and  death  struggles  in  which  she  was  engaged.  Further, 
Ireland  hostile  might,  in  former  times,  have  been  a  real 
danger  to  England,  for  two  reasons:  the  first,  its  relative 
magnitude,  already  referred  to;  and,  next,  the  necessity  or 
convenience,  in  the  days  of  sailing-ships,  of  using  as  the  basis 
of  hostile  operations  against  a  state  which  was  to  be  reached 
by  sea  a  place  near  to  that  state,  so  that  a  power  like  France 
might  have  gained  something  by  'enveloping'  Great  Britain. 
Now  all  the  circumstances  have  changed.  Ireland  is  so  poor 
in  resources  that  the  loss  of  it  positively  would  hardly  count; 
even  as  a  recruiting-ground  it  is  not  longer  required,  because 
a  state  like  Great  Britain,  with  thirty-one  and  a  half  mill- 
ions, not  to  speak  of  its  colonial  reserves,  can  have  as  many 
men  for  soldiering  as  its  finances  can  afford  out  of  its  num- 
bers." 

According,  then,  to  Sir  Robert  Giffen,  the  realm  of  Great 
Britain  would  not  be  a  penny  the  poorer,  in  trade  or  commerce, 
if  she  lost  all  connection,  trading  and  political,  with  Ireland 
to-morrow.  wShe  would,  on  the  contrary,  gain  _;^3, 000,000  a 
year  now  lost  on  expensive  Irish  government;  while  the 
separation  would  in  no  wise  weaken  England,  in  a  military 
sense,  nor  render  the  shores  or  liberties  of  the  British  people 
more  open  to  attack  than  they  are  to-day  from  an  independent 
Denmark,  Holland,  or  Belgium.  This  being  so,  may  I  ask, 
not  alone  in  the  name  of  justice,  but  in  the  name  of  common- 
sense,  why  cannot  Ireland's  independence  be  fully  and  freely 
restored  to  her?  Not  only  as  an  act  of  reparation  and  of 
right  to  the  Irish  people,  but  as  a  measure  of  economy  and 
of  wise  statesmanship  for  Great  Britain  as  well? 

720 


A    FUTURE    RACIAL    PROGRAMME 

I  will  not  dwell  upon  the  historic  and  inalienable  nature  of 
that  right.  We  will  pass  that  by,  not  as  in  any  sense  ignor- 
ing it  or  as  treating  it  of  no  relative  value.  It  has  to  us 
the  highest  value,  because  it  is  founded  in  justice  and  in  the 
sacred  right  of  nationhood;  but  I  am  wishful  to  discuss  the 
question  solely  from  the  stand-point  of  every-day,  practical 
life  and  experience — from,  in  fact,  the  purely  material  and 
political  stand-point  of -view  which  "the  man  in  the  street" 
would  take  as  his  first  consideration,  if  he  could  be  induced 
to  bring  his  intelligence,  and  not  his  prejudice,  to  bear  upon 
the  facts  of  English  rule  in  Ireland. 

What  has  been  the  general  result  to  Ireland  of  the  en- 
forced partnership  of  1801 — that  is,  of  British  imperialism? 
I  can  reply  to  this  question  best  by  the  test  of  comparison 
with  other  countries.  When  the  act  of  union  was  passed 
Ireland  had  one-half  the  population  of  Great  Britain,  three- 
and-a-quarter  times  that  of  Scotland,  ten  times  that  of 
Wales,  and  five  times  that  of  London.  To-day  our  popula- 
tion is  about  one -eighth  of  that  of  Great  Britain,  twenty 
thousand  less  than  Scotland,  two  and  a  half  times  that  of 
Wales,  and  about  two  millions  less  than  that  of  greater 
London. 

Going  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  United  Kingdom,  we  find 
a  similar  progress  in  population  in  all  the  small  nations  of 
Europe,  without  a  single  exception.  Holland,  Belgium, 
Norway,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  Bavaria,  Portugal,  Greece, 
have  added  more  than  fifty  per  cent,  to  their  respective 
populations  during  the  last  fifty  years.  While  these  small 
states  have  thus  increased  their  populations,  through  the 
guardian  care  of  national  liberty,  Ireland,  under  the  evil 
influence  of  an  alien  rule,  has  lost  a  hundred  per  cent,  of  her 
people.  In  this  respect  she  stands  in  a  unique  position  among 
civilized  lands,  there  being,  in  fact,  no  parallel  in  the  history 
of  Christian  nations  for  the  steady  and  deadly  drain  of 
population  away  from  a  country  blessed  by  nature  with 
resources  capable  of  sustaining  three  times  the  present  num- 
ber of  inhabitants  of  Belgium. 

This,  however,  is  only  half  the  indictment  of  this  alien  rule. 
As  a  direct  result  of  this  fatal  weakening  of  Ireland's  vital 
energies,  both  the  birth-rate  and  the  marriage-rate  of  the  coun- 
try are  now  near  the  lowest  of  any  nation  in  Europe.  There 
is,  likewise,  an  alarming  increase  of  insanity  among  the 
diminishing  numbers ;  a  fact  also  due  to  the  emigration  of  the 
more  virile  of  the  people,  leaving  the  physically  impoverished 
behind  to  carry  on  the  racial  functions  of  human  develop- 
ment. As  a  further  comment  upon  all  |his  decay  and  re- 
46  721 


THE  FALL  OF  FEUDALISM  IN  IRELAND 

trogression,  a  combined  national  and  local  taxation,  which 
amounted  to  a  total  of  ;^2,ooo,ooo  a  year  under  an  Irish 
parliament,  with  a  population  equal  to  that  of  to-day,  is 
now,  as  a  result  of  a  hundred  years  of  England's  government, 
over  ;^i 2,000,000  annually,  an  increase  of  six  hundred  per 
cent.  On  the  top  of  all  this,  there  is  the  fact  that  we  have 
far  more  pauperism  in  the  country  to-day  than  there  was 
thirty  years  ago,  when  Ireland  had  tw©  millions  more  of  people. 
Add  to  this  the  humiliating  admission  that  our  population  is 
the  worst  educated  in  these  islands,  and  my  readers  have  a 
brief  summary  of  what  we  owe  to  English  rule  in  Ireland. 

There  is  no  hope  for  Ireland  under  such  government — ab- 
solutely none — any  more  than  there  is  for  a  person  into  whose 
blood  an  insidious  poison  has  been  infused  and  who  is  denied 
the  effective  remedy  which  would  counteract  the  deadly 
fluid.  We  must,  therefore,  demand  the  remedy  that  can 
alone  save  our  country  from  national  death.  Nationhood, 
and  that  only  —  the  full,  free,  and  unfettered  right  of  our 
people  to  rule  and  govern  themselves  in  everything  con- 
cerning the  domestic  laws,  peace,  and  welfare  of  Ireland — is 
what  we  must  demand  and  work  for  henceforth,  if  England's 
callous  selfishness  is  not  to  he  allowed  to  carry  out  and  to 
complete  the  ruin  it  has  already  all  but  consummated. 

Why  should  we  be  denied,  as  a  people,  the  freedom  which 
has  made  the  small  nations  of  Europe  peaceful,  prosperous, 
and  progressive?  We  have  committed  no  crime  against 
mankind  or  civilization  which  should  deprive  us  of  these 
blessings.  Small  nations  have  been  the  truest  pioneers  of 
progress,  and  the  best  promoters  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  in 
the  evolution  of  society,  from  the  Mitldle  Ages  to  the  present 
day.  It  is  a  common  mistake  to  refer  to  Germany  as  an 
empire  in  the  sense  in  which  either  Russia  or  Great  Britain 
is  an  empire.  It  is  nothing  of  the  kind.  It  is  a  confederation 
of  small  states  for  defensive  purposes,  each  state  being  as 
free  and  independent  in  all  matters  of  national  life  and 
administration  as  if  the  German  Empire  had  no  exi.stence. 
Bavaria,  Saxony,  Wtirtemberg,  Baden,  are  nations  with  their 
own  legislatures  like  that  of  Prussia.  This  is  why  they  are 
steadily  developing  in  wealth  and  keeping  in  line  with  the 
general  advance  of  other  countries  enjoying  the  rights  and 
blessing  of  national  freedom. 

Nationhood  is  not  a  decaying  but  a  growing  force,  and  is 
gaining  new  vitality  in  Europe.  It  will  be  found  that  the 
principle  of  nationality,  rooted  as  it  is  in  the  very  founda- 
tions of  human  society,  will  grow  stronger  and  more  virile  as 
education  and  enlightenment  spread  among  the  people,  while 

722 


A    FUTURE    RACIAL    PROGRAMME 

imperialism,  with  its  tendency  to  military  rule,  crushing  tax- 
ation, and  constant  provocation  to  wars,  will  breed  the  dis- 
eases of  its  own  decay  and  downfall.  In  Great  Britain,  par- 
liamentarism or  imperialism  must  die.  They  cannot  live 
together.  The  growth  of  military  power,  increasing  arma- 
ments, aggressive  politics  which  provoke  international  dis- 
putes, expeditions  for  the  subjugation  of  so-called  savage 
races,  all  mean  a  constant  danger  to  social  peace  and  to  true 
progress, with  increasing  taxation  upon  those  who  look  to  par- 
liamentary government  as  the  best  protection  for  their  trad- 
ing interests  and  liberties.  Imperialism  is  necessarily  impa- 
tient of  constitutional  control,  and  will  not  always  submit  to 
its  restraining  influence.  Since  1895  ^^  imperialist  policy 
has  added  over  twenty-five  millions  a  year  to  the  expenditure 
of  British  and  Irish  taxes.  What  good  has  accrued  to  the 
people  of  Great  Britain  in  exchange  for  this  astounding  ex- 
travagance? Two  hundred  millions  of  taxes  have  been  wast- 
ed in  the  war  engineered  by  Jingoism  in  South  Africa.  Is 
there  a  human  being  alive  to-day  who  will  ever  live  to  point 
to  a  single  shilling's  worth  of  benefit  resulting  from  that  waste 
of  money  to  the  taxpayers  who  must  foot  the  bills  ? 

I  contend  that  an  Ireland  independent  of  all  English  con- 
trol and  interference  would  be  of  far  greater  advantage  to  the 
working-classes  of  Great  Britain  than  an  Ireland  ruled  and 
ruined  under  Dublin  Castle  on  the  principles  of  imperialism 
— that  is,  for  landlords,  aristocrats,  and  money-lenders.  A 
free  Ireland  would  mean  a  House  of  Commons  free  for  the 
British,  a  Protestant  Parliament  left  to  a  Protestant  people, 
and  Catholic  members  relegated  to  their  own  country.  It 
would  mean  a  saving  of  three  millions  a  year  in  British  taxes, 
according  to  Giffen,  while  trade  and  commerce  would  go  on, 
under  the  new  conditions,  just  as  smoothly  and  at  least  as 
flourishing  as  to-day. 

The  commercial  and  economic  relations  between  Ireland 
and  Great  Britain  are  not  created  or  sustained  by  the  politi- 
cal connection  at  present  existing,  but  in  the  same  way  as 
trade  with  France,  Holland,  or  Russia  is  maintained.  In  fact, 
British  working-men  earn  more  wages  in  making  articles  for 
use  or  of  luxury  for  the  people  of  France  than  for  those  of 
Ireland.  An  independent  Ireland  would  not  lessen,  to  the 
extent  of  a  single  farthing  a  year,  the  amount  of  trade  which 
goes  on  at  present  across  the  Irish  Sea.  On  the  contrary,  just 
as  freedom  and  independence  have  made  Belgium,  Holland, 
and  other  small  nations  more  prosperous  and  wealthy,  so 
would  it  be  with  Ireland,  which,  on  that  account,  would  neces- 
sarily become  a  richer  customer  than  it  is.  now  for  the  prod- 

723 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

ucts  of  British  manufacture  in  exchange  for  those  of  Irish 
industry. 

The  rational  solution  of  the  whole  Irish  question  lies  in  the 
complete  severance  of  the  parliamentary  connection  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  I  have  shown,  I  hope,  clearly  and 
convincingly,  how  the  complete  autonomy  of  Ireland  would 
be  no  injury,  wrong,  or  menace  to  the  people  of  Great  Britain. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  either  to  continue  to  see  our  coun- 
try slowly  dying  from  the  poison  of  imperialism,  and  have  it 
identified  with  or  incorporated  in  a  system  which  is  the  very 
negation  of  Celtic  nationality,  or  we  must  resolutely  demand 
and  strenuously  labor  to  obtain  the  full  freedom  of  Irish  rule 
which  will  alone  avert  the  complete  ruin  of  the  fatherland 
of  the  race. 

The  Irish  race  have  a  place  in  the  world's  affairs  of  to-day 
that  is  incompatible  with  the  position  which  Ireland  occu- 
pies as  a  kind  of  vegetable-patch  for  selfish  imperial  purposes. 
We  are  fully  twenty  millions  of  the  world's  population,  and 
though  four-fifths  of  these  reside  out  of  Ireland,  they  are  po- 
tential factors,  nevertheless,  in  the  political  fate  and  fortunes 
of  the  country  from  which  a  rule  of  stupidity  and  race-hatred 
drove  their  progenitors  away.  Moreover,  Ireland  and  its  race 
have  a  mission  in  the  world,  have  national  characteristics, 
a  distinctive  individuality  and  ideas,  greatly  differing  from 
Anglo-Saxonism,  with  its  purely  materialistic  spirit  and  aims. 
These  alone  entitle  our  country  to  a  recognized  and  sepa- 
rate place  in  the  ranks  of  civilized  states. 

British  imperialism  has  done  its  utmost  to  deny  us  the 
means  of  making  these  facts  known  to  other  nations.  It  has 
poisoned  the  ears  of  the  civilized  world  against  us  for  centuries. 
The  part  played  by  Ireland  in  the  early  Christian  civilization 
of  Europe,  in  the  nurture  of  learning,  and  in  the  scholastic 
labors  of  her  students  and  missionaries  after  the  break-up  of 
the  Roman  Empire;  the  settled  forms  of  government  which 
obtained,  and  the  enlightened  institutions  and  laws  which 
were  in  force  in  our  country,  even  anterior  to  the  Christian 
era — all  these  records  of  great  humanizing  service  rendered  to 
society  by  the  Celtic  people  of  Ireland  in  the  childhood  period 
of  European  civilization  have  been  obscured  or  denied  by  the 
agencies  of  English  prejudice,  in  order  to  keep  from  the  Irish 
the  recognition  which  these  services  frequently  obtained  from 
continental  states  and  powers  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

Ireland  is  not  without  allies  in  other  lands,  thanks  to  the 
power  of  our  race  beyond  the  seas ;  and  she  has  never  yet  ini- 
tiated a  movement  which  was  not  in  line  with  true  progress 
and  liberty.     A  free  Canada  and  a  free  Australia  are  as  cer- 

724 


A    FUTURE    RACIAL    PROGRAMME 

tain  in  the  future  as  that  to-morrow  will  follow  to-day ;  and  a 
continued  denial  of  national  self-government  to  Ireland  may 
see  not  alone  an  Irish,  but  an  Australian,  a  Canadian,  and  a 
South-African  movement,  in  our  time,  with  the  same  end  and 
aim — namely,  independent  nationhood. 

This  book  has  a  serious,  reforming  purpose  beyond  the  tell- 
ing of  the  life-story  of  a  great  Irish  movement.  It  aspires  to 
point  out  to  the  thinkers  and  leaders  of  the  industrial  millions 
of  Great  Britain  how  the  poorest  of  workers  —  the  tillers  of 
the  soil  in  Ireland — succeeded  by  combination  in  overthrow- 
ing an  all-powerful  territorial  aristocracy,  entrenched  in  the 
ownership  of  the  chief  means  of  employment  in  Ireland  and 
in  one  of  the  legislative  chambers  of  the  Imperial  Parliament; 
and  how  it  induced  the  two  great  British  parties  conjointly, 
as  governments,  to  loan  ;^i 50,000,000,  in  state  credit,  tow- 
ards curing  some  of  the  evils  of  class  misrule. 

The  lessons  of  political  organization,  and  of  a  practical 
reforming  spirit  shown  in  a  voluntary  payment  of  members 
of  Parliament  by  means  of  popular  subscription;  the  in- 
telligent and  combative  uses  of  the  great  weapon  of  passive 
resistance  employed  in  a  national  combination;  the  com- 
plete elimination  of  class  and  of  moneyed  leadership  in  that 
combination ;  the  great  triumph  for  labor  won  in  the  owner- 
ship of  the  land  for  industry  as  against  monopoly;  and  the 
local  government  of  counties  and  of  districts  by  the  people, 
and  not  by  landlords,  capitalists,  squires,  or  parsons — these 
lessons,  if  rightly  learned  by  the  industrial  democracy  of 
England,  Scotland,  and  Wales,  and  if  applied  in  the  manner 
of  this  Irish  movement,  would  soon  give  to  the  toiling  mill- 
ions ol  Great  Britain  a  programme  with  a  better  prospect  of 
substantial  results  than  an}'  proposed  taxation  of  food  can 
possibly  oflfer  to  the  wealth-producers  across  the  Irish  Sea. 

What  we  wanted  in  Ireland  was  protection  against  those 
who  had  a  monopoly  of  the  chief  sources  of  employment — 
the  landlords.  We  have  broken  the  bonds  of  that  monopoly 
and  completely  crushed  its  political  power. 

What  English,  Welsh,  and  Scotch  workers,  traders,  and 
taxpayers  need  in  competition  with  the  producers  of  other 
countries,  is,  not  less,  but  more,  free  trade — free  trade  in  the 
growing  of  food,  in  a  legal  protection  against  a  private  tax 
called  rent  upon  its  industry;  free  trade  in  the  building  of 
houses  for  the  people,  by  protection  against  ground -rents 
levied  upon  the  progress  of  industrial  centres  by  landlordism; 
free  trade  in  the  production  of  coal  and  iron  ore,  by  the  appli- 
cation to  public  purposes  of  the  private  taxes  called  mineral 
royalties,  now  imposed  by  landlords  upon  every  workshop, 

725 


THE    FALL    OF    FEUDALISM    IN    IRELAND 

manufacturer,  artisan,  trader,  and  domestic  fireplace  in  the 
three  countries  by  the  class  who  are  in  legislative  possession 
of  the  House  of  Lords  and  largely  of  the  House  of  Commons. 

It  is  to  progress  in  this  direction  that  the  Irish  move- 
ment tends.  It  seeks  no  reforms  in  the  betterment  of  the 
economic  and  social  conditions  of  our  population,  or  in  the 
democratic  government  of  Ireland  by  its  own  people,  that  are 
not  in  harmonious  line  and  in  sympathetic  co-operation  with 
the  industrial  and  political  enfranchisement  of  the  working- 
classes  in  Great  Britain  from  the  burden  of  landlordism  in 
field,  workshop,  coal-mine,  factory,  city  office,  and  domestic 
hearthstone — and  in  the  making  of  laws  in  the  Imperial 
Parliament. 

A  final  word  from  an  eminent  historian: 

"A  majority  of  the  Irish  members  turned  the  balance  in 
favor  of  the  great  democratic  reform  bill  of  1832,  and  from 
that  day  there  has  been  scarcely  a  democratic  measure 
which  they  have  not  powerfully  assisted.  When,  indeed,  we 
consider  the  votes  they  have  given,  the  principles  they  have 
been  the  means  of  introducing  into  English  legislation,  and 
the  influence  they  have  exercised  upon  the  tone  and  character 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  it  is  probably  not  too  much  to  say 
that  their  presence  in  the  British  Parliament  has  proved  the 
most  powerful  of  all  agents  in  accelerating  the  democratic 
transformation  of  English  politics."  —  Lecky,  History  of 
England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  vol.  viii.,  p.  483. 


INDEX 


Absenteeism,  its  beginning  and 
causes,  5^. 

Adare,  Lord,  Sir  Richard  Quin, 
sold  his  vote  and  was  made  a 
peer  as  his  reward;  he  was  after- 
wards created  Earl  of  Dunraven, 
29. 

Agar,  James,  was  rewarded  with 
the  title  of  Baron  Clifden,  for 
services  to  the  government,  ;^^. 

Agricultural  laborers  ( Ireland ) 
dwellings  act,  464;  Dr.  Charles 
Tanner  was  much  interested  in 
the  workings  of  this  act,  465. 

Aid  worth,  St.  Lcger,  was  created 
Lord  of  the  same  name,  for 
loyalty  to  the  government,   33. 

Alexander,  James,  became  Earl  of 
Caledon,  he  paid  ;£i 5,000  for 
the  title,   31. 

American  Land  League.  Mr.  Dil- 
lon establishes  branches,  247; 
Patrick  Ford  and  John  Boyle 
O'Reilly's  eflforts,  ib.;  th-e  repre- 
sentatives who  reported  at  Trc- 
nor  Hall,  New  York,  ib.;  O'Reil- 
ly elected  president  and  Father 
Cronin  vice-president,  ib.;  pur- 
poses for  which  assistance  is 
asked,  248;  signatures  of  the 
council,  249;  rules  and  by-laws 
of  local  organizations,  250;  in- 
evitable friction,  257;  its  back- 
ing, ib.;  third  convention  held 
in  Chicago,  515. 

American  mission,  Mr.  Parnell  and 
Mr.  Dillon  sail  for  America, 
193;  tour  through  the  country, 
194-197,  203-205;  meetings  in 
Canada,  206;  the  financial  re- 
sults, 210. 

American  reporter,  his  interview 
with  Mr.  Brennan  concerning 
the  wholesale  indictment  of  the 


members  of  the  Land  League, 
273. 

"An  Irish  Peasant's  Lament,"  a 
popular  political  ballad  in  the 
early  days  of  the  movement, 
166. 

Ancient  Order  of  Hibernians,  the, 
an  offspring  of  the  Ribbonmen, 
42;  the  best  of  friends  of  the 
Land  League,   252. 

Antient  Concert  Rooms,  Dublin, 
meeting  of  delegates  in  1891, 
660;  names  of  the  officers  elect- 
ed, 661. 

Arrears  act,  a  curse  and  not  a 
blessing,   364. 

Ashbourne,  Lord,  his  act  for  land 
purchase  became  a  law,  485; 
his  suggestions  for  state  aid, 
486. 

Ashbourne  Purchase  Act,  passed 
by  a  Tory  government  in  1885, 
328. 

Ashtown,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Trench,  who 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  for 
his  vote  against  the  Irish  people, 
28,  29. 

Australian  societies  contribute 
/^4o,ooo  to  the  Irish  Parlia- 
mentary Fund,  629. 

Balfour,  A.  J.,  extreme  land- 
lordism, 9;  engrafts  on  his  bill 
a  legal  process  of  eviction,  322; 
the  "  Mitchelstown  Massacre" 
one  of  the  results  of  his  legal 
aggression,  523;  determines  on 
the  arrest  of  Dillon  and  O'Brien, 
627;  resigns  the  secretaryship  of 
Ireland,  661;  goes  to  Ireland  in 
1 88 7, to  fight  the  forces  of  land 
reform  and  Home  Rule,  662; 
the  act  to  amend  the  Ashbourne 
land  purchase  law  was    passed 


727 


INDEX 


at  his  instance,  ib.;  his  con- 
gested districts  board  act  of 
1891,  an  admirable  measure, 
663;  the  members  of  the  board, 
ib.;  the  estates  are  improved 
before  selHng  them  to  tenants, 
ib.;  his  next  effort,  an  Irish  local 
government  bill,  was  killed  by 
ridicule,   664. 

Balfour,  Gerald,  succeeds  in  pass- 
ing the  Land  Act  of  1S96,  682; 
a  preference  to  be  given  to 
tenants,  683. 

Balla  meeting,  the  constabulary 
circumvented,  170;  the  turning 
point,  it  gave  the  peasants  con- 
fidence in  their  organization, 
211. 

Ballaghadereen,  desperate  fight 
at,  two  men  killed  by  process 
servers,  who  are  finally  driven 
off,  leaving  their  sergeant  dead, 
316. 

Ballycohey  shooting  affray,  Dwyer 
defends    his    home    with    force, 

77- 
Banner  of  lUsier,  Tlie,  a  paper  in 

the     interest     of     the     Tenant 

League,  69. 
Barrington,  Sir  Jonah,  gives  list  of 

the  Irish  landlord  traitors,  28. 
Barry,   John,    a   leading   spirit   in 

the  league,  227;  elected  by  the 

league  movement  to  Parliament, 

239- 

"Battle  of  Carraroc."  the  first 
successful  encounter  between  the 
peasants  and  the  constabulary, 
213;  the  legal  time  for  service  of 
processes,  214;  obstructions  on 
the  road,  ib.;  showers  of  stones, 
and  shovels  full  of  burning  turf, 
217;  victory  for  the  peasants, 
218;  no  food  for  the  invaders, 
219. 

Beaconsfield,  Lord,  his  historic 
indictment  of  the  whole  Irish 
movement,  229;  his  letter  to  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  230;  his 
oynnion  of  the  Irish  situation  in 
T874,   231. 

Bchan,  Father  John,  of  Dublin, 
a  friend  of  the  Land  League, 
192. 

Bessborough,  Lord,  presided  over 
the  royal  commission  in  March, 
18S1,    and     reported     that    the 


Irish  tenants  were  justly  en- 
titled to  proprietary  rights,  322. 

Biggar,  John,  his  contempt  for 
the  sanctum  sanctorum  of  the 
British  Empire,  109. 

Biggar,  Joseph  G.,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 
239,  240;  prosecuted  for  a 
seditious  speech,  462;  the  case 
dropped,  ib.;  in  his  best  manner 
gives  his  unflattering  estimate 
of  Sir  Richard  Webster,  601. 

Bingham,  John,  sold  his  vote  and 
was  created  Viscount  Avonmore, 

Birch,  Mr.,  a  Times  agent  who 
tried  to  bribe  Mr.  Sheridan,  55S. 

Bishops  of  English  birth,  bitterest 
of  enemies  of  Irish  rights,  71. 

"Blackfeet,"  a  branch  of  the 
Whiteboys,  37. 

Blackwood,  Sir  James,  is  com- 
pensated for  his  action  in 
County  Down,  30. 

Blaikie,  Professor  John  Stuart, 
his  lines  to  John  Murdoch,  229. 

Blake,  Joseph,  became  Lord 
Wallescourt  as  a  reward  for  his 
support  of  the  Union,  30. 

Boston  Pilot,  edited  by  John 
Boyle  O'Reilly,  a  promoter  of 
the  new  departure,  169. 

Boulter,  Archbishop,  tenant's 
share  of  the  crops,  4. 

Bowyer,  Sir  George,  re  -  echoes 
Dr.  McCabe's  concern  for  na- 
tional, faith  and  honor  based  on 
rack-rents  and  evictions,  190. 

Boycott,  Captain,  a  hovise  agent 
at  Lough  Mask  House,  has  trou- 
ble with  his  tenants,  275;  they 
refuse  all  help  to  him,  276;  he  is 
compelled  to  leave  Ireland,  278. 

"Boycott,"  the  origin  of  the  word: 
Father  John  O'Malley  and 
Redpath  invent  it,  274;  it  is 
adopted  and  applied  in  France, 
Holland,  Germany,  and  Russia, 
275;  as  practised  in  Massachu- 
setts in  1770,  279;  the  black  list, 
28 1 ;  in  Littleton,  282;  Davitt's 
speech  concerning  it,  ib.;  Mr. 
Bcnce  Jones  comes  under  the 
ban,  312. 

Boycotting,  Lord  De  Freyne  in- 
stitutes proceedings  against  the 
United    Irish    League    for,  705; 


728 


INDEX 


conference  between  the  league 
and  landlords  on  the  subject 
of,  ib. 
Brennan  brothers  of  Kilkenny, 
gentlemen  -  yeomen  who  were 
active  resistants,  14;  sentenced 
to  be  hanged,  but  were  rescued, 
ib.;  make  their  escape  to  Eng- 
land, ib.;  returned  to  Ireland, 
where    they    lived    unmolested, 

Brennan,  Thomas,  ex-Fenian  lead- 
er, 136;  address  at  the  Irishtown 
meeting,  148;  makes  a  splendid 
and  fiery  speech  at  Balla,  iSo; 
is  arrested  for  the  Balla  speech, 
186;  refuses  to  stand  for  elec- 
tion to  the  British  Parliament, 
240;  his  interview  with  the 
American  reporter,  273;  arrested 
early  in  May,  1881,  319;  Dublin 
Castle  thought  it  would  par- 
alyze the  Land  League,  ib. 

Bright,  John,  on  the  miserable 
condition  of  the  peasantry,  7 ; 
cheerful  and  joyous  tempera- 
ment, ib.;  on  evictions,  loi ;  rep- 
rimands Mr.  Lowther  for  his 
unparliamentary  language  in 
his  report  of  the  Miltown 
meeting,  158;  testifies  to  the 
beneficial  results  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  Land  League,  220; 
his  clauses  of  the  land  act,  246. 

Brown,  Sir  John,  became  Lord 
Kilmaine  for  services  rendered 
the  Union,  31. 

Buckingham,  Marquis  of,  the  Irish 
pension  list  during  his  ad- 
ministration, 27. 

"Buckshot"  Forster,  258,  265. 

Burke,  John,  a  successful  place- 
man, was  created  Earl  of  Mayo, 
32. 

Butt,  Isaac,  is  reforming  link  be- 
tween Dufify's  Tenant  League 
and  the  Land  League,  79;  the 
responsibility  for  his  early  Tory- 
ism, ib.;  his  speech  at  the  bar 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  80;  a 
contributor  to  the  Dublin  Uni- 
versity Magazine,  ib.;  The  Gap 
of  Barnestnore,  ib.;  his  History 
of  Italy,  81;  The  Law  of  Com- 
pensation to  Tenants,  ib.;  his 
Plea  for  the  Celtic  Race,  ib.;  his 
The  Irish  People  and  the  Irish 


Land,  ib.;  The  Irish  Querist, 
ib.;  his  Problems  of  Irish  Edu- 
cation, ib.;  his  debate  on  Re- 
peal in  the  Corporation  of  Dub- 
lin, ib.;  successor  of  O'Con- 
nell,  82;  he  defended  Smith 
O'Brien  and  Meagher,  ib.;  the 
trusted  defender  of  Irish  rebels, 
ib.;  again  the  trusted  defender 
of  Irish  rebels,  83;  home  rule 
agitation  initiated  by  him,  ib.; 
Parnell  and  Dillon  took  service 
ttnder  him,  86;  the  beginning  of 
his  parliamentary  career,  ib.;  ad- 
heres to  the  policy  of  Duffy  and 
Lucas,  88;  an  independent  Irish 
party,  90;  not  as  a  parlia- 
mentarian, but  as  a  founder  he 
will  live  in  history,  ib.;  Plea  for 
the  Celtic  Race,  91;  his  style  a 
combination  of  Gladstone  and 
Bright,  94;  his  letter  to  a  friend 
concerning  Hoine  Rule,  ib.;  his 
death  in  1879,  95;  Home  Rule 
agitation,  107;  in  favor  of  more 
vigorous  policy,  116;  political 
situation  in  1878,  119;  Fixity  of 
Tenure  Bill,  137,  141. 

Byrne,  Anne,  her  letters  concern- 
ing Pigott  and  his  effects,  594. 

Byrne,  assistant  warder,  76. 

Byrne,  Frank,  when  departing 
from  Paris  for  America,  he 
leaves  behind  a  black  bag,  sup- 
posed to  contain  papers  in- 
criminating Parnell  and  others, 
572;  a  letter  referred  to  on  the 
trial,  633. 

Cairo,  Sir  James,  on  Gladstone's 

land  scheme,   506. 
Cairnes,    Professor,    on    evictions, 

100. 
Caledon,  Earl  of,  a  Mr.  Alexander, 

who,    at    the    cost    of    ;^r5,ooo, 

became  one  of  the  nobility  and 

gentry,  31. 
"  Callan  Curates,  the,"  68. 
Canada,    Fenian   raid   into,    1867, 

1 20. 
"Captain  Right,"  a  leader  of  the 

"Thrashers"    who    waged    war 

against  parson  and  priest,  23. 
"Caravats,"    an    organization    in 

sympathy     with     the     general 

policy  of  the  reformers,  37. 
Carey,  an  informer  in  the  Phoenix 


729 


INDEX 


Park  murders,  452;  he  is  as- 
sassinated by  O'Donnell  on  his 
way  to  Cape  Town,  454;  Carey's 
evidence  revealed  the  fact  that 
Forster  was  to   be   "removed," 

455- 

Carlton,  Hugh,  became  Viscount 
Carlton  as  a  reward  for  some 
questionable  actions,  31. 

Casey,  Sarsfield,  attacks  rack- 
renting  on  the  hill-side  farms, 
141. 

Castlecoote,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Coote 
whose  vote  was  bought  to  de- 
stroy the  Irish  Parliament,  29. 

Castlemaine,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Hand- 
cock  who  was  raised  to  the 
peerage,  as  a  reward  for  his 
vote,  29. 

Chamberlain,  Mr.  Joseph,  insists 
upon  the  release  from  ]irist)n  of 
Parnell, Dillon, andO'Kelly,  351; 
his  position  in  relation  to  a  new 
policy  for  Ireland,  474;  he 
suggests  the  national  -  councils 
scheme,  ib.;  proposes  practically 
Mr.  Giffen's  plan  of  purchase  of 
land  in  Ireland,  513. 

Charleville,  Viscount,  a  title  con- 
ferred on  a  son  of  Henry  Prittie 
as  the  price  of  his  vote,  29. 

Churchill,  Lord  Randolph,  hints 
that  a  new  policy  was  required 
for  Ireland,  473;  leads  a  rowdy 
demonstration  and  defeats  the 
Gladstone  bill,  497. 

Cipher  messages  of  Dublin  Castle 
to  W.  R.  (West  Ridgeway)  and 
T.  O.  Plunkett,  443. 

Clancarty,  Earl  of,  a  son  of  a  Mr. 
Trench,  who  was  raised  to  the 
peerage,  in  recognition  of  the 
services  of  his  father  in  foment- 
ing the  Rebellion  of  179S,  32. 

Clanmorris,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Bingham, 
who  was  created  a  peer  as  a 
reward  for  his  vote,  29. 

Clan-na-Gael,  the  best  friends  of 
the  league  in  America,  252; 
their  circle  in  Chicago,  253;  its 
invaluable  support,  257. 

Clanricarde,  Lord,  made  repre- 
sentative peer  for  services  in 
disfranchisement,  30. 

Clare,  Lord,  a  John  Fitzgibbon,  a 
renegade  who  secured  the  peer- 
age rank  for  his  services,  31. 


Clarendon,  Lord,  felonious  acts  of 
the  landlords,  8. 

Clifden,  Baron,  a  Mr.  Agar,  who 
was  rewarded  for  the  services 
rendered  against  the  Irish  peo- 
ple, ii. 

Cloncurry,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Nicholas 
Lawless,  who  was  raised  to  the 
peerage  for  services  to  the  Union , 

31- 

Clonmel,  Earl  of,  was  the  notori- 
ous John  Scott,  32. 

"Coercion — Hold  the  Rent!"  a 
stirring  poem  by  Miss  Fanny 
Parnell,  266. 

Coleridge,  Lord  Chief  -  Justice, 
declared  that  he  could  prove 
that  the  forged  Parnell  letter 
was  genuine,  and  that  Parnell 
and  others  were  connected  with 
the  Phoenix  Park  murders,  536. 

Collins,  P.  A.,  president  of  the 
convention  of  American  Land 
Leaguers,  247. 

"Committee  Room  15,"  the  split 
in,  39;  undid  in  ten  minutes 
the  work  of  as  many  missions, 

643- 

"Compensation  for  Disturbance 
Bill,"  disapproved  of  by  Lord 
Lansdowne,  260;  Mr.  Gladstone 
thought  it  a  wise  and  expedient 
concession,   261. 

Connaty,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Los 
Angeles,  a  conservative  support- 
er of  the  league,  257. 

Coote,  Charles  Henry,  got  a 
peerage,  as  Lord  Castlecoote, 
and  ;^7ooo  for  betraying  his 
trust,  29. 

Corbett,  Father  James,  of  Clare- 
morris,  a  friend  of  the  league, 
192. 

Corry,  James,  received  the  title  of 
Earl  of  Belmore,  and  ^^30,000 
for  his  services  against  the 
Union,  32. 

Costello,  Dudley,  of  Mayo,  who  was 
an  active  resistant,  14. 

Costigan,  of  Queen's  County,  who 
was  an  active  resistant,  14. 

Coughlan,  of  King's  County,  who 
was  an  active  resistant,   14. 

Cowen,  Joseph,  objects  to  Glad- 
stone's dramatic  stage-play  in 
his  speech  at  the  Guildhall, 
London,     on    learning    of    the 


730 


INDEX 


arrest  of  Parnell,  334;  his  protest 
found  expression  in  the  New- 
castle Chronicle,  ib.;  one  of  the 
first  to  act  after  the  Phoenix 
Park  murders,  358. 
Cowper,  Earl,  tenders  his  resigna- 
tion as  Lord  Lieutenant  rather 
than  agree  to  release  Parnell 
and  his  colleagues  from  prison, 

351- 

Cowper  Commission,  the  Lord,  its 
report,  520. 

Crawford,  Sharman,  introduces 
two  bills  in  the  session  of  1835- 
36,  to  ameliorate  the  condi- 
tion of  the  tenants,  both  are 
dropped,  40. 

Creighton,  Abraham,  was,  with  his 
two  sons,  a  member  of  the  House 
of  Commons;  their  votes  could 
be  bought  by  either  side,  33. 

Croke,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  Cashel, 
one  of  the  league's  stoutest 
defenders  and  strongest  sup- 
porters among  the  Irish  hier- 
archy, 192;  congratulates  Mr. 
Sullivan  for  rebuking  Dr.  Mc- 
Cabe  for  his  questionable  re- 
marks concerning  the  ladies  of 
the  league,  315;  gives  voice  to 
the  national  desire  for  a  con- 
tinuance of  the  fight,   369. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  on  injustice  and 
oppression  from  landlords,  3. 

Cronin,  Father,  vice-president  of 
the  American  Land  League, 
247. 

Crops,  value  of,  in  1876, 1877,  1879, 
187. 

Crosbie,  Talbot,  of  Kerry,  urged 
the  adoption  of  conciliatory 
plans,  705. 

Cuffe,  James,  became  Lord  Ty- 
rawley,  for  services  rendered 
to  the  enemies  of  the  Irish 
people,  32. 

CuUen,  Archbishop,  the  triumph 
of  his  policy,  42;  tenant  right 
little  short  of  infidel  folly,  70; 
he  favors  two  political  traitors, 
Keogh  and  Sadlier,  ib.;  his 
treachery  killed  the  hopes  of 
Duffy  and  Lucas  in  the  fifties, 
71,  122. 

Cunningham,  Robert,  became  Lord 
Rossmore,  for  services  rendered. 


31- 


Curran,  John  Philpot,  a  distin- 
guished lawyer  and  wit,  who 
paid  a  marked  tribute  to  the 
"Right  Boys,"   25. 

Daly,    James,    chairman    of    the 

Irishtown  meeting,   147. 
Daly,     John,     who     ran     for    the 

borough  of  Cork  with  Parnell, 

238. 
Davis,    Eugene,    a   cafe    loafer   in 

Paris,  who  posed  as  a  dynamiter, 

434- 

Davis,  his  lines  relating  O'Keeffe's 
reproach  of  Mary  O'Kelly's 
treachery,  14. 

Davitt,  Michael,  his  knowledge  of 
the  story  of  the  Fenian  move- 
ment, 74;  first  meeting  with 
Parnell  in  1877,  no;  asked 
him  to  join  the  revolutionary 
organization,  in;  credited  with 
"The  New  Departure,"  123;  his 
programme  and  policy,  125; 
rep'>rt  of  speech  in  1878,  133; 
suggests  the  Irishtown  meeting, 
147;  speech  at  Westport,  155; 
reads  the  Declaration  of  Prin- 
ciples, ib.;  letter  to  O'Reilly  con- 
cerning his  visit  to  America, 
169;  transfers  balance  of  money 
advanced  to  him  by  the  trustees 
of  the  Irish  National  Fund,  170; 
the  meeting  at  Gurteen,  184; 
arrested  and  carried  to  Sligo, 
ib.;  is  his  own  advocate,  183; 
his  account  of  the  "battle  of 
Carraroe,"  213;  he  got  his  first 
impressions  of  landlordism  at 
his  birthplace,  Straide,  222;  is 
hissed  in  public  for  the  first 
time,  237;  he  refuses  to  sign  the 
programme  for  easy  transfer 
of  land,  244;  a  party  to  the 
adoption  of  the  constitution  of 
American  Land  League,  248;  is 
central  secretary,  251;  starts 
on  an  organizing  tour  in  Amer- 
ica, 252;  his  first  night  in 
Chicago,  ib.;  he  meets  the  Clan- 
na-Gael  in  Chicago,  253;  meets 
Mackay,  "the  Silver  King," 
in  Virginia  City,  who  proposes  a 
solution  of  the  Irish  question, 
254;  speech  on  the  boycott 
question  before  the  special 
commission,    282;     he    returns 


731 


INDEX 


from  America,  2S6;  his  arrest 
by  the  government  thought  to 
be  a  crushing  blow  to  the  league, 
304;  he  and  Parnell  hear  of  the 
Phoenix  Park  murders,  357; 
agrees  not  to  raise  the  question 
of  land  nationalism,  378;  his 
experiences  in  Athenry,  421; 
talks  over  the  new  situation 
with  Parnell  at  Avondale,  478; 
his  exposure  of  the  forger 
Pigott,  493;  the  close  of  his 
speech  after  the  Parnell  trial, 
602;  he  is  absolved  from  the 
charge  of  using  the  money  of 
the  "  Skirinishing  Fund,"  608; 
handles  Le  Caron  most  adroitly, 
610;  compelled  Hayes  to  give 
up  certain  letters,  615;  a  free 
Ireland  would  mean  a  House  of 
Commons  free  to  the  British, 
723;  it  would  mean  a  saving 
of  ^3,000,000  a  year  in  British 
taxes,  ib.;  the  whole  solution 
of  the  Irish  question  is  the 
complete  severance  of  the  par- 
liamentary question  between 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  724; 
Ireland  has  never  yet  initiated 
a  moveinent  that  was  not  in 
line  with  true  progress  and 
liberty,  ib.;  this  book  has  a 
serious  reforming  purpose,  725. 

"Defenders,"  an  organization 
formed  to  oppose  the  "  Peep-o'- 
Day-Boys,"  16. 

De  Freyne,  Lord,  institutes  pro- 
ceedings against  the  league  for 
boycotting,  705. 

Dclaney,  a  most  unmitigated 
scoundrel,  616;  one  of  the  chief 
witnesses  for  Tlie  Times,  ib. 

Derby,  Lord,  violence  as  an  ef- 
fective instrument  in  redress- 
ing wrongs,  9. 

Devlin,  John,  working  for  the 
United  Land  League  in  Amer- 
ica, 696,  697. 

Devon  Commission,  on  what  con- 
stitutes improvements  on  a 
farm,  6. 

Devoy,  John,  his  speech  in  the 
Park  Theatre  in  Brooklyn  in 
1878,  125;  his  proposal  pub- 
lished in  the  New  York  Herald, 
127;  he  brought  most  of  the 
leading  members  of  the  Clan- 


na-Gael  round  to  his  views,  128; 
his  cable  to  Sir  William  Har- 
court,  ib.;  he  suggests  union  be- 
tween the  physical-force  and 
moral-force  bodies,  135;  sends 
first  monetary  assistance  from 
America,  a  grant  from  the 
"Skirmishing  Fund,"  169;  re- 
ceipt for  money  from  Mr.  Davitt, 
170. 

Dillon,  John,  joins  the  league 
movement,  158;  elected  to  Par- 
liament, 239;  he  urges  young 
men  to  come  to  the  league 
demonstrations  "in  military 
style,"  269;  again  arrested  un- 
der the  coercion  act,  318; 
while  on  trial,  arranged  with 
a  landlord  a  question  of  rents, 
523;  statement  of  accounts,  529; 
returns  from  Avistralia  and 
throws  himself  into  the  project 
to  build  up  a  new  Tipperary, 
627;  Balfour  resolves  on  his 
arrest,  ib.;  he  escapes  to  France 
ib.;  appeals  for  a  thorough  re- 
union, 676. 

Dillon,  John  Blake,  warrant  for 
his  arrest,  63 ;  in  command  at 
Callan,  64;  he  meets  Stephens, 
74- 

Disraeli,  his  opinion  of  the  Irish 
question  in  1S44,  232. 

Donaldson,  J.,  a  name  by  which 
Kirby  was  to  be  addressed  in 
the  matter  of  The  Times  busi- 
ness, 555 ;  some  of  his  telegrams, 

556,  557- 
Donoughmore,    Viscount,     a    son 

of   a   place  -  hunter   in    Dublin, 

32- 
Donovan,  Mr.,  who  with  his  wife, 

in   Omaha,    nursed   Mr.    Davitt 

back  to  health,  254. 
Doyle,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Ossory,  who 

denounced     "The    Whiteboys," 

39;  he  pi"eaches  an  unrelentless 

war  against  tithes,  48. 
Dufferin,   Lord,  the  source  of  his 

title,  30. 
Duffy,    Charles   Gavan,   twice  on 

trial  on  treasonable  charges,  67; 

he    revolts    against    O'Connell's 

plan,   ib.;   accuses   the    bishops 

of  wrecking  the    hopes    of   the 

people,  71;  leaves  for  Australia, 

72. 


732 


INDEX 


DufTy's,  Gavan,  league,  its  failure, 
42. 

Duggan,  Dr.,  Bishop  of  Clonfert, 
a  most  valuable  recruit,  158; 
a  priest  who  was  always  friendly 
to  the  league,  192. 

Dunally,  Lord,  the  title  obtained 
for  Henry  Prittie  by  his  sons 
for  selling  their  votes,  29. 

Dunraven  treaty,  the,  which 
spoiled  a  radical  and  final  settle- 
ment of  the  Irish  land  question, 
was  the  work  of  Lord  Dunra- 
ven, who  is  a  descendant  of  Sir 
Richard  Quin,  who  betrayed  the 
Irish  people  in   1800,  29. 

Dupanloup,  Bishop,  preaches  a 
sermon  in  Paris  to  relieve  Irish 
distress,  146;  British  ambas- 
sador protests  to  the  French 
government  against  the  bish- 
op's action,  ib. 

"  Durham  Letter,"  written  by  Lord 
John  Russell,  70. 

Dwyer,  of  Ballycohey,  defends  his 
home,  shooting  Scully,  the  evict- 
ing landlord,  77. 

Dynamite  plots,  usually  planned 
by  agents  in  the  English  secret 
service,  428;  plotters  in  Paris, 
434 ;  the  lady  dynamiter,  a 
young  and  attractive  widow, 
who  gets  the  secrets  of  the 
alleged  conspirators,  438-440; 
plots  in  London,  472. 

Easy  transfer  of  land,  etc., 
compulsory  registration,  pro- 
posed change  of  tenure  of  land, 
243;  signers  of  the  programme, 
244. 

Egan,  Patrick,  ex-Fenian  leader, 
136;  treasurer  of  the  league,  226; 
was  at  this  time  the  most  active 
and  able  of  the  nationalist 
leaders  of  Dublin,  ib.;  he  pre- 
sented counsel  for  the  traversers 
with  a  copy  of  the  brief  prepared 
by  the  prosecution,  289;  the 
Irish  World,  of  New  York,  cables 
to  him  $25,000,  309;  tenders 
his  resignation  as  treasurer  of 
the  league,  373;  he  was  cabled 
to  America  that  it  was  agreed 
to  accept  Mr.  Gladstone's  ofifer 
for  the  final  settlement  of  the 
Anglo-Irish  strife,  490;  despatch 


sent  to  Nebraska,  553;  his  reply 
to  Pigott's  demand  for  money, 
370;  his  letters  at  Tlie  Times 
trial,  579. 

Ely,  Marquis  of,  a  landlord  who 
was  made  an  English  peer,  30. 

Emmet     Monument     Association, 

74-. 

English  invaders,  their  plans,  10; 
unwise  action  of  the  Norman 
barons,  ib.;  King  James's  plan- 
tation of  Ulster,  ib.;  war  be- 
tween the  Stuarts  and  the 
Long  Parliament,  ib.;  the  people 
remorselessly  hunted  into  Con- 
naught,  ib.;  irregular  insurrec- 
tions, ib.;  "The  Tories,"  11; 
application  of  the  term  "rob- 
ber," ib.;  Charles  II.  confirms 
the  act  of  settlement,  ib.;  the 
calling  of  a  "  Tory  "  became  that 
of  an  outlaw,  12. 

Ennismore,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Hare  who 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  for  his 
work  for  the  Union,  30. 

Evictions,  they  begin  on  a  large 
scale,  33;  one  hundred  and 
ninety  thousand  families  in 
three  years,  68;  1849  to  1882,  ib.; 
testimony  of  Professor  Cairnes, 
100;  Mayo  Land  League  accepts 
challenge  of  the  landlords,  all 
evictions  are  to  be  "witness- 
ed," 212;  they  place  a  social 
embargo  on  land-grabbers,  ib.; 
method  of  service  of  notices,  ib.; 
the  "battle  of  Carraroe,"  the 
first  successful  encounter,  213; 
the  league  to  supply  legal  help, 
219;  to  watch  land-grabbers,  220; 
Malachi  Kelly's  farm  had  a  line 
drawn  around  it,  and  in  twenty- 
three  years  no  man  crossed  it 
to  occupy  the  farm  but  for  a 
short  time,  225;  fall  of  the 
domineering  evictors,  239;  first 
blood  drawn  at  Ballinamore, 
263 ;  the  fight  at  Ballaghadereen, 
316;  Dillon  attends  the  funeral 
of  the  victims,  317;  failures  at 
New  Pallas  and  Ballylanders, 
319;  brutally  carried  on,  380; 
landlordism  used  the  law  for 
the  odious  task,  450;  action 
under  the  law  of  1361,  ib.; 
obsolete  in  England,  is  con- 
stantly applied  in  Ireland,  451. 


733 


INDEX 


Fair  rent,  Lord  Justice  Walker 
declined  to  give  any  definition 
of  a,  324;  Lord  Justice  Fitz- 
gibbon  declined  to  go  into  the 
question  of  the  definition  of  a 
fair  rent,  ib. 

Famine  and  fever  years,  the 
number  of  deaths  in  1846-47- 
48,  66. 

Fenianism,  the  seeming  collapse 
of,  42;  in  1878,  took  little  note 
of  Irish  landlordism,  117. 

Ferguson,  John,  his  speech  at  the 
Irishtown  meeting,  150;  de- 
clined to  enter  Parliament,  240; 
his  work  for  Ireland  has  been 
most  valuable  and  continuous, 
714. 

Fiscal  injustice,  the  anomalies  of 
Irish  taxation  under  an  English 
regime,  689;  the  motion  for 
remedial  action  defeated  by  a 
ministerial  vote,  691. 

Fitzgibbon,  John,  a  political  rene- 
gade who  became  Lord  Clare,  for 
his  Union  services,  31. 

Ford,  Ellen  A.,  assists  in  forming  an 
organization  in  New  York,  256. 

Ford,  Patrick,  editor  of  the  Irish 
World,  i6q;  its  marvelloiis  help 
to  the  cause.  256;  actively  and 
constantly  the  most  powerful 
support,  716. 

Forster,  W.  E.,  chief  secretary  for 
Ireland  under  Gladstone's  ad- 
ministration, 258;  active  in  re- 
lieving victims  of  the  famine 
of  1847-48,  ib.;  suggests  the 
use  of  buckshot  in  driving 
off  the  evicted  tenants,  265; 
the  name  "Buckshot"  Forster 
stuck  to  him  to  the  end  of  his 
career,  ib.;  declares  the  Land 
League  illegal  and  orders  its 
suppression,  338;  in  daily  peril 
of  his  life,  342;  imprisons  one 
thousand  and  eighty  -  three 
leaguers  as  "suspects,"  344;  asks 
to  be  permitted  to  resign  his 
office,  348;  explains  to  the 
House  the  reasons  for  his  res- 
ignation, 353;  accuses  Parnell 
of  complicity  in  the  Phcenix 
Park  murders,  457. 

Freeman's  journal,  acknowledges 
itself  beaten,  and  promises  the 
league  a  fair  support,  227. 


Froude,  James  A.,  indifference  of 
the  landlords  for  the  welfare  of 
the  people,  6;  predicts  that  the 
assassination  of  Lord  Mont- 
morres  would  lead  to  civil  war, 
270. 

Galbraith,  Rev.  Joseph  A.,  of 
Trinity  College,  author  of  the 
political  phrase  "Home  Rule," 
87. 

"Galtee  Boy,  the,"  Mr.  Sarsfield 
Casey's  nom  de  plume,  142. 

George,  Henry,  brings  a  telegram 
to  Davitt  confirming  the  report 
of  the  Phoenix  Park  murders, 
357;  his  search  for  a  collar- 
button  leads  to  his  arrest,  423; 
he  pleads  his  own  case  and  is 
discharged,  426. 

Giffen,  Sir  Robert,  his  letter  in 
TJie  Economi.st  on  the  land-pur- 
chase scheme,  508;  he  explains 
further,  510;  he  points  out 
what  England  loses  in  maintain- 
ing the  Union,  719;  he  was  the 
ablest  economist  of  our  time,  ib.; 
Ireland  is  so  poor  in  resources 
that  the  loss  of  it  positively 
would  hardly  count,  720;  Eng- 
land would  gain  ;^3,ooo,ooo  a 
year,  now  lost  on  an  expensive 
Irish  government,  ib. 

Gladstone,  W.  E.,  the  question  of 
tenure  of  land,  8;  an  unsettled 
question,  ib.;  "the  intensity  of 
Fenianism,"  77;  Fenianism 
taught  the  intensity  of  Irish 
disaffection,  84;  a  powerful 
majority  at  his  back,  260;  he 
looked  upon  the  "Compensation 
for  Disturbance  Bill"  as  a  wise 
and  expedient  concession,  261; 
appoints  a  committee  in  regard 
to  the  Land  Act  of  1870,  264; 
he  ri-ses  to  explain  new  rules, 
305  ;  introduces  his  remedial  set- 
off to  coercion,  317;  he  strikes 
a  mortal  blow  at  landlordism, 
ib.;  the  land  bill  as  a  peace 
offering,  318;  the  necessity  for 
hisland  bill,  321 ;  his  bill  omitted 
many  of  the  most  important 
recommendations  of  the  Toya\ 
commission  of  1881,  322;  said 
the  tenant's  improvements  were 
the  tenant's  own  property,  325; 


734 


INDEX 


he  acknowledges  the  abihty  of 
Mr.  T.  M.  Healy,  329;  he  speaks 
at  Leeds  on  the  alarming  state 
of  affairs  in  Ireland,  and  at  the 
Guildhall,  London,  on  learning 
of  the  arrest  of  Parnell,  S33' 
he  acknowledges,  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  that  the  conditions 
in  Ireland  had  no  parallel  in 
fifty  years,  342;  he  seeks  an 
ally  in  Rome,  343;  he  gets  the 
report  of  O'Shea's  interview 
with  Parnell,  350;  his  letter  to 
Cardinal  Newinan,  404;  he  re- 
fuses to  "reopen  the  question" 
concerning  the  measure  of  1881 , 
463;  his  plans  for  an  elective 
basis,  473;  in  advance  of  the 
Chamberlain  attitude  on  the 
Irish  question,  476;  he  resigns 
to  make  way  for  Lord  Salisbury, 
477;  his  first  Home- Rule  bill,  its 
scope  and  character,  488;  its 
financial  portion  unfair  to  Ire- 
land, 489;  champion  of  Home 
Rule  against  the  foes  of  Ire- 
land's claims,  491 ;  his  withering 
invectives  against  the  member 
for  Birmingham,  496;  his  bill 
defeated  because  the  English 
were  not  prepared  for  a  sepa- 
rate Parliament,  498;  religioixs 
bigotry  and  racial  hate,  499; 
proposes  to  buy  out  the  Irish 
landlords,  504;  this  sealed  the 
fate  of  the  Home- Rule  bill,  ib.; 
now  "the  one  and  only  hope  for 
Ireland,"  518;  offered  a  motion 
to  put  on  record  in  the  House 
of  Comtnons  a  condemnation  of 
the  atrocious  charges  against 
Irish  members,  614;  he  said 
"that  without  the  agitation 
Ireland  would  never  have  had 
the  Land  Act  of  1881,"  625;  he 
writes  a  letter  concerning  Par- 
nell's  position  after  the  divorce 
trial,  639;  he  succeeds  Lord 
Salisbury  in  1893,  666;  he  sup- 
ported the  second  Home-Rule 
bill  with  unrivalled  parliamen- 
tary power,  but  after  passing  the 
Commons  it  is  killed  by  the 
Lords,  with  savage  contempt  for 
the  bill  and  the  author,  669; 
this  virtually  ended  his  political 
career,  ib.;  his  efforts  to  carry 


through  the  House  of  Commons 
a  Home- Rule  constitution  will 
e\er  he  gratefully  remembered 
by  the  Irish  race,  671. 

Gordon,  General,  on  the  oppressed 
condition  of  the  Irish  people,  8. 

Grattan's  Parliament,  in  1782, 
the  utmost  measure  of  Anglo- 
Norman-Irish  patriotism,   114. 

Gray,  E.  Dwyer,  who  was  severely 
critical  upon  the  "raw  theories  " 
of  land  reform,  156;  he  informs 
Mr.  Davitt  that  he  is  to  be  ar- 
rested for  his  Gurteen  speech, 
178;  the  league's  real  quarrel 
with  him,  226;  acknowledges 
that  the  Freeman's  Journal  was 
beaten,  and  that  henceforth  he 
would  gi\e  the  league  a  fair  sup- 
port, 227;  elected  by  the  league 
movement  to  Parliament,  240. 

Gros\'enor,  Richard,  his  relations 
and  correspondence  with  the 
forger  Pigott,  563. 

Habeas  Corpus  Act  suspended 
under  the  government  of  Glad- 
stone, 42. 

Handcock,  Mr.,  member  for  Ath- 
lone,  turned  traitor  to  Ireland 
and  was  rewarded  by  being 
made  Lord  Castlemaine,  29. 

Hare,  William,  who  was  made 
Lord  Ennismore  for  services  for 
the  Union,  30. 

Harrington,  Timothy,  imprisoned 
under  the  Coercion  Act,  313; 
arrested  for  intimidating,  465; 
nine  days  afterwards  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  Parliament 
for  the  county  in  which  the 
crime  was  committed,  ib. 

Harris,  Matthew,  a  leading  or- 
ganizer in  Connaught,   15S. 

Harrison,  Carter  H.,  his  cable  to 
the  league,  296. 

Hartland,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Maurice 
Mahon  who  turned  traitor  to 
his  people  and  was  made  a  peer 
as  his  reward,  29. 

Hayes,  John  P.,  another  Times 
spy,  614;  a  hulking  scoundrel 
and  desperado,  ib. 

Healy,  Maurice,  a  skilful  debater 
with  an  accurate  knowledge  of 
the  complex  land  laws  of  Ire- 
land, 684. 


735 


INDEX 


Healy,  T.  M.,  comes  to  the  rescue 
of  the  American  mission,  207; 
charged  with  intimidating  a 
land-grabber,  272;  the  author 
of  Clause  IV.  of  the  act  of 
1881,  329;  his  scathing  on- 
slaught on  Mr.  Trevelyan,  462; 
characterized  Balfour's  Irish 
local  government  bill  as  "  The- 
Put-  'em -in -the-  Dock  Bill,"  a 
name  that  stuck,  664. 

Hely-Hutchinson,  John,  a  success- 
ful place-hunter  and  founder  of 
the  house  of  Donoughmore,  32. 

Hennessy,  Sir  John  Pope,  de- 
feats Mr.  Pamell's  candidate  at 
a  parliamentary  election,  39. 

Hicks-Beach,  Sir  Michael,  chief 
secretary  for  Ireland,  514;  again 
a  resort  to  the  stereotyped 
English  policy  of  kicks  and 
half  -  pence,  ib.;  succeeds 
Churchill  as  chancellor  of  the 
exchequer,   522. 

Historical  Apology  for  tlie  , Irish 
Catholics,  A,  a  work  by  Sir 
John  Parnell,  105. 

"Hold  the  Harvest!"  Fanny  Par- 
nell's  stirring  poem  read  at  the 
state  trials,  291. 

Home- Rule  bill,  the  second,  sup- 
ported by  Gladstone  with  con- 
summate eloquence,  667  ;  it  pass- 
es the  House  of  Commons,  but 
is  rejected  by  the  House  of 
Lords,  669. 

Home- Rule  Confederation  of  Great 
Britain,  136;  Parnell  elected 
president  of,  228;  Edward  Mc- 
Hugh  forms  a  Scottish  branch 
among  the  crofters,  ib. 

Home  Rule  failed  to  enlist  popular 
confidence,  88. 

Houston,  Edward  Caulfield,  who 
negotiated  the  purchase  of  the 
forged  Parnell  letters,  500;  the 
employer  of  the  forger  Pigott, 
561;  preliminary  correspond- 
ence, 561,  562;  he  contributes 
parliamentary  money  to  the  for- 
ger, 563;  pays  Pigott  £s<^o  for 
the  alleged  Parnell  letters,  574; 
sells  them  to  The  Times  for 
;^j2ooo,  ib. 

Hughes,  Archbishop,  he  vehement- 
ly protests  against  calling  the 
famine  in  Ireland  God's  famine. 


51;  he  declares  the  causes  of  the 
farnine  multitudinous,  52. 
Hurlbert,  William  Henry,  frees  his 
mind  in  a  letter  to  P.  J .  Sheridan, 
560. 

Independent  Ireland,  the  only 
grounds  that  can  be  advanced 
by  Englishmen  against,  71S. 

"  Invincible  "  conspiracy,  the,  452; 
the  Invincibles'  connection  with 
the  Phanix  Park  murders,  ib. ; 
;^i 0,000  offered  for  the  murder- 
ers, ib.;  the  attack  upon  Judge 
Lawson,  ib.;  two  informers,  ib.; 
Carey  di.scloses  facts,  453;  ar- 
rangements "to  meet  Burke," 
ib.;  Lord  Cavendish  killed  in 
shielding  Burke,  454;  live  ex- 
ecuted for  the  murder,  ib. ;  Carey, 
the  informer,  killed  on  his  way 
to  Cape  Town,  ib.;  O'Donnell 
arrested  for  the  murder  and  sent 
to  London  for  trial,  ib.;  O'Don- 
nell is  executed  in  Newgate  in 
1883,  455;  most  of  them  had 
been  Fenians,  456;  Forster  ac- 
cuses Parnell  of  complicity  in 
the  Phtxnix  Park  mvirders,  457; 
Parnell's  noble  reply  to  Forster's 
attack  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 459;  O'Brien  contests  the 
seat  of  a  Castle  lawj-er,  462; 
overwhelming  victory,  ib. 

Ireland,  what  she  received  from  the 
British  Parliament  from  1830  to 
1875,  103. 

Irish  electioneering  contests,  mon- 
ey difficulties  of,  233;  sheriffs' 
fees  must  be  paid  first,  ib. 

Irish  in  the  United  States,  steadily 
climbing  upward,  socially  and 
politically,  116. 

Irish  land-pvirchase  scheme,  sub- 
mitted by  Mr.  W.  H.  Smith  in 
1882,  328. 

Irish  landlord  Parliament,  the  laws 
fashioned  against  Whiteboyism, 
1 7 ;  Wolfe  Tone  sees  its  sham 
nationalism,  28;  Pitt  and  Cas- 
tlereagh  chief  actors  in  its 
destruction,  ib.;  Sir  Jonah  Bar- 
rington  gi\cs  a  list  of  the 
traitors,  ib.;  list  of  traitors,  28, 

29.  31- 
Irish  landlords,  their  conduct  dur- 
ing the  famine  of  1846-47,53. 


I 


736 


INDEX 


Irish  National  League,  its  forma- 
tion to  supplant  the  Irish 
National  Land  League,  372; 
report  of  money  in  the  treasury 
in  1S82,  373;  programme  and 
articles  of  the  national  con- 
ference, 375. 

Irish  Parliamentary  Fund  As- 
sociation, of  New  York,  re- 
mitted vS78,ooo  to  Parnell,  629. 

Irish  party,  address  by  the  com- 
mittee of  the,  in  1893,  666;  ap- 
proves of  the  suggestion  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Toronto,  676. 

Irish  -  race  convention  meets  at 
Leinster  Hall,  Dublin,  677; 
list  of  the  delegates,  ih.;  a 
complete  and  splendid  success, 
680. 

Irish  Republican  Brotherhood,  7^. 

Irish  World,  the,  a  New  York 
journal  conducted  by  Patrick 
Ford,  backs  the  revolt  against 
landlordism,   169. 

Irishtown  meeting,  members  of 
the  committee  protest  against 
the  action  of  Canon  Burke,  147; 
the  resolutions  offered,  148; 
Brennan's  address,  ib.;  O'Con- 
ner's  speech,  149;  Ferguson's 
speech,  150. 

Jebb,  Mr.  Justice,  defines  the 
policy  of  the  Whiteboys,  38. 

Jones,  Bence,  refuses  to  redvice 
rents  and  is  boycotted,  312. 

Joyce,  Dr.,  author  of  Deirdre,  130. 

Joyce,  Father,  the  first  priest  to 
join  the  Land  League,  192. 

Kane,  Dr.  J.  J.,  his  kindness  to 
Mr.  Davitt  in  St.  Louis,  254. 

Kasey,  a  blatant  "refugee"  who 
lived  in  Paris,  with  a  leaning 
towards  dynamite  and  a  de- 
cided taste  for  absinthe,  435;  the 
sham  plot  for  the  rescue  of 
Daly,  438. 

Keefe,  Rev.  Matthew,  a  friend 
of  the  poor  tenants,  68. 

Kelly,  Colonel  Thomas,  76. 

Keogh,  a  political  traitor  favored 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin,  70. 

Kettle,  Andrew  J.,  a  veteran 
land  reformer,  158;  a  most 
loyal,  energetic,  and  able  ad- 
vocate, 714. 


Kickham,  Charles  J.,  one  of  Ste- 
phens's lieutenants  in  the  Fenian 
movement  in  1865,  134;  he 
scouts  the  proposed  new  depart- 
ure, ib. 

Kilconnell,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Trench  who 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  for 
fomenting  the  rebellion  of  1798, 

Kilmaine,  Lord,  a  title  purchased 
by  Sir  John  Brown  with  money 
got  for  services  to  the  Union,  3 1 . 

King,  Robert,  was  made  Baron 
Erris  and  received  ;^i5,ooo  for 
the  disfranchisement  of  the 
town  of  Boyle,  30. 

Kinshela,  Gerald,  of  Carlow,  a 
"Tory"  hero  who  was  an  ac- 
tive resistant,   14. 

Kirby,  J.  F.,  The  Times  agent  who 
reported  that  he  could  secure 
Sheridan  as  a  witness  for 
;^20,ooo,  553;  he  has  an  inter- 
view with  him  at  his  ranch  in 
Colorado,  554;  he  tells  Sheridan 
that  he  was  to  be  assassinated, 
557- 

Ladies'  Land  League,  objections 
urged  against  it,  299;  the  duty 
of  providing  accommodation 
for  evicted  families  to  be  their 
work,  300 ;  boycotting  their  chief 
weapon,  340. 

"Lady  Clares,  The,"  37. 

Lalor,  James  Fintan,  his  letters  to 
The  Nation,  55;  he  contributes 
to  Tlie  Felon,  57;  his  arrest, 
65 ;  the  prophet  of  Irish  rev- 
olutionary land  reform,  79; 
his  revolutionary  writings  on 
the  Irish  land  question,  82; 
seeds  sown  for  another  genera- 
tion, ib. 

Lalor,  Richard,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parlia- 
ment, 239. 

Land  Act,  power  to  acquire  owner- 
ship of  any  estate.  246. 

Land  Act  Law,  the  administration 
of  the  act  in  the  hands  of  John 
O'Hagan,  a  sound  lawyer,  but 
a  weak  and  pliant  judge,  323; 
what  the  act  purported  to  give, 
324;  an  improvement  defined 
by,  325;  it  left  the  tenant's 
interests  unprotected,  326;  the 


737 


INDEX 


tenant   had    no   chance   in    the 
appeal  court,  327. 
Land  Act  of  1S70,  the,  a  concession 
to  "the  intensity  of  Fenianism," 

77- 

Land  League,  the,  the  Freeman  s 
yonrnal  antagonistic  to  it,  226; 
a  huge  demonstration  arranged 
to  protest  against  the  prosecu- 
tion of  the  arrested  members, 
227;  makes  a  clean  sweep  in 
three  Irish  provinces  in  the 
general  election,  238;  over- 
whelming triumph  over  the 
landlord  power,  239;  members 
elected  as  upholders  of  Mr.  Par- 
nell's  policy,  ib.;  some  trouble- 
some members,  245;  its  mem- 
bers are  indicted  on  nineteen 
counts,  272;  the  executive  mem- 
bers of  the  Land  League  meet 
in  Paris,  306;  the  aggressive 
moral  force,  311;  the  branch 
became  the  committee  of  public 
safety,  ib.;  official  judgment 
on  the  bill  of  i88i,  328;  the 
manifesto  issued  by  Parnell  and 
others  from  Kilmainham  jail, 
335;  "This  Land-League  Court 
is  now  declared  open,"  a  blunder 
of  the  court  crier,  340. 

Land-League  convention  at  Castle- 
bar,  report  of  meeting  in  the 
Dublin  Freeman  s  Journal,  160 

Land  -  purchase  Act  of  1902,  in- 
troduced by  Mr.  George  Wynd- 
ham,  703;  a  drop  takes  place  in 
the  guaranteed  land  stock,  ib.; 
the  tenant  to  be  coerced  into 
buying  his  holding,  704;  a 
combative  plan  of  anti-land- 
lordism put  forward,  ib.;  the 
landlords  strike  back  at  this 
still-bom  scheme,  ib.;  Lord  De 
Freyne  institutes  proceedings 
against  members  of  the  league, 
705;  Wyndham  says  the  ques- 
tion of  settlement  lies  with 
Irishmen,  ib.;  Shawe- Taylor 
invites  the  Duke  of  Abercom, 
on  behalf  of  the  landlords,  to 
meet  members  of  the  leagtie,  ib. ; 
the  landlords  decline,  ib.;  the 
chief  secretary  carries  the  meas- 
ure through  Parliament  without 
a  single  division,  708;  tables 
and  calculations  bearing  on  the 

738 


new  land  law,  709;  landlords' 
bonuses,  710;  summary,  711. 

Land-purchase  scheme,  letter  in 
The  Times  from  Sir  James 
Caird,  506;  that  newspaper's 
comments,  507;  Sir  Robert  Gif- 
fen's  letter  in  The  Economist, 
508;  Dr.  Croke  in  The  Statist, 
509;  the  Freeman's  Journal  ap- 
proves, ib.;  the  Fortnightly  Re- 
view discusses  the  question,  ib. 

Landlordism,  the  prelates  and 
priests  failed  to  back  Duffy  and 
Father  Croke  against  the  evils 
in  1852,  70;  it  stood  for  the 
menace  of  eviction,  120;  backed 
by  the  law,  put  its  hand  often  to 
eviction,  450. 

Landlords  in  the  West  of  Ire- 
land clamoring  for  their  rents, 
despite  the  great  distress  of  the 
peasantry,  211. 

Langford,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Rowley  who 
was  created  a  peer  as  a  reward 
for  his  vote  in  favor  of  the 
Union,  29. 

Lavelle,  Father,  attacks  from  his 
pulpit  the  rack  -  renting  land- 
lords in  County  Mayo,  145;  his 
work  Irish  Landlordism  Since 
the  Revolution,  146. 

Law  of  Edward  III.  of  1361,  re- 
vived by  Wyndham  to  imprison 
political  opponents  in  Ireland, 
699. 

Lawless,  Nicholas,  became  Lord 
Cloncurry  for  services  to  the 
Union,  30. 

Leamy,  Edmund,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 

239- 

Le  Caron,  Major  Henri,  in  the 
Clan-na-Gael  circles  in  Chicago, 
253;  practising  as  a  doctor,  he 
treated  Mr.  Davitt  for  insomnia. 
254;  one  of  the  most  theatrical 
of  all  TJie  Times  witnesses,  609; 
a  spy  in  the  secret-service  em- 
ploy for  twenty  years,  ib.; 
his  expected  reward  was  ;^io,- 
000,  610;  never  once  suspected 
of  being  a  spy,  612. 

Lecky ,  Mr. ,  on  the  rapacity  of  mid- 
dlemen, 5;  declares  that  the 
presence  of  the  Irish  in  the 
British  Parliament  has  proved 
the  most  powerful  of  all  agents 


INDEX 


in  accelerating  the  democratic 
transformation  of  English  poli- 
tics, 726. 

Leitrim,  Lord,  assassination  of, 
in  revenge  for  debauching  a 
farmer's  daughter,  142,  143. 

"Levellers,"  a  name  applied  to 
the  Whiteboy  agrarians,  be- 
cause they  destroyed  fences 
around    landlord    commonages, 

17- 

Lewis,  Sir  Franklin,  contrasts  rents 
in  Ireland  and  England,  7. 

Lewis,  Sir  George  Cornwall,  his 
idea  of  the  motives  impelling 
the  Whiteboys,  38;  quotes  from 
Wyse's  history  to  show  the  lack 
of  control  of  the  clergy  over  the 
lower  classes,  40. 

Limerick,  Earl  of,  a  Mr.  Perry  who 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  by 
his  renegade  brother,  who  was 
speaker  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, 31. 

Listowel,  Earl  of,  a  Mr.  Hare  who 
was  raised  to  the  peerage  for 
services  to  the  Union,  30. 

Litchfield  House  Plot,  122. 

Local  Government  bill  of  1898, 
the  greatest  of  all  victories  won 
by  the  Irish  forces,  686 ;  con- 
tained the  usual  restrictions  and 
limitations,  showing  the  anti- 
Irish  bias,  687;  this  concession 
invited  the  usual  number  of 
"boodlers,"  688. 

Londonderry,  Lord,  a  descendant 
of  Robert  Stewart,  who  was  an 
enemy  of  Irish  nationhood,  31. 

Lowther,  James,  secretary  for 
Ireland,  157;  his  ill-tempered 
letter,  159. 

Luttrell,  Henry,  a  mercenary 
renegade,  the  last  member  of 
whose  family  recently  died,  a 
convicted  thief,  in  a  German 
prison,  32. 

Maamtrasna  crime,  two  bailiffs 
killed  and  thrown  into  the 
lake,  381;  it  brought  to  Ireland 
Arnold  Toynbee,  ib. 

McCabe,  Archbishop,  assails  the 
league  in  a  pastoral  letter,  189; 
calls  the  Land-Leaguers  the  ene- 
mies of  religion,  190;  again  at- 
tacks the  league,  27 1 ;  is  troubled 


about  the  "modesty"  of  the 
Ladies'  Land  League,  314;  is 
contemptuously  crushed  by  the 
Archbishop  of  Cashel,  315; 
makes  his  customary  impotent 
intervention,  341. 

McCarthy,  Justin,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 
239;  denounces  the  increasing 
imprisonment  of  "suspects"  in 
1 88 1,  331 ;  he  was  suspended  by 
the  prime-minister  and  left  the 
House  of  Commons  amid  the 
cheers  of  his  party,  ib.;  he  re- 
linquishes the  leadership  of  the 
Irish  party,  685;  a  singular- 
ly lovable  man,  who  probably 
ne\-er  had  an  enemy,  ib. 

MacCormick,  Dr.,  allowed  his 
priests  to  take  part  in  the 
Land- League  agitation,  192. 

McDermott,  Red  Jim,  a  man  in  the 
pay  of  the  English  secret  ser- 
vice, who  planned  the  alleged 
dynamite  plots  in  Cork,  Liver- 
pool, and  London,  and  tried  to 
fasten  them  on  Pamell,  428- 
433  ;  he  turns  up  in  Paris,  435. 

Macdonough,  Mr.,  he  ably  defends 
the   league  at   the   state  trials, 

293- 

McHugh,  P.  A.,  goes  to  the  United 
States  to  proclaim  the  glad 
tidings  of  a  reunited  Ireland, 
696. 

Mackay,  J.  W.,  he  makes  Mr. 
Davitt  his  guest  at  his  hotel, 
254;  he  offers  his  solution  of  the 
Irish  question,  ib. 

McKnight,  S.,  editor  of  The  Banner 
of  Ulster,  in  the  interest  of  the 
Tenant  League,  69. 

Madden,  Dr.,  he  tells  the  story  of 
Father  Sheehy  and  "The  White- 
boys,"   17. 

Maginn,  Bishop  of  Derry,  his 
indignant  protest,  50. 

Mahon,  Maurice,  became  Lord 
Hartland  as  the  price  of  his 
vote,   29. 

"Major  Yellow,"  he  foregathers 
with  the  alleged  dynamiters  in 
Paris  and  gets  their  secrets,  436; 
his  book.  The  Repeal  of  the 
Union  Conspiracy,  anticipated 
the  "  Parnellism  and  Crime" 
articles  in   'The    rimes,  613;  he 


739 


INDEX 


shadowed  Davitt  during  his 
visit  to  America,  ib.;  he  wrote  a 
report  concerning  the  "secret" 
societies,  which  he  gave  to  the 
home  secretary  and  Ttie  Times, 
614;  at  the  trial  he  appeared 
as  a  witness  for  Tlie  Times,  ib. 

Mansion-House  meeting,  in  1902, 
Lord  Dunraven  in  the  chair,  to 
settle  the  question  between 
landlord  and  tenant,  705;  start- 
ling proposals  submitted,  706; 
the  immediate  effect  was  to 
inflate  the  value  of  landlord 
property  over  thirty  per  cent., 
707. 

Martin,  John,  he  starts  The 
Felon  after  the  suppression  of 
Tlte  United  Irishman,  57;  he  is 
sent  to  Tasmania,  58;  extract 
from  his  letters  on  the  national 
ownership  of  land,  ib. 

Marum,  Mr.,  he  deludes  the 
tenants  of  evicted  farms,  39; 
he  is  shot  in  the  open  day,  ib  ; 
his  son  is  an  earnest  tenant- 
righter  and  one  of  the  followers 
of  Mr.  Pamell,  ib. 

Massey,  General,  was  made  Lord 
Clarina  as  a  reward  for  the  sup- 
port of  the  Union,  and  his 
brother  was  created  Baron 
Massey,  30. 

May,  Lord  Chief-Justice,  delivers 
a  violent  political  harangue, 
288;  he  retires  from  participa- 
tion in  the  state  trials,  289. 

Mayo  conspiracy  in  1884,  471. 

Mayo,  County  of,  chief  sufferer  of 
the  landlord  system,  144;  her 
people  were  always  found  in  the 
fray,  145. 

Mayo,  Earl  of,  was  a  Mr.  Burke, 
owner  of  a  nomination  borough, 
32. 

Meagher,  Thomas  Francis,  his 
protest  against  the  policy  of  the 
Repeal  Association,  50;  warrant 
for  his  arrest,  63. 

Mechanics'  Hall,  Boston,  meeting, 
resolutions  offered  at,  130. 

Miltown  meeting,  Mr.  Lowther's 
report  to  the  House  of  Commons 
on,  157;  Mr.  O'Connor  Power 
objects  to  the  tone  of  the  report, 
158;  Mr.  Bright  reprimands  Mr. 
Lowther  for  his  language,  ib. 


Mitchel,  John,  his  revolt  against 
the  whole  Repeal  movement, 
5  5 ;  he  proposes  a  strike  against 
the  payment  of  poor  rates,  ib.; 
shows  England's  perfidy  in  1 847 , 
56;  he  starts  The  United  Irish- 
man, ib.;  which  is  suppressed  by 
Dublin  Castle,  57;  his  trial  and 
sentence  in  1848,  ib.;  he  blames 
the  priests  for  the  appalling 
condition  of  the  tenants,  64. 

"  Mitchelstown  Massacre,"  one  of 
the  results  of  Balfour's  policy, 
523;  at  which  the  constabulary 
are  put  to  flight,  525. 

"Molly  Maguires,"  the,  become  a 
rival  society  to  the  Ribbon 
Society,  43. 

Monaco,  Cardinal,  issues  a  mani- 
festo against  the  Irish  methods, 
406. 

Money,  contributed  to  the  league, 
713;  from  America,  320. 

Montmorres,  Lord,  his  assassina- 
tion a  cold-blooded  crime,  270; 
Mr.  Froude,  in  a  letter  in  The 
Times,  predicts  civil  war  on 
account  of,  ib. 

"Moonlighters,"  the,  43. 

Moore,  George  Henry,  a  liberal 
landlord,   145. 

Moran,  his  Eminence  Cardinal,  of 
Sydney,  New  South  Wales, 
sends  words  of  encouragement, 
676. 

Morley,  John,  becomes  Irish  secre- 
tary in  the  Home-Rule  cabinet, 
a  convert  for  national  rule  in 
Ireland,  487;  warns  Pamell, 
641;  gives  a  touching  account 
of  Gladstone's  last  cabinet  meet- 
ing and  his  farewell  to  his 
colleagues,  670;  proposes  to 
have  a  select  committee  ap- 
pointed to  inquire  into  the  work- 
ings of  the  land  acts,  671. 

Morres,  Lodge,  made  Lord  Frank- 
fort, and  later  becomes  Vis- 
count Frankfort  de  Montmor- 
ency, for  services,  30. 

Movement  against  English  power, 
121. 

Muldoon,  John,  a  faithful  ofhcer, 
an  able  advocate  and  sterling 
supporter,  695. 

Mulhn,  John,  paid  for  killing 
Loughlin  O'H anion,  13. 


I 


740 


INDEX 


Mullins,  Thomas,  made  a  peer 
and  his  name  changed  to  De 
Moleyns,  30. 

Mulqueeny,  his  evidence  before 
Tlie  Times  commission,  633. 

Municipal  elections,  objection  in 
Irish  extreme  circles  to  par- 
ticipation in,  1 1 8. 

Murdoch,  John,  a  stanch  ally  of  the 
Irish  Land  League,  229;  Pro- 
fessor Blaikie's  lines  to,  ib. 

Murphy, N.  D.,runs  for  the  borough 
of  Cork  against  Pamell,  with 
the  open  support  of  the  bishop. 
238. 

Nally,  p.  W.,  an  organizer  of  the 
Irishtown  meeting,  147;  arrest- 
ed for  complicity  in  the  Mayo 
conspiracy  and  dies  in  prison, 
471. 

Nangle,  Cornet,  of  Longford,  who 
was  an  active  resistant,   14. 

Naoroje  Dadabhai,  an  East- 
India  -  man  whom  it  was  pro- 
posed to  elect  to  the  Commons, 

447- 

Nation,  The,  leaves  the  mass  of 
the  people  under  the  absolute 
leadership  of  the  bishops  and 
priests,  49. 

National  Federation,  the,  born  in 
a  storm,  665;  has  to  fight  op- 
posing forces  of  landlordism 
and  Dublin  Castle,  ib.;  New 
York  branch  supported  by  Dr. 
Thomas  Addis  Emmet,  672;  the 
co-operators,  673;  Dillon  be- 
comes leader  of,  685. 

National  Land  League  of  Ireland, 
160;  rules  and  objects  of,  162; 
its  purpose  to  unite  the  whole 
country  in  the  movement,  164; 
its  intention  to  defend  persons 
who  might  be  evicted,  165; 
Pamell's  invitation  to  the  con- 
ference of,  172;  its  meeting  at 
the  Imperial  Hotel  in  Dublin, 
ib.;  members  present,  ib.;  the 
committee  appointed  by,  173; 
its  new  quarters  in  Abbey 
Street,  Dublin,  177. 

National  League  in  America,  its 
first  meeting  at  Trenor  Hall, 
New  York,  365;  the  second  at 
Buffalo,  ib. ;  the  third  in  Boston, 
ib.;  T.  P.  O'Connor  and  T.  M. 


Healy  as  envoys,,  ib.;  declares 
English  rule  in  Ireland  without 
moral  sanction,  366;  its  fourth 
meeting  in  Washington,  ib.;  the 
Irish  envoys  return  to  Ireland, 
ib.;  resolutions  passed  by  the 
conference,  367;  its  fifth  con- 
vention held  in  Philadelphia, 
391;  remarks  of  Mr.  James 
Mooney  in  retiring  from  the 
presidency  of,  ib.;  receives  mes- 
sage from  Pamell,  392 ;  its  name 
changed  to  Irish  National 
League  of  America,  ib. ;  Alexan- 
der Sullivan  elected  president  of 
the  new-named  league,  393. 

National  League  in  Australia,  un- 
der the  presidency  of  Rev.  M. 
Horan,  383;  names  of  his 
assistants,  ib.;  its  meeting  in 
Melbourne,  in  1881,  ib.;  Walshe, 
John  W.,  sent  as  an  organizer, 
384;  league  conventions  in  1883, 
385;  names  of  its  delegates,  ib.; 
report  of  Joseph  Winter  to  ob- 
tain monetary  assistance  for 
Ireland,  388;  officers  and  reg- 
ulations of,  389;  Dr.  O'Doherty's 
address  in  dismissing  the  dele- 
gates, 390. 

National  League  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  an  off- 
spring of  the  National  League 
of  America  and  the  Irish  Na- 
tional League  of  America,  393; 
officers  elected,  ib.;  head-lines 
of  the  New  York  Herald  in  its 
report  of  the  convention,  394; 
the  spicy  report  of  the  Chicago 
Times,  395. 

New  Pallas,  five  thousand  peas- 
ants prevented  an  eviction  at, 
319. 

New  York  World  and  the  New 
York  Sun  assist  in  raising  large 
sums  of  money  for  Pamell,  629. 

Nobility  and  gentry,  Thomas 
Moore's  contempt  for  a  certain 
class  of,  27;  men  who  could  be 
bought,  ib. 

Nolan,  John,  a  prominent  Fenian 
leader,  86;  Butt's  most  powerful 
ally,  97;  his  scheme  to  raise 
money  for  the  cause,  ib.;  he 
leaves  Dublin  for  New  York,  and 
dies  in  St.  Vincent's  Hospital, 
99. 


741 


INDEX 


Norbury,  Lord,  a  John  Toler,  a 
most  infamous  character,  who 
tried  Robert    Emmet   in    1803, 

30- 
No-rent  manifesto,  effects  of  the, 
330;  two  men  killed  in  County 
Clare,  331;  Father  Eugene 
Sheehy  arrested,  ib.;  Mr.  Justin 
McCarthy  denounces  the  increas- 
ing arrests  of  suspects,  ib.; 
Forster  urges  the  arrest  of  the 
central  leaders,  339;  arrest  of 
Miss  Hodnett  in  County  Kerry 
for  exhibiting  a  no-rent  mani- 
festo in  her  window,  341;  the 
cost  of  providing  for  the  families 
of  "suspects,"  344. 

"Oakbo'V'S,"  the,  an  organization 
formed  to  oppose  special  claims 
of  landlords,  20. 

O'Brien,  Barry,  on  "The  New 
Departure,"  123. 

O'Brien,  Smith,  his  warning  to  Sir 
Robert  Peel,  48;  a  moderate 
land  reformer,  55;  warrant  for 
his  arrest,  63;  he  marches  on 
Callan,  64. 

O'Brien,  William,  becomes  editor 
of  United  Ireland,  333,  threat- 
ened with  arrest  by  Balfour,  he 
escapes  to  France  with  Dillon, 
627. 

O'Connell,  Daniel,  his  dream  and 
ambition,  35;  founder  of  moral- 
force  nationalism,  ib.;  his  early 
education,  36;  a  colossus  who 
impressed  the  world  with  his 
personality,  ib.;  he  denounces 
the  Whiteboys,  39 ;  on  the  "  Prot- 
estant tyranny"  of  the  Es- 
tablished Church,  48;  he  and 
some  of  his  chief  supporters 
imprisoned,  49;  his  collapse,  ib.; 
his  unheeded  demand  that  food 
should  not  be  exported,  52;  the 
friction  between  him  and  the 
Young  Irelanders,  553;  his  death, 
ib. 

O'Connell,  John,  his  atrocious 
sentiments,  47;  the  curse  of  his 
leadership,  49. 

O'Connor,  Arthur,  elected  to  Par- 
liament, 239. 

O'Connor,  Father,  of  Achill,  a 
friend  of  the  league,  192. 

O'Connor    Power    introduces    the 


Compensation    for  Disturbance 
Bill,  260. 

O'Connor,  T.  P.,  elected  to  Par- 
liament, 239;  returned  both 
from  Galway  city  and  the  Scot- 
land Ward  division  of  Liver- 
pool, 502;  he  chooses  to  sit  for 
Liverpool,  ib. 

O'Donnell,  kills  Carey,  the  inform- 
er, on  his  way  to  Cape  Town, 
455;  is  arrested  and  hanged  at 
Newgate  in  1883,  ib. 

O'Donnell,  F.  H.,  on  the  policy 
concerning  the  Transvaal,  109; 
elected  to  Parliament,  239. 

O'Donnell,  Dr.  Nicholas,  of  Mel- 
bourne, Australia,  the  heart  and 
soul  of  everything  pro-Celtic, 
630. 

O'Donnell,  Thomas,  goes  to  the 
United  States  to  tell  of  reunited 
Ireland,  696. 

O'Hanlon,  Count  Redmond,  leader 
of  the  Ulster  "Tories,"  12; 
the  price  paid  for  his  assassina- 
tion, ib.;  his  grave  in  the  parish 
of  Killevy,  County  Armagh,  13; 
the  title  of  count  conferred  for 
bravery  in  the  French  army,  ib. 

O'Hara,  Father  Dennis,  a  speaker 
at  the  Gurteen  meeting,  and  a 
stalwart  friend  of  the  poor,  192. 

O'Keefife,  Daniel,  head  of  a  clan 
of  that  name,  13;  he  fought 
against  Cromwell,  ib.;  he  took 
possession  of  the  castle  and 
lands  of  Dromagh,  ib.;  fought 
at  the  Boyne,  ib. ;  and  became  an 
outlaw  again,  ib. 

O' Kelly,  James,  a  worker  in  na- 
tional movements,  128;  elected 
to  Parliament,   239. 

O'Kelly,  Mary,  O'Keeffe's  mis- 
tress, who  was  bribed  to  betray 
him,  14. 

O'Leary,  John,  he  tells  the  storj' 
of  the  "insurrection,"  64;  a 
distinguished  author,  who  made 
John  Mitchel  an  agrarian  rev- 
olutionist, 65. 

O'Mahony,  Mrs.  Anne,  a  widow, 
proprietor  of  the  Waterford  Star, 
sent  to  jail  for  the  crime  of 
refusing  to  gi\-e  the  names  of 
some  leaguers  who  sent  to  her  a 
series  of  resolutions  for  pub- 
lication in  her  paper,  701. 


742 


INDEX 


O'Mahony,  John,  73,  74;  head 
centre  of  the  Fenian  I3rother- 
hood     in    the     United     States, 

75- 

O'Malley,  Father  John,  of  County 
Mayo,  who  invented  the  word 
"Boycott,"  and  suggested  its 
apphcation,  274;  his  facetious 
rebuke  of  a  poor  old  woman  at 
Lough  Mask,  278. 

O'Neill,  General,  his  raid  into 
Canada  in  1867,  120. 

O'Neill,  Owen  Roe,  an  officer 
under  the  Duke  of  York,  13;  a 
leader  of  the   Celtic  people,  35. 

O'Reilly,  John  Boyle,  chief  in- 
spiration of  the  meeting  in 
Boston  in  1878,  129;  his  lovable 
character,  ib.;  his  idea  of  the 
basis  of  the  national  fight,  130; 
temporary  chairman  of  the 
American  Land  League,  247;  a 
conservative,  257;  supports  the 
stand  made  by  the  people  against 
coercion  in  Ireland,  366. 

O'Shea,  Captain,  interviews  Par- 
nell  and  reports  to  Gladstone, 
350;  he  gives  his  views  to  Fos- 
ter concerning  further  coercive 
legislation,  352;  a  dangerous  in- 
triguer, 501;  his  petition  for 
divorce  heard  before  a  London 
jury,  637;  verdict  in  his  favor, 
638. 

O'Shea,  Rev.  Thomas,  a  friend  of 
the  poor  tenants,  68. 

O'SuUivan,  W.  H.,  on  the  execu- 
tive committee  of  the  Land 
League,  240. 

'"Orangemen,"  an  organization 
evolved  from  the  Peep-o '-Day- 
Boys,  16;  the  "Battle  of  the 
Diamond,"  21;  still  remember- 
ed on  Orange  festivals,  22;  a 
typical  product  of  English  rule 
over  the  Irish,  ib. 

Ormonde,  the  black  -  hearted 
scoundrel  who  bribed  a  relative 
to  kill  O'Hanlon,   12. 

Osservatore  Romano,  the  leading 
organ  of  the  Vatican,  calls  Big- 
gar  a  bacon-seller,  and  makes 
lying  statements  about  Parnell : 
says  that  "forty  miscreants" 
are  in  jail  in  Ireland  for  "mur- 
dering priests,"  191. 

Outlaw's  Cave,  on  the  Blackwater 


River,  Daniel  O'Keeflfe's  place 
of  retreat,  13. 
Ownership  of  the  soil  the  basis  of 
the    fight    for    self-government, 
121. 

Paris  Funds,  The,  the  quarrel 
over  the  distribution  of,  672. 

Parliament  of  the  Irish  race,  an- 
other name  for  the  Irish  -  race 
convention,  678. 

Parnell,  Anna,  in  favor  of  the 
Ladies'  Land  League,  299; 
makes  admirable  addresses  in 
the  provinces,  uttering  extreme 
Land-League  principles,  314. 

Parnell,  Charles  Stewart,  born  at 
Avondale,  County  Wicklow,  in 
June,  1846,  106;  youthful  ad- 
ventures and  rustication  from 
Cambridge  University,  107;  his 
action  concerning  the  policy  to 
destroy  the  independence  of  the 
Transvaal,  109;  assailed  by  the 
English  press  and  mobs,  no; 
refuses  to  join  any  political 
secret  society,  112;  in  accord 
with  Grattan,  115;  The  Times 
prefers  false  charges  against, 
123;  promoted  to  leadership, 
124;  his  speech  at  Traleeon  the 
land  question,  137;  learns  the 
facts  of  the  Irishtown  meeting, 
150;  speech  at  Westport,  154; 
at  the  Limerick  demonstration, 
168;  agrees  to  the  consolidation 
of  several  organizations,  170;  his 
letter  of  invitation  to  a  meeting 
to  form  the  National  Land 
League  of  Ireland,  171;  his 
growth  in  popularity,  174; 
quotes  John  Stuart  Mill,  175; 
the  Tory  squire  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  176;  arouses 
popular  feeling  in  favor  of 
Mr.  Davitt,  179;  a  fighting 
speech  at  Balla,  ib.;  postpones 
his  visit  to  America,  on  account 
of  the  Castle  coup,  188;  de- 
mands an  autumn  session  of 
Parliament,  192;  asks  assistance 
from  friends  in  America,  ib.; 
sails  for  America,  193;  gen- 
eral reception  in  New  York,  ib.; 
addresses  a  great  meeting  at 
Madison  Square  Garden,  ib.; 
tour  through  the  country,   194- 


743 


INDEX 


197;  he  addresses  Congress,  198; 
his  '"last-link  speech,"  204;  he 
replies  to  an  attack  in  the  New 
York  Herald,  205;  his  early  love- 
aflfairs,  207;  his  even  temper  up- 
set by  a  six-foot  female  elocu- 
tionist, ib.;  he  misquotes  Moore, 
228;  elected  president  of  the 
Home- Rule  Confederation,  ib.; 
the  object  of  his  mission  to 
America,  234;  he  attends  the 
meeting  at  Enniscorthy,  and  is 
attacked  by  the  mob,  led  by  two 
priests,  235;  his  life  is  saved  by 
Jack  Hall,  a  reporter  for  the 
Freeman's  Journal,  236;  is 
roughly  handled  on  his  way  to 
the  hotel,  237;  he  is  nominated 
for  Cork  City  and  elected,  238; 
elected  to  three  separate  con- 
stituencies, 240;  proposed  Mr. 
Butt's  land  bill  to  conference, 
241;  he  attends  the  anniversary 
meeting  at  Irishtown,  245;  his 
stirring  speech  at  Galway,  271; 
cables  to  New  York,  1881,  con- 
cerning the  result  of  the  state 
trials,  297;  his  letter  to  the 
American  press  concerning  Mr. 
Davitt's  arrest,  304;  he  and  his 
entire  party  expelled  from  the 
House,  305 ;  issues  a  manifesto 
from  Paris  in  1881,  306;  cord- 
ially welcomed  by  Victor  Hugo, 
308;  the  expelled  Irish  party 
resolve  to  return  to  the  House, 
309;  he  advised  the  complete 
uprooting  of  landlordism,  318; 
his  "retort  courteous"  to  the 
premier's  speech  and  Forster's 
despotic  proceeding,  337;  pro- 
poses a  practical  settlement  of 
the  land  question,  351;  hearing 
of  the  Pho?nix  Park  murders  he 
decides  to  retire  to  private  life, 
358;  he  is  advised  not  to  do  so 
by  Mr.  Joseph  Chamberlain, 
Sir  Charles  Dilke,  and  Mr. 
Gladstone,  358,  359;  explains 
Forster's  downfall,  36 1 ;  requests 
Mr.  Davitt  not  to  address  meet- 
ings in  Manchester  and  Liver- 
pool, 363 ;  refuses  to  be  iden- 
tified with  any  more  Land 
Leagueism,  368;  his  "iron  dic- 
tatorship "  a  carefully  construct- 
ed legend,  380;  savage  attack  on 


him  by  Forster  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  397;  attacked  by 
the  Propaganda  Fide,  398;  pro- 
poses to  invite  the  co-operation 
of  the  English  working-classes, 
448 ;  his  speech  in  reply  to  For- 
ster's attack  on  him  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  459;  in- 
troduces a  bill  to  amend  the 
defects  of  the  law  of  1881,  463; 
is  credited  with  the  appointing 
power,  466 ;  his  powers  as  a  lead- 
er, 469;  angling  for  concessions, 
470;  he  finds  himself  master  of 
the  situation,  477;  handicapped 
by  a  new  power  that  it  had 
come  to  his  fortune  to  wield, 
480;  a  serious  error  in  tactics, 
481;  his  great  parliamentary 
triumph,  484;  clean  sweep  by 
the  Pamellites,  4S4;  declares 
that  Irishmen  in  America  and 
those  at  home  would  accept  the 
Gladstone  proposals  as  a  final 
settlement  of  the  Anglo-Irish 
strife,  490;  his  speech  on  the 
Gladstone  bill,  494;  pronounces 
the  first  Times  letter  a  forgery, 
534;  decides  to  put  the  onus 
of  proof  on  the  House  of 
Commons,  537;  W.  H.  Smith 
refuses  to  accept  the  challenge, 
or  to  permit  Parnell  to  expose 
the  fraud  of  the  forged  letters, 
ib.;  his  extraordinary  compos- 
ure during  the  trial,  596;  the 
judge  said:  "We  entirely  acquit 
Parnell,"  605 ;  after  his  acquittal 
he  became  immensely  popular 
in  England,  625;  the  city  of 
Edinburgh  voted  him  the  free- 
dom of  the  city,  ib.;  visits 
Gladstone  at  Hawarden,  630; 
an  amusing  incident,  ib.;  is  a 
corespondent  in  O'Shea's  suit 
for  divorce,  631;  thinks  trades- 
unionism  nothing  but  land- 
lordism of  labor,  636;  he  is 
asked  to  resign  his  leadership  for 
a  time,  639;  he  refuses,  642;  his 
handsome  tribute  to  Gladstone, 
645;  his  speech  at  the  Eighty 
Club,  ib.;  eulogizes  the  genius 
and  services  of  Gladstone,  646; 
dies  at  Brighton, October  6, 1891, 
656;  his  speeches  in  Dublin  and 
Navan,    ib.;    looked    upon    by 


744 


INDEX 


Gladstone  as  "an  invaluable 
man,"  657 ;  faults  do  not  conceal 
his  greatness,  658;  his  pedigree, 

659- 

Pamell,  Fanny,  she  enkindles 
Irish-American  feeling  for  the 
league,  256;  her  proposal  to 
form  a  Ladies'  Land  League, 
ib.;  her  stirring  poem  "Coercion 
— Hold  the  Rent,"  266;  her 
poem  "Hold  the  Harvest,"  read 
at   the   state   trials,    291. 

Pamell,  John,  brother  of  Thomas, 
the  poet,  a  Dublin  barrister, 
succeeds  to  his  father's  estate 
and  enters  the  Irish  House  of 
Commons,  104. 

Pamell,  John  Henry,  son  of 
William  Parnell,  the  first  travel- 
ler in  the  family,  106;  married 
Miss  Stewart  in  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1834,  ib. 

Pamell,  Sir  Henry,  a  prominent 
figure  in  the  Whig  party,  105. 

Pamell,  Sir  John,  a  statesman  of 
the  highest  probity,  105;  he 
receives  the  estate  of  Avondale, 
ib. 

Pamell,  Thomas,  an  adherent  of 
Oliver  Cromwell,  104;  fixes  his 
residence  in  Dublin,  ib. 

Parnell,  Thomas,  poet,  eldest  son 
of  the  above,  a  friend  of  Pope, 
Goldsmith,  and  Samuel  John- 
son. 104. 

Parnell,  William,  the  head  of  the 
Avondale  branch  of  the  family, 
educated  in  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity, 105;  author  of  .4 
Historical  Apology  for  tlie  Irish 
Catholics,  ib. 

Pamellism,  a  name  invented  by 
T.  M.  Healy  or  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
378. 

Peel,  Sir  Robert,  attempts  to  pass 
a  coercion  act  to  enforce  pay- 
ment of  rents,  49;  his  reply  to 
O'Connor's  motion  for  repeal, 
446. 

"  Peep-o'-Day-Boys,"  a  body  of 
a  mixed  religious  and  labor 
character,  opposed  to  the  "De- 
fenders," 16. 

People  of  Roxbury,  America,  in 
1770,  agree  not  to  purchase 
British  goods,   279. 

Perry,  Sexton,  a  renegade  who  was 


raised  to  the  position  of  speaker 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  31. 

Phillips,  Wendel,  said  Pamell  was 
the  Irishman  who  compelled 
John  Bull  to  listen,  652. 

Phoenix  Park  murders,  the  killing 
of  Lord  Frederick  Cavendish 
was  the  result  of  his  defending 
Mr.  Burke,  who  was  the  object 
of  the  attack,  360. 

Pigott,  Richard,  of  forgery  fame, 
^ii\  owner  of  The  Irishman  and 
The  Flag  of  Ireland,  ib. ;  he  at- 
tacks Mr.  Davitt,  135;  as 
proprietor  of  Tlie  Irishman  he 
got  hold  of  many  of  the  secrets 
of  the  Fenians,  which  he  used 
for  his  personal  advantage,  565; 
Isaac  Butt  was  the  first  victim 
of  his  blackmailing  scheme,  ib.; 
all  Dublin  knew  of  his  scheming 
and  blackmailing  practices,  566; 
a  special  order  of  the  Irish  Re- 
publican Brotherhood,  in  which 
his  life  is  threatened,  written 
by  himself,  567;  gets  ;£25o 
from  Egan,  568;  more  money 
from  Egan,  569;  more  hush 
money  asked  for,  570;  his  attacks 
on  the  leaders  in  many  anti-Irish 
papers,  571;  extracts  from  his 
diary  showing  articles  contrib- 
uted to  the  St.  James's  Gazette 
and  London  Evening  News,  571, 
572;  he  is  engaged  as  a  salaried 
agent  of  the  anti-Land-League 
combination,  572;  his  discovery 
of  the  black  bag  in  Paris  con- 
taining letters  from  Parnell  and 
others,  ib.;  the  first  note  of 
alarm,  575;  he  is  entrapped  by 
Sir  Charles  Russell,  577;  one  of 
the  forged  letters  and  a  lesson 
in  spelling,  581;  he  confesses 
the  forgeries,  582,  583:  he 
flies  to  Paris,  584;  he  sends  to 
Mr.  Lewis  a  copy  of  the  con- 
fession he  made  at  Mr.  Labou- 
chere's,  586;  the  text  of  Pigott's 
confession,  588,  589;  Parnell, 
through  his  attorneys,  returns 
the  confession  to  Pigott,  590;  he 
commits  suicide  in  Madrid,  591 ; 
his  letter  to  his  housekeeper, 
593. 

"Plan  of  Campaign,  The,"  T. 
Harrington  the  author  of,  514; 


745 


INDEX 


unanimous  decision  in  favor  of 
Pamell's  position,  515;  the 
Tipperary  fight  a  grave  mistake, 
521;  Mitchelstown  massacre, 
523;  the  trouble  at  a  town  in 
Tipperary  and  at  Timoleague, 
525;  all  complaints  against  the 
constabulary  dismissed,  ib. ;  chil- 
dren arrested  for  the  most 
trivial  ofifences,  526;  Sheehy, 
Dillon,  Harris,  and  O'Brien 
summoned  to  appear  at  two 
widely  separated  places  at  the 
same  hour  and  day,  527;  Dr. 
Tanner  delivers  his  speech  from 
a  boat  in  the  lake,  528;  a  trick 
on  the  warder,  529. 

Political  ballad-singers,  a  familiar 
feature  in  all  Irish  movements, 
166;  "An  Irish  Peasant's  La- 
ment," ib. 

Power,  John  O'Connor,  one  of 
Parnell's  obstructionist  party, 
146;  speech  at  the  Irishtown 
meeting,  149;  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 

239- 

Power,  Richard,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parlia- 
ment, 239. 

Prendergast,  Mr.,  gives  a  brief 
history  of  Redmond  Count 
O'Hanlon,  the  Irish  Robin 
Hood,  in  his  Tory  War  of 
Ulster,  12. 

Preston,  John,  sold  his  vote  for 
;£750o  and  was  made  Lord 
Tara,  as  a  reward  for  betraying 
his  countrymen,  29. 

"Primrose  Dames,"  aristocratic 
ladies  who  banded  together  to 
kill  Home  Rule,  500. 

Prittie,  Henry,  became  Lord  Dun- 
ally  and  one  of  his  sons  be- 
came Viscount  Charleville  as  the 
price  of  their  votes,  29. 

Programme  for  consideration  of 
Land-League  conference,  241. 

Proposals  for  permanent  reform 
of  land  tenure  in  Ireland,  242. 

Provisional  nieasure  for  suspen- 
sion of  power  of  ejectment,  etc., 
for  two  years,  241. 

Purposes  for  which  assistance  is 
asked  by  the  Land  League  from 
America,  248;  signatures  of  the 
Central  Council,  249. 


QuiN,  Sir  Richard,  became  Lord 
Adare  as  a  reward  for  his 
treachery,  and  in  1822  was 
created  Earl  of  Dunraven,  29. 

Raid  in  Canada,  by  Fenians,  in 
1867,  120. 

Rea,  John,  the  eccentric  barrister, 
181 ;  his  bill-of-fare  while  in  jail, 
ib.;  he  badgers  the  court  at  the 
trial  of  Killeen,  1S3. 

Rebellion  of  '98.  the  cause  of,  121. 

Redmond,  John  E.,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parlia- 
ment, 239;  becomes  sessional 
chairman  of  the  United  Irish 
League,  694. 

Redmond,  W.  K.,  goes  to  the 
United  States  on  a  lecturing 
tour,  696. 

Redpath,  James,  correspondent 
for  the  New  York  Tribune, 
attends  the  Knockaroe  demon- 
stration, 224;  makes  a  speech 
concerning  eviction,  268;  as- 
sists in  coining  the  word  boy- 
cott, 274. 

Repeal  Association,  its  crawling 
political  creed,  49. 

"Ribbonmen,"  an  organization 
evolved  from  the  "Defenders," 
16;  had  its  origin  in  the  De- 
fenders and  became  the  most 
powerful  of  the  Irish  secret 
societies,  41;  it  admitted  onl}* 
Catholics  to  its  ranks,  ib.;  it 
was  an  oath-bound  society, 
ib.;  its  members  very  loyal, 
ib.;  they  carried  their  organiza- 
tion to  the  United  States,  42; 
from  this  sprang  the  Ancient 
Order  of  Hibernians,  ib.;  it  is 
now  mainly  a  benevolent  society, 
ib.;  great  activity  in  Wcstmeath, 
ib.;  they  follow  the  lead  of  new 
developments  in  America,  43; 
the  name  of  Hibernian  is  now 
substituted  for  the  old  name, 
ib.;  an  act  to  suppress  the  or- 
ganization, ib.;  put  down  by  the 
government    and    the    Church, 

50- 
"  Right  Boys,"  they  opposed  land- 
lord cruelties  and  exactions  of 
tithes,  23;  denoimced  by  Dr. 
Troy,  the  Bishop  of  Ossory,  ib.; 
they    refuse    supplies    to    their 


746 


INDEX 


enemies,  ib.;  alleged  that  the 
landlords  joined  with  them  to 
avoid  paying  tithes  to  the  min- 
isters, 24;  marked  tribute  paid 
to  them  by  John  Philpot  Cur- 
ran,  25. 

Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Irish  Nation, 
containing  a  list  of  the  landlord 
traitors,  28. 

Riversdale,  Lord,  was  a  Mr. 
William  Tonson,  and  for  ser- 
vices was  raised  to  the  peerage, 

32- 

"  Rockites,"  a  branch  of  The 
Whiteboys,  37. 

Rome  and  Ireland,  a  letter  from 
the  prefect  of  the  Propaganda 
Fide,  397;  an  attack  on  Parnell, 
398;  the  whole  country  took  fire, 
399;  "Make  Peter's  pence  into 
Parnell's  pounds,"  ib.;  the  at- 
tack most  fortunate  for  the  lan- 
guishing funds,  ib.;  unfriendly 
reception  in  Rome  of  Dr. 
Croke,  accused  of  being  a  kind 
of  Irish  Garibaldi,  400;  the 
interference  of  Rome  in  Irish 
affairs  had  always  been  un- 
fortunate, 401;  O'Connell's  dic- 
tum, that  while  he  would 
accept  his  faith  from  Rome 
he  would  as  soon  look  to 
Stamboul  for  his  politics,  402; 
the  Vatican  policy  always  in- 
fluenced by  English  ecclesiastics 
resident  in  Rome,  ib.;  the  Er- 
rington  mission  sanctioned  by 
the  English  government,  404; 
his  intrigue  with  the  Pope,  405 ; 
English  agents  in  Rome  always 
anti-Irish,  i6.;  Cardinal  Monaco 
issues  a  manifesto  against  Irish 
methods,  ib. 

Rosecrans,  General  W.  S.,  cables 
from  San  Francisco  to  the  Land 
League,  268. 

Rossmore,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Robert 
Cunningham,  who  was  raised  to 
the  peerage  and  given  ;^i 5,000 
to  boot, for  services  to  the  Union, 

31- 

Rowley,  Clotworthy,  sold  his  vote, 
and  was  made  Lord  Langford, 
29. 

Royal  commission  of  1881,  pre- 
sided over  by  Lord  Bessborough, 
reported  that  the  Land  Act  of 


1870  had  failed  to  protect  ten- 
ants' rights,  322;  Gladstone's 
bill  omitted  many  reported  rec- 
ommendations of  the  commis- 
sion, ib. 

Russell,  Lord  John,  on  the  con- 
dition of  the  peasantry  in  Ire- 
land, 48;  dilatory  and  heartless 
policy,  ib.;  author  of  the  historic 
"Durham  Letter,"  70. 

Russell,  Sir  Charles,  is  engaged  to 
defend  Parnell  in  the  ' '  Great 
Inquisition,"  543;  he  became  a 
Home- Ruler  when  Gladstone 
did,  547;  Sir  James  Hannen 
pronounced  his  opening  as  "a 
great  speech  worthy  of  a  great 
occasion,"  548;  his  clever  cross- 
exainination  of  Pigott,  577;  his 
speUing-lesson,  581 ;  his  speech  a 
convincing  and  crushing  counter 
indictinent  against  The  Times, 
599;  his  fine  peroration,  600;  he 
demands  the  papers,  to  prove  his 
counter  charge,  and  the  judges 
refuse,  601. 

Sadlier,  apolitical  traitor  favored 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Dublin, 
70;  known  in  Parliament  as  one 
of  the  Pope's  Brass  Band,  71. 

Salisbury,  Lord,  his  policy  of 
"twenty  years  of  resolute  Castle 
government,"  514;  his  cabinet 
the  ministerial  embodiment  of 
anti-Irish  prejudice,  531 ;  a  vote 
of  no  confidence  in  his  govern- 
ment was  carried  and  he  resigns, 
1893,  666. 

Sandford,  Henry,  was  made  Lord 
Mount  Sandford  for  services  in 
the  disfranchisement  of  the  town 
of  Roscommon,  30. 

Scott,  John,  became  Earl  of 
Clonmel,  32;  he  was  one  of  the 
most  unscrupulous  of  men,  32. 

Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives provide  for  vessel  to  carry 
provisions  to  the  starving  poor 
of  Ireland,  204. 

Sexton,  Thomas,  opens  a  cam- 
paign at  Rathdrum,  near  Avon- 
dale,  221;  elected  by  the  league 
movement  to  Parliament,  239; 
demands  the  release  of  Parnell, 
Dillon,  and  O' Kelly  from  jail, 
347;   his  speech  on   the  second 


INDEX 


reading  of  the  bill  declared  by 
Gladstone  to  be  the  most  elo- 
quent he  had  heard  in  a  genera- 
tion, 497;  the  ablest  Irish  dele- 
gate retires  from  Parliament  on 
account  of  the  friction  in  the 
ranks  of  the  majority,  675; 
tables  he  prepared  bearing  upon 
the  financial  character  of  the 
new  land  law  of  1903,  709. 

"Shanavats,"  an  organization  in 
sympathy  with  the  general 
policy  of  the  reformers,  37. 

Shaw,  William,  his  leadership  of 
the  Irish  party,  174. 

Shawe- Taylor  invites  the  Duke 
of  Abercom  and  others  to  meet 
Redmond  and  others  in  behalf 
of  the  tenants,  705. 

Sheehy,  Father  Eugene,  of  Lim- 
erick, a  friend  of  the  league,  192. 

Sheehy,  Father,  friend  of  the 
Whiteboys,  who  was  hanged 
in  1766,  on  the  most  tainted 
evidence,  17. 

Sheridan,  Patrick  J.,  The  Times 
attempts  to  bribe  him,  552; 
his  statement  concerning  the 
call  on  him  of  The  Times  emis- 
sary, at  his  ranch  in  Colorado, 
553;  plays  with  Kirby,  559;  his 
detailed  account  of  the  meet- 
ings with  the  agents,  554-559; 
receives  a  letter  from  William 
Henry  Hurlbert,   560. 

Sinclair,  a  university  man  who 
became  another  spy  for  The 
Times,  617;  he  went  to  the 
United  States  and  to  Chili  on 
fruitless  errands  for  his  em- 
ployers, 618;  letters  found 
among  his  papers,  620-623. 

"Skirmishing  Fund,"  the  ques- 
tion as  to  what  uses  it  should 
be  put,  169. 

Smart,  M.,  the  name  by  which  The 
Times  was  to  address  Sheridan, 
555;  some  of  the  telegrams,  556, 

557-  .  ,    ^ 

Smith,  Sydney,  oppression  of  the 

people.  4. 
Smith,  W.  H.,  and  the  home  secre- 
tary privy  to  the  first  publica- 
tion of  the  forged  Parnell  letters, 
533;  amended  the  scope  of  in- 
quiry and  added  "other  per- 
sons," 538;  introduces  a  bill  to 


indict  Parnell  and  others.  542; 
the  members  of  the  commission, 
543;  Pamell's  lawyers,  ib.;  re- 
sisted Gladstone's  motion  to  put 
on  record  the  House's  con- 
demnation of  the  atrocious 
charges  against  Irish  members, 
624;  succeeds  Balfour  as  secre- 
tary of  Ireland,  661. 

Soames,  Mr.,  The  Times  solicitor, 
550;  sends  cipher  messages  to 
Colorado,  551. 

Soldiers  in  the  Fight:  Andrew 
J.  Kettle,  of  Dublin,  714; 
John  Ferguson,  of  Glasgow,  ib.; 
Alfred  Webb,  of  Dublin,  ib.; 
T.  D.  O'Sullivan.  Dr.  Sigerson, 
Barry  O'Brien,  T.  P.  O'Connor, 
T.  M.  Hcaly,  Justin  McCarthy, 
715;  John  Boyle  O'Reilly,  P. 
J.  Flatky,  Fanny  Parnell,  James 
Redpath,  Austen  E.  Ford,  Jr., 
Eugene  Kelly,  Dr.  Wallace, 
Daniel  Corkery,  James  Sullivan. 
John  J.  Fitzgibbon,  Dr.  Thomas 
O'Reilly,  John  Fitzgerald,  Judge 
Cooney,  Dr.  O'Toole,  Thaddeus 
Flanagan.  James  F.  X.  O'Brien, 
and  Hugh  Murphy,  716. 

Some  league  anecdotes,  409-420. 

Spencer.  Edmund,  unfortunate 
conditions  in  Ireland,  3. 

State  trials,  the,  no  jury  fairly 
empanelled  in  Dublin  would 
convict  national  leaders.  287; 
Lord  Chief- Justice  May  delivers 
a  violent  political  harangue,  288 ; 
he  retires  from  participation  in 
the  state  trials,  289;  the  lead- 
ing lawyers  engaged,  ib.;  opens 
in  the  Four  Courts,  Dublin,  ib.; 
the  jury,  290;  Fanny  Pamell's 
poem  read,  291;  Mr.  Mac- 
donough  an  able  vindicator  of 
the  league,  293;  the  verdict 
of  the  jury,  295. 

"Steelboys,"  an  organization 
formed  to  resist  evictions  and 
unjust  increases  of  rent,  21; 
juries  would  not  convict  men 
accused  of  being  Steelboys, 
which  caused  the  government 
to  enact  a  law  for  change  of 
venue,  which  law  is  still  in 
force,  ib. 

Stephens,  James,  escapes  to 
France,  73;  organizes  the  great 


748 


INDEX 


conspiracy  of  1858  and  1859, 
75;  visits  the  United  States,  jb.; 
dramatic  escape  from  Rich- 
mond prison,  76;  escapes  to 
Paris,  ib.;  returns  to  Ireland 
and    peaceably  ends   his    days, 

77- 

Stewart,  Admiral  Charles,  joined 
the  United  States  navy  when 
twenty  years  old,  106;  led  the 
United  States  forces  in  the 
first  naval  war  with  Tripoli,  ib.; 
commanded  the  Constituiion, 
ib.;  father  of  Parnell's  mother, 
ib. 

Stewart,  Robert,  became  Lord 
Castlereagh  as  a  reward  for 
his  enmity  to  Irish  nationhood, 

31- 
Sullivan,    A.    M.,   elected   by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 

239- 

Sullivan,  Mrs.  Margaret  T.,  a 
distinguished  journalist  of 
Chicago,  who  rendered  services 
of  the  highest  value  to  Ireland, 
716. 

Sullivan,  T.  D.,  elected  by  the 
league  movement  to  Parliament, 
239;  in  his  ballads  and  stirring 
lyrics,  he  rendered  a  conspic- 
uous service  to  the  people  of 
Ireland,  715. 

Swift,  Dean,  "Rents  squeezed  out 
of  the  blood  and  vitals,"  3. 

Tablet,  The,  a  newspaper  trans- 
ferred from  London  to  Dublin, 
in  the  interests  of  the  Tenant 
League,  69. 

Tanner,  Dr.  Charles,  much  in- 
terested in  the  workings  of  the 
agricultural  laborers'  act,  465; 
announced  to  speak  in  County 
Clare,  outwits  the  police,  who 
were  to  arrest  him,  by  approach- 
ing in  a  boat  on  the  lake,  and 
delivers  his  speech  twenty  feet 
from  the  shore,  328. 

Tenants'  Defence  Clubs,  168. 

"Tenants'  League  of  North  and 
South,"  organized  by  Gavan 
Duffy,  Crawford,  Lucas,  and 
Moore,  68;  destroyed  by  the 
opposition  of  Archbishop  Cullen 
and  others,  ib.;  the  reason  of  its 
failure,  72. 


Tenants'  relief  bill,  what  it 
proposed,  516;  paid  the  "plan 
rent"  into  the  hands  of  a  com- 
mittee, 520. 

"Terry  Alts,"  a  branch  of  the 
Whiteboys,  37. 

"Thrashers,"  a  branch  of  the 
Right  Boys  in  Connaught,  to 
resist  the  tithe  laws,  23. 

"Three  acres  and  a  cow,"  a 
suggestion  for  the  relief  of 
English  agricultural  laborers, 
486. 

Times,  The,  London,  its  attitude 
in  the  matter  of  the  famine  of 
1846,  54. 

Times  plot,  the,  its  first  article, 
"Pamellism  and  Crime,"  532; 
a  forged  letter  in  facsimile,  with 
Parnell's  name  attached,  ib.; 
the  home  secretary  was  privy 
to  the  publication,  533;  Parnell 
pronounces  the  letter  a  forgery, 
534;  O'Shea  the  object  of 
suspicion,  535;  Egan  picks  out 
the  forger,  ib.;  general  charges 
and  allegations,  539;  additional 
charges  embraced  in  the  forged 
letters,  and  the  names  of  those 
implicated,  540,  541;  a  trial 
without  a  jury,  544;  Pigott  told 
The  Times  people  that  he  could 
not  prove  the  Parnell  letters  to 
be  genuine,  545;  The  Titnes 
spends  thousands  of  pounds  to 
bribe  men  in  Irish,  English,  and 
American  cities,  546;  all  the 
secret  agents  of  the  government 
and  of  Scotland  Yard  were  at 
the  disposal  of  The  Times, 
549;  some  of  the  secret  agents 
gave  the  Parnellites  the  Soames 
code,  by  which  they  were  en- 
abled to  decipher  the  secret 
despatches,  550;  they  load 
a  detective  with  champagne 
and  unload  him  of  all  the  in- 
formation in  his  possession,  ib.; 
attempt  of  The  Times  to  bribe 
Patrick  J.  Sheridan,  552;  the 
story  as  told  in  the  New  York 
Herald,  ib. ;  The  Times  makes  no 
objection  to  the  issuance  of  a 
warrant  for  Pigott's  arrest,  586; 
it  must  now  lend  its  aid  in 
detecting  instead  of  bolstering 
up    manufactured    crime,    587; 


749 


INDEX 


it  continues  to  fling  mud  at 
Parnell,  598;  "literary  assassin," 
Richard'  Cobden  called  The 
Times,  604;  the  judges'  report: 
"We  entirely  acquit  Parnell  and 
the  other  respondents,"  605; 
they  acquit  Mr.  Davitt  of  using 
the  league's  money  for  person- 
al use,  608;  Le  Caron  was  to 
receive  ;gi 0,000  if  he  proved 
certain  allegations  against  Par- 
nell, 610;  "Major  Yellow"  ap- 
pears as  a  Times  witness,  614; 
Delaney,  another  prison-bird,  in 
the  service  of  The  Times,  616; 
The  Times  cipher  code  of  names, 
619;  Captain  O'Shea  before  the 
commission,  632. 

Toler,  John,  created  Lord  Nor- 
bury,  30;  one  of  the  most  in- 
famovis  men  that  ever  disgraced 
the  Irish  race,  ib. 

Tone's,  Wolfe,  United  Irishmen, 
15;  he  sees  through  the  sham 
nationalism  of  the  Irish  land- 
lord Parliament,  28. 

Tonson,  William,  becomes  Lord 
Riversdale,  for  services  ren- 
dered, 32. 

Tory  War  of  Ulster  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  great  daring  of 
Redmond  Count  O'Hanlon,  12. 

Townsend,  Lord,  on  the  rapacious- 
ness  of  the  unfeeling  landlords, 

4- 

Toynbee,  Arthur,  his  idea  of  the 
Maamtrasna  crime  was  that  it 
was  due  to  prevailing  conditions, 
381;  his  letters  to  Mr.  Davitt, 
382. 

Trench,  William,  sold  his  vote 
and  was  created  Lord  Ash  town, 
29;  was  made  Lord  Kilconnell 
for  fomenting  the  rebellion  of 
1798,    31. 

Trevelyan,  Sir  George,  his  state- 
ment concerning  the  situation 
in  Ireland  in  1882,  369;  a  potent 
recruiting  influence  for  the 
league,   380. 

Troy,  Dr.,  Catholic  Bishop  of 
Ossory,  conspicuovis  in  his  de- 
nunciations of  Right-Boyism, 
23. 

Tyrawley,  Lord,  a  Mr.  Cufi"e,  who 
gained  his  title  as  a  reward  for 
questionable  services,  32. 


United  Ireland  purchased  from 
Richard  Pigott  under  the  name 
of  the  Flag  of  Ireland,  thus  end- 
ing Pigott's  career  as  a  Dublin 
journalist,  332. 

United  Irish  League,  the  meeting 
of,  at  Limerick,  692;  proposals 
adopted  by,  693;  Dillon  resigns 
chairmanship  of,  to  facilitate 
matters  at  a  meeting  at  the  Man- 
sion House,  Dublin,  7'6.  ,•  complete 
reunion  accomplished,  February 
7,1900,694;  O'Brien  the  origina- 
tor and  organizer  of  the  move- 
ment, ih.;  its  example  followed 
in  Great  Britain,  Australia,  and 
to  a  great  extent  in  the  United 
States,  695;  a  steady  revival  of 
practical  interest  in  the  move- 
ment in  the  United  States,  696: 
Redmond  goes  to  the  United 
States  to  proclaim  the  glad 
tidings  of  a  reunited  Ireland, 
ib.;  the  financial  results  of  the 
mission,  697;  proposes  a  plan  of 
anti  -  landlord  agitation,  704; 
recommends  a  more  vigorous 
boycotting  of  land-grabbers,  ib.; 
the  landlords  strike  back,  705; 
summons  a  convention  to  con- 
sider the  startling  proposals  of 
the  Mansion  -  House,  Dublin, 
meeting  in  1902,  in  the  matter 
of  the  relations  between  land- 
lord and  tenant,  707. 

United  Irishman,  under  O'Brien's 
direction,  assailed  the  Spencer 
regime  with  unsparing  vitupera- 
tion, 380. 

Ventry,  Baron,  Sir  Dayrolles 
Blakeney  Eveleigh  de  Moleyns, 
the  present  -  day  name  of  the 
descendant  of  John  Mullins,  who 
sold  his  vote,  30. 

Walsh,  Archbishop  of  Toronto, 
appeals  to  the  disputants  at 
home  to  end  their  quarrels,  676; 
his  sviggestion  approved  of  by 
the  Irish  parliamentary  party, 
ib. 

Walsh,  Dr.,  Archbishop  of  Dub- 
lin, proposes  a  gathering  to 
consider  the  question  of  land- 
lord and  tenant,  705. 

Walshe,  John  W.,  sent  to  Austra- 


INDEX 


lia    on    an    organizing    mission, 

384- 

Welib,  Alfred,  tlie  skilful  manager 
of  the  finances  of  the  electoral 
campaign,  698;  as  treasurer 
of  the  league  he  was  an  ab- 
S')lute  guarantee  of  faithfulness 
and  rectitude,   715. 

Webster,  Sir  Richard,  declares 
that  "  we  are  not  entitled  to 
say  that  the  Parnell  letters  are 
genuine,"  587. 

Wellesley,  Lord,  his  letter  to  Lord 
Melbourne  concerning  the  White- 
boys,  38. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  on  periods 
of  starvation,  5. 

Westmoreland,  Lord,  forced  by 
public  opinion  to  limit  the  grant 
of  Irish  pensions  to  ;^i2oo  per 
year,  27. 

Westport  meeting.  Archbishop  of 
Tuam's  letter  against,  153;  Par- 
nell's  speech  at,  154;  Mr.  Dav- 
itt's  speech  at,  155;  the  Free- 
man's Journal  comments  on  its 
"raw  theories,"   156. 

"Whiteboys,"  the,  so  called  from 
a  covering  they  adopted  for 
disguise,  15;  they  strike  the 
first  effective  blow  in  Ireland, 
16;  laws  fashioned  against  them, 
17;  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 
sums  up  their  case,  18;  they 
wage  a  righteous  war,  19; 
guilty  of  some  atrocities,  ib.;  the 
causes,  ib.;  they  survive  the 
Draconian  code  of  savage  laws, 
22;  branches  of,  37;  their 
programme  as  defined  by  Mr. 
Justice    Jebb,    38;    Sir    George 


Cornwall  Lewis's  idea  of  their 
motives,  ib.;  deluded  by  Mr. 
Marum,  39;  denounced  by  the 
Bishop  of  Ossory,  ib.;  put  down 
by  the  government  and  the 
.  Church,   50. 

"Whitefeet,"  a  branch  of  the 
Whiteboys,  37. 

Wiseman,  Dr.,  Catholic  Archbishop 
of  Westminster,  on  the  question 
as  to  whether  such  a  title  should 
be  recognized  in  Protestant  Eng- 
land,  70. 

Wyndham,  George,  succeeds  Ger- 
ald Balfour  as  chief  secretary 
of  Ireland,  698;  begins  well  for 
the  league  organizations,  and 
badly  for  the  Castle,  ib.;  list 
of  the  names  of  gentlemen  im- 
prisoned by  him  in  190 1-2  imder 
the  law  of  Edward  III.  of  1361, 
699;  in  1902  he  introduces  yet 
another  Irish  land  bill,  703; 
three  powerful  influences  com- 
bine to  make  this  step  expe- 
dient, ib.;  it  coerced  the  ten- 
ant, in  a  sense,  to  buy  his 
holding,  704;  he  declares  that 
the  settlement  of  the  Irish 
land  question  lay  with  Irish- 
men in  a  friendly  arrangement 
of  terms,  and  not  with  the 
English  government,  705;  he 
discards  the  bill  of  1902,  707; 
he  succeeds  in  carrying  the 
measure  through  Parliament 
without  a  division,  708. 

Young,  Arthur,  on  the  harsh 
treatment  of  the  laboring  poor, 
4- 


THE     END 


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